April is Arab-American Heritage Month! To celebrate, I invite you to read or listen to some of the following picture and chapter books on either Hoopla or OverDrive!

The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story by Aya Khalil and illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
For children in kindergarten to grade 2.
Hoopla: Audio
OverDrive: eBook
“The story highlights the role of a supportive and creative teacher and the importance of instilling acceptance in children…The story ends with a powerful poem with a compelling message of taking pride in one’s mother tongue.” –School Library Journal

Yo Soy Muslim: A Father's Letter to His Daughter by Mark Gonzales and illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini
For children in Pre-K to grade 3.
OverDrive: eBook
“Gonzales pens an honest, heartfelt text about the beauty of cultural identity, a loving, compassionate exhortation to his daughter to embrace all that she is…Amini partners the text’s lightness and darkness with rich, color-saturated illustrations that incorporate vibrant patterns and motifs.” –The Horn Book Magazine

How Many Donkeys? An Arabic Counting Tale by Margaret Read MacDonald and Nadia Jameel Taibah and illustrated by Carol Liddiment
For children in Pre-K to grade 3.
OverDrive: eBook
“Liddiment’s warm, sunlit illustrations show the lovable fool making his way through the desert landscape and finding help from passersby, all the while accompanied by the numbers one to ten in Arabic and English transliteration, which periodically appear at the bottom of the pages. Young readers will giggle along as they familiarize themselves with cardinal numbers in both languages and spot Jouha’s grievous but comic errors.” –Kirkus Reviews

Farah Rocks Fifth Grade by Susan Muaddi Darraj and illustrated by Ruaida Mannaa
For children in grades 3-6.
OverDrive: eBook
“Farah is trying to navigate fifth grade and protect and care for her kindergartner brother, all without worrying her parents. Intimate cultural details—Farah’s dad says “bancakes” because “in Arabic, the letters p and v don’t exist”; the family has the surname Hajjar due to their Jerusalem stonecutter origins—add to the authenticity of the portrayal of the family’s Palestinian ethnicity.” –Kirkus Reviews

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
For children in grades 3-6.
Hoopla: Audio and eBook
“In the last week before his family leaves Oman for a three-year stint in Michigan, Aref has a hard time saying good-bye to his beloved home, particularly his grandfather, Sidi. Not much happens in the way of plot, but the excellence of the portrayal of the setting and the emotional state of a young boy subject to the loving whims of his parents are vividly captured.” –School Library Journal

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
For children in grades 4-8.
Selected as a Newbery Honor
Hoopla: eBook
OverDrive: Audio and eBook
“Written in first-person free verse, this timely book traces the internal journey of a young Syrian refugee adjusting to a new home and culture in the U.S…Jude struggles to fit in among students who “don’t look like me,” but she remembers her brother’s parting words—“Be brave”—and finds comfort with her new friend Layla, whose parents are from Lebanon.” –Publishers Weekly

A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton
For children in grades 5 and up.
Hoopla: eBook
“Set in a Palestinian community in Gaza City during the intifada of 1988 and 1989, the novel opens with its narrator, 11-year-old Malaak, traumatized, barely talking and immersed in a fantasy life involving a tame bird…The harsh portrayal of the Israeli occupation will be painful for many readers—and may even anger some—but Clinton's overall message is transcendently humane.” –Publishers Weekly