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.

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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