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| Sitti's Bird |
A recounting of her own lived experience growing up in occupied Palestine, the plot takes place during the 2014 airstrikes on Gaza when a little girl finds strength and hope through her painting. Malak goes to school, plays in the ocean, and visits her grandmother Sitti’s house on Fridays. Sitti keeps a white bird in a cage and the girl wonders if they, too, are in a cage. Her grandmother consoles her by encouraging her to fly in her dreams. One day bombings begin and Malak spends the next fifty days at home with her parents worrying and feeling scared, until one day she finds some paints and begins to create. Months later, an international art exhibit invites her to attend with her parents, but sadly she must decline, for Gaza is closed and she cannot leave. The focus of the book is the love and support of family throughout a heartbreaking ordeal, with themes of hope, freedom, and art expression. Art is shown as an escape and a strategy to keep dreams from completely dying. It’s a thoughtful, hopeful, age-appropriate introduction to events in Gaza for children aimed at grades 3-5. Even though children in Gaza suffer much worse, the author kept the story child-friendly.
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