Children’s books, which present subtle truths in simple terms, offer a valuable tool in retaining our moral bearings, especially amid a maelstrom of grief and rage.
In the books I read with my son, I saw the Palestinian children’s authors of today doing something I recognize from my research on the Yiddish children’s literature of the previous century: striving to help children make sense of the world they stand to inherit while writing a better world into being.
Instead of reinforcing conventional nationalism, these works followed the general tendency of Yiddish literature, art and film to explore how culture might define a nation.
They were created to write a better world into being: Now we must use them to read a better world into being.
Children’s literature can’t solve these problems.
Persons:
I’ve, Emily Style, Maurice Sendak, Naomi Shihab Nye, Hannah Moushabeck’s “, Amahl, Marjorie Ingall, Janice Hechter’s, ”, “ Daniel, Ismail ”, Juan Pablo Iglesias
Organizations:
Palestinian, West Bank, Aida
Locations:
Gaza, Palestinian American, Palestine, ”, Old City, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Israel