At school, a young Palestinian girl named Falasteen struggles to find her homeland on a map. She is troubled, confused, and curious when her teacher tells her she “thinks there’s no such place.” Falasteen asks her grandfather why Palestine isn’t on the map, and he draws her a colorful outline map showing various Palestinian cities and villages that she can take to school to show her teachers and classmates. She also asks her grandma, who is working in the kitchen. Grandma tells her of when soldiers, tanks, and guns forced her family from their home. Finally, Falesteen asks her mother why Palestine isn’t on the map. Mama replies that there are places you don’t need a map to find – their favorite trail, the bird’s nest in the chimney, their music and food, their names and language, and things that they haven’t seen with their own eyes. She says, “Palestine lives in you and me.” Beautiful, inspiring illustrations and thorough back matter round out this important and timely book. mjw
Title: A Map For Falasteen
Author: Maysa Odeh
Illustrator: Aliaa Betawi
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company. New York
Copyright: 2024
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-250-89670-4
Hardcover pages: 40
Age range: 4-8
Genre: Picture Book
Author’s ethnicity: Palestinian
Author’s residence: California, USA
Illustrator’s ethnicity: Palestinian
Illustrator’s residence: Alexandria, Egypt
Awards: 2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award. Elementary Honor
Subjects: Arabs, Family life, Homes, Israel, Maps, Middle East, Multigenerational, Palestine, Refugees
Narrated by a young refugee, this beautiful and realistic picture book tells about having to leave home and the healing power of hope. The girl and her mother used to live in an apartment with a star-shaped lamp in their window. In their new country, everything is different – the language, their apartment, and the food. One day, the mother brings home art supplies so that they can make a cardboard star just like the one they had back home. That helps to make their new place feel a little more like home. The penultimate page shows the girl with a new friend, both carrying their musical instruments. The mostly blue and yellow illustrations were created with hand drawn contours and Photoshop. An author’s note explains that the book was inspired by Desnitskaya’s experience leaving Russia after the start of the Ukraine War. It is the author’s hope that his book can help children from different countries who have lost their homes to start loving the place where they were forced to be. 
Set in 1980s Vietnam, Tho and his best friend, Lam, love cricket fighting, and soccer, but there is fear in his village that twelve-year-old boys, like them, will be conscripted into the Communist army. People are trying to leave Vietnam and move to safer countries. One day, Lam and his brother disappear. Tho’s family sells their furniture to make money to send Tho and his brother, Vu, away. Vu leaves first and a year later Tho boards a small boat to escape. He stows away on a pirate boat, crosses the South China Sea, and eventually gets to a refugee camp in Palawon in the Philippines, where he stays for six months. Finally, a Canadian elementary school teacher adopts him and he flies to his new home in Toronto. This harrowing story is based on true events in the author’s life. A map, a pronunciation guide, an afterword, and a brief recent history of Vietnam further enhance Tho’s intense account of his journey. 
After her parents’ divorce, ten-year-old Electra (Ellie) moves to a new town with her mother and older brother. She is a spunky and stubborn girl who wants to make friends at her new school. Unfortunately, all of her new classmates are into sports and her mother pushes her to join a sports team. She is clumsy, fails at every sport, and consequently gets bullied. One night she attends a ballet performance with her family and discovers that what she really wants to do is dance. A new boy at school helps her to realize her dream. This positive graphic novel for middle graders is filled with humor and energetic cartoon illustrations that will make young readers smile. mjw
This moving work of historical fiction spans over 50 years and three generations of a family. It starts in France in the 1920s and ends during the time of the 1960s Chinese Cultural Revolution in Shanghai. Young teen Ah Mei is close to her French grandmother. They even look alike. But in 1960s Shanghai, people are suspicious of their European heritage and looks, and of the grandmother’s interracial marriage. Maintaining the family’s silk business becomes difficult and the government takes the business away from them. They are left with very little, but there is still a way to live with grace and love and hope. The writing is beautiful, emotional, and very descriptive in this story of the importance of family bonds. mjw
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