Habibi

So I just finished reading this book called Habibi... its a book for middle schoolers and its about this 15 year old girl who was born in America but her dad is Palestinian and he decides to move his family back to Israel. I really liked it. While its not 100% accurate at times its an easy read and a good book to have someone read if you want to gently introduce them to the problems in Israel...
But, here is a little selection that I think Allissa will find especially close to her heart (and maybe some others)...
"No More Meat"
Liyana followed her mother into the stinky store croweded with stacked shelves of crooked stick and wire cages. The chickens in the cages were alive and cramped, jabbering, in ther boxy prisions. They were not headless body parts on Styrofoam plates wrapped neatly in anonymous plastic in a refrigerated grocery compartment. THey were not thights, drumsticks, and breasts.
Her mother took a deep breath and said, Wahad, min fadlack. She seemed to be avoiding eye contact with the chickens herself. The butcher would let you pick your own chicken if you wanted to, but Liyana's mother didn't
Turning her back on the scene, Mom started into the street as the butcher plunged his hand into a cage toward one very upset white chicken. Liyana didn't want to see any of it either, but she couldn't stop looking. He grabbed it troughly by its legs and it screamed. Then he swung it abruptly, upside down, so it went into shock and dangled limply a moment before he plopped it onto his blookdy counter, grabbed the big knife, and slashed off its head.
Liyana couldn't help herself. "No!" She waved her arm as if to slap him.
Her mother gripped her shoulder, "Oh, stop"
Liyana's eyes fildled up.
THe chickens body trembled and writhed after the head was severed, then fell still. The butcher turned to plunge the body into a steaming pot, then defly stripped the feathers off, wrapping the body in white paper.
Did Liyana just imagine the other chickens grew much quiteter for a moment? That a sheen of horror hung in the air? Each time a new person stepped into the shop, the chickens must worry, My Turn?
At that moment, full of the rotten stench of th shop, Liyana's poor mothe rhanding her money over to the butcher, not liking it either but saying, Shookran, in a tight voice, Liyana became a vegetarian.

I loved the book and it made me miss Egypt, so I recomend it
I hope you all had a great time at Calvin... I wish I would have been there
I miss you guys!
Anna