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Middle Eastern Culture Booklist
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Here are some of our favorite books that depict Middle Eastern cultures for children and teens. These books can all be found in the Easy, Juvenile, and Teen sections of the library, unless otherwise noted.
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Salma the Syrian Chef
by Ahmad Danny Ramadan
When Salma wants to cheer her mother up by cooking a homemade Syrian meal, the staff and other newcomers in her welcome center are happy to lend a hand.
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The Katha Chest
by Radhiah Chowdhury
Piecing together themes of love, culture and memory, this multigenerational story follows Asiya as she visits Nanus house, where she learns about the bold and brave women in her family through the quilts Nanu has collected.
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Under My Hijab
by Hena Khan
As a young girl observes that each of six women in her life wears her hijab and hair in a different way, she considers how to express her own style one day.
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Seven Special Somethings: A Nowruz Story
by Adib Khorram
Wanting to add his cat to his family’s haft-seen to honor the Persian New Year, young Kian accidentally upsets the whole table and is challenged to find alternate special symbols in time for the Nowruz celebration.
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My Grandma and Me
by
Mina Javaherbin
The true story of a young girl in Iran and her grandmother in a heartwarming ode to families that celebrates small moments of love that become lifelong memories.
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Saffron Ice Cream
by Rashin Kheiriyeh
Rashin is an Iranian immigrant girl living in New York, excited by her first trip to Coney Island, and fascinated by the differences in the beach customs between her native Iran and her new home--but she misses the saffron flavored ice cream that she used to eat.
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Lost and Found Cat: The True Story of Kunkush's Incredible Journey by Doug KuntzA picture book account of the inspirational true story describes how an Iraqi refugee family was separated from their beloved feline companion while on a crowded boat crossing to Greece before a worldwide community helped the cat and his owners reunite. Please note, this title can be found in the Easy Non-fiction section of the library.
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Riding a Donkey Backwards: Wise and Foolish Tales of Mulla Nasruddin
by Sean Taylor
Offers a retelling of the stories of the wise fool of the Middle East, including tales that explain why he spoons yogurt into a lake, paints a blank picture, and rides his donkey backwards. Please note, this title can be found in the Easy Non-fiction section of the library.
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Mirror by Jeannie BakerFollows the intricately drawn, parallel stories of two families: one in an Australian city and another in a North African village, depicting how each follow respective morning routines before embarking on culturally representative shopping trips. By the author of the award-winning Where the Forest Meets the Sea.
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Anisa's International Day
by Reem Faruqi
Inspired by preparations for her aunt's wedding, Anisa decides to introduce her third grade class to the art of mehndi for International Day.
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The Elephant in the Room
by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Separated from her mother during a long immigration waiting period, young Sila accompanies her mechanic father outside their Oregon hometown before forging connections with an elderly lottery winner, an abused circus elephant and an unusual boy.
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Sadiq and the Desert Star
by Siman Nuurali
Sadiq's father is going on a business trip, but before he goes he tells Sadiq a story of the Desert Star, which fits in perfectly with Sadiq's third grade class field trip to the planetarium, and inspires Sadiq to build a simple telescope to study the stars when his father returns.
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More to the Story
by
Hena Khan
A tale inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women follows the experiences of a Muslim-American writer whose ambition to win a national media contest is complicated by her family’s relocation overseas and her sister’s dangerous illness..
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Farah Rocks Fifth Grade
by
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Farah and her best friend, Allie Liu, are getting excited to turn in their applications to the Magnet Academy, where they both hope to attend sixth grade. But when new girl Dana Denver shows up, Farah's world is turned upside down. Determined to handle it on her own, Farah comes up with a plan--a plan that involves lying to those closest to her. Will her lies catch up with her, or can Farah find a way to defeat the bully and rock fifth grade?
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Accidental Trouble Magnet
by
Zanib Mian
Imaginative Omar goes through the ups and downs of starting a new school and making new friends with the help of his wonderful (and silly) Muslim family.
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Silverworld
by
Diana Abu-Jaber
Casting a desperate spell to save a beloved grandmother who everyone else thinks is ill, a Lebanese-American girl finds herself in an enchanted world that is falling dangerously out of balance.
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Other Words for Home by Jasmine WargaSent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian community is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the beloved family members who were left behind and forges a new sense of identity shaped by friends and changing perspectives.
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The Boy at the Back of the Class
by Onjali Q. Raúf
When a Syrian refugee boy joins their class, the determined students in Mrs. Kahn's schoolroom learn the newcomer's sad story before concocting a plan to reunite him with his loved ones.
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Please note: This list include both Teen Middle and Teen High School titles, unless otherwise noted.
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Perfectly Parvin
by Olivia Abtahi
Heartbroken and humiliated when she is dumped just days into her first relationship, Iranian American Parvin Mohammadi struggles to remain true to herself while attempting to prove to a school heartthrob that she is rom-com girlfriend material.
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Barakah Beats
by Maleeha Siddiqui
Leaving Islamic school to attend public school, twelve-year-old Nimra Sharif, joins the school’s popular eighth grade boy band, Barakah Beats, in an attempt to fit in.
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City of the Plague God
by Sarwat Chadda
Thirteen-year-old Sikander Aziz has to team up with the hero Gilgamesh in order to stop Nergal, the ancient god of plagues, from wiping out the population of Manhattan.
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A Very Large Expanse of Sea
by Tahereh Mafi
A year after 9/11, Muslim teenager Shirin has completely withdrawn from social life, until she meets Ocean James in her biology class and is tempted to actually let her guard down.
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Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story)
by Daniel Nayeri
At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. But Khosrou's stories are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the refugee camps of Italy, and further back to Isfahan.
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Internment
by
Samira Ahmed
Set in a futuristic United States where Muslim-Americans are forced into internment camps, and Layla Amin must lead a revolution against complicit silence
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Nowhere Boy
by Katherine Marsh
Fourteen-year-old Ahmed, a Syrian refugee living on his own in Brussels, Belgium, meets Max, a thirteen-year-old American boy, and the two form an important friendship.
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Code of Honor by Alan GratzWhen Iranian-American Kamran Smith learns that his big brother, Darius, has been labelled a terrorist, he sets out to piece together the codes and clues that will save his brother's life and his country from a deadly terrorist attack.
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Darius the Great Is Not Okay
by Adib Khorram
A Persian-American youth who prefers pop culture to the traditions of his mixed family struggles with clinical depression and the misunderstandings of older relatives while bonding with a boy who helps him embrace his Iranian heritage.
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Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein by Jennifer RoyTraces the experiences of an Iraqi boy whose days of soccer, video games and American television were violently interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1991, when dictator Saddam Hussein engaged in a conflict against 34 other countries, subjecting citizens to bombings, food shortages and constant fear. By the award-winning author of Yellow Star.
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