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Resources to Help Understand and Explain the Conflict in Iraq
The Austin Public Library has put together a suggested Web site list for parents to use as a resource to assist in providing information to children and teens. These sites contain talking tips for parents. APL has also suggested activities for kids that may help in the understanding and coping process during the conflict. Additionally, APL has a recommended reading list of books that may be checked out.

web sites | nonfiction books | fiction books

Fiction for Young Children Related to the Region

Caravan by Lawrence McKay Jr.
A ten-year-old boy accompanies his father for the first time on a caravan trip through the mountains of Afghanistan to the city below where they will trade their goods at market.
E FIC Mac

The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella by Rebecca Hickox
Based on a Cinderella story from Iraq called "The little red fish and the clog of gold" in Inea Bushnaq's Arab folktales.
E 398.209 Hi

The Enchanted Storks: A tale of Bagdad retold by Aaron Shepard
The Calif of Baghdad is turned into a stork by an evil sorcerer, the only one who knows the magic word that will restore the Calif to his human form.
E 398.21 Sh

The Girl Who Lost Her Smile by Karim Alrawi
A story, inspired by the writings of Jallal al-Din Rumi in a collection of Sufi poetry and short stories known as Mathnawi, about Jehan, a young girl living in Baghdad who unexpectedly finds reason to smile.
E FIC Alr

House of Wisdom by Florence Parry Heide
Ishaq, the son of the chief translator to the Caliph of ancient Baghdad, travels the world in search of precious books and manuscripts and brings them back to the great library known as the House of Wisdom.
E FIC Hei

The Roses in My Carpets by Rukhsana Khan
When a young boy and his mother and sister come to a refugee camp to escape the war in Afghanistan, he finds some comfort in the beauty of the carpets he is learning to weave.
E FIC Kha

The Stars in My Geddoh's Sky by Claire Sidhom Matze
Alex's Arabic-speaking grandfather comes to visit the United States, and Alex learns about his grandfather's Middle Eastern homeland.
E FIC Mat

The Wonderful Bag: An Arabian Tale from the Thousand & One Nights retold by Gini Wade
Can a small bag that two gentlemen are fighting over really contain two spotted leopards, the entire city of Baghdad, and three camels?
E FIC Wad

Fiction for Teens

The Arabian Nights: Or Tales Told by Sheherezade During a Thousand Nights and One Night retold by Brian Alderson
An illustrated collection of stories from the "Arabian Nights," including those of Sinbad, Ali Baba, and Aladdin.
J 398.22 AL

Beast by Donna Jo Napoli
Orasmyn is the prince of Persia and heir to the throne. His religion fills his heart and his mind, and he strives for the knowledge and leadership his father demonstrates. But on the day of the Feast of Sacrifices, Orasmyn makes a foolish choice that results in a fairy's wretched punishment: he is turned into a beast, a curse to be undone only by the love of a woman.
Y FIC Nap

The Bedouin's Gazelle by Frances Temple
In 1302, two cousins of the nomadic Beni Khalid tribe who are betrothed become separated by political intrigue between warring tribes.
Y FIC Tem

The Epic of Gilgamesh retold by Geraldine McCaughrean
A retelling, based on seventh-century B.C. Assyrian clay tablets, of the wanderings and adventures of the god king, Gilgamesh, who ruled in ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq) in about 2700 B.C., and of his faithful companion, Enkidu.
Y FIC MAC

Kiss the Dust by Elizabeth Laird
Her father's involvement with the Kurdish resistance movement in Iraq forces thirteen-year-old Tara to flee with her family over the border into Iran, where they face an unknown future.
Y FIC Lai

Samir and Yonatan by Daniella Carmi
Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to an Israeli hospital where he has two otherworldly experiences, making friends with an Israeli boy, Yonatan, and traveling with him to Mars where Samir finds peace about his brother's death in the war.
Y FIC Car

A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton
Eleven-year-old Malaak and her family are touched by the violence in Gaza between Jews and Palestinians when first her father disappears and then her older brother is drawn to the Islamic Jihad.
Y FIC Cli

Fiction for Adults

The Angel With One Hundred Wings: A Tale From the Arabian Nights by Daniel Horch
Abulhassan Ibn Thaher is an old pharmacist and alchemist who is an intimate friend of the Sultan. When the young prince of Persia falls in love with Schemselnihar, the Sultan's beloved mistress, they beg Abulhassan to help them elope. Even though it could mean death for all of them, Abulhassan relents and agrees to help.
FIC Hor

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present.
FIC HOS

Making Peace With the Muslims: Stories by David Gabriel
Each story in this impassioned collection relates in its own unique way a personal encounter with Islam. These are stories marked by pain and hope, prejudice and tolerance.
SS GAB

Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
Written in the 1940s, this novel by the Egyptian Nobel laureate Mahfouz deals with the plight of impoverished classes in an old quarter of Cairo. The lives and situations depicted create an atmosphere of sadness and tragic realism. With this satisfying tale, Mahfouz, often called the Charles Dickens of Arabic literature, achieves a high level of excellence as a novelist and storyteller.
FIC Mah

A Sky So Close by Betool Khedairi
In this quiet yet powerful first novel, our unnamed narrator, a young girl who is the daughter of an Iraqi father and an English mother, is growing up in the Iraqi countryside, caught between her parent's cultural differences.
FIC Khu

Smile of the Lamb by David Grossman
In a chorus of voices The Smile of the Lamb tells the story of Uri, an idealistic young Israeli soldier serving in an army unit in the small Palestinian village of Andal, in the occupied territories, and his relationship with Khilmi, a nearly blind old Palestinian storyteller. Gradually as the violent reality of the occupation that infects both the occupier and the occupied alike merges with the old man's stories, Uri, captivated by Khilmi's wisdom, tries to solve the riddles and deceits that make up his life.
FIC Gro

Revised and updated May 2004.

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