What would you do if you name was Mooz? Well, you might do the same thing as the young boy in Banana Dream. You see, his name is a bit unusual and is associated with bananas. And of course, he is teased by his classmates, and envious of his cousins with more traditional names. But when he learns about the meaning of why his parents named him that, which was when his parents were trying to conceive, and having a difficult time, his mother dreamt about feeding a child a banana and his father going to Jordan to bring some back. And this is not just like us going to the store and back, it was a nine-hour trip, as bananas were rare to the point of not being available in Iraq. Yet, one day the war will end, (or at least embargos lifted) and when he can finally have a banana, it is the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted. This story is about the struggle of missing out on things due to war and our narrator learning to appreciate what he has.
This story is loosely based on the experiences of Hasan Namir when he was a child in Iraq. We see hope in the middle of war, we see a child learning to deal with difficulties, and we see the strength of a people. The afterwards provided by Namir shows the reality vs. the fiction. This ties everything together. This is illustrated in fun and bright illustrations of Daby Zainab Faidhi. They are cartoon-like, to help keep the seriousness of the story not as intense, and to give hope to everyone. They are busy, colorful and represent things well.
