If you are looking at a map of the United States, you expect to see each of the 50 states. And sometimes Puerto Rico and Washington DC. You might not see the breakdown of the state you are from, but you know you are there. You see a map of the world and you expect to see the United States there. But sometimes there are people who must look a little deeper to find their country of origin.
Now, there are books about people. There are books about Palestine. There are books about Palestinian people. There are books about maps. However, I do not think there are books about Palestinian maps, unless you have an atlas or something like that. At least not until, A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child’s Search for Home. In these pages, we find out about why Falasteen needs a map of her country. This book (due October 2024) is a bittersweet book about our main character and her search from where she is from. It is about how there is not a map of her homeland on the map of the world her teacher asks the students to use to point out where they are from.. And when she asks her teacher about it, she is told that it does not exist.
Maysa Odeh’s story about finding who you are from where your family is from is more relevant today than it probably has ever been. Falasteen finds out, by asking the hard questions, that home is not just a place on a map, but what is inside of you, and your family as well. Aliaa Betawi carefully illustrates curly-haired Falasteen (who narrates the story) with colorful pages and meaningful details. Endnotes are included to talk more about the people who have been displaced from Palestine and how they deal with things. I read via an online reader copy.
