Tasting the Sky

Barakat, I. (2007). Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood. New York: Farrar,

Straus and Giroux.

Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat is a

memoir about growing up as a Palestinian refugee. The novel begins with

Ibtisam being taken off a bus on her way back to her home town, Ramallah,

after visiting a post office in the West Bank. Ibtisam, a teenager at this point

in time, had been sneaking back and forth to the post office to correspond

with her international pen-pals. After being detained by soldiers for reasons

she did not know, Ibtisam has a flashback to her experience during the Six-

Day War in 1967. She was only 3 years old when war broke out and her

family was forced to leave their home in Ramallah and evacuate to a refugee

camp in Jordan. The novel describes in great detail her experiences of

surviving the war and how she used language as an escape from all the harm

and despair around her.

This book has many strengths which is why our group chose it to be

one of our honor books. The first literary element this book excels at

achieving is language and prose. The novel is beautifully written and almost

flows like a poem. There are many metaphors and other poetic language

used. The author somehow makes the harsh subject of Palestinian war an

easy read. A great example of the authors poetic prose is People were

gazing into the sky as though a long line of unanswered prayers hung from it.

They were cursing as they struggled to swallow their grief. They begged one
another for a drink and begged God for mercy (27). The book gives the

reader a sense of being in the room with the characters. It is easy to

understand how the narrator, Ibtisam herself, is feeling. Another strength of

the book is the perspective the author portrays to the reader. The author

tells her story not out of self-pity, but states it more as a matter of fact. While

the novel invokes emotion in the reader, the author does not make herself

seem like the victim. This shows not only how strong the main character is,

but also allows the reader to think about the book more holistically and not

only from her point of view. In addition, this book gives great insight into

what war was like from a childs perspective.

One weakness of the book is its small audience range. While Tasting

the Sky is an amazing read, it is hard to understand fully without background

knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the beginning of the book

there is a short preface introducing some of the history behind the topic, but

even that is hard to follow. If a reader does not have any interest in conflicts

within the Middle East, then he/she may find this book to be less interesting

or harder to understand. The age range of this book is aimed at 6th-12th grade

which makes it easier for the reader to have a background of the conflict, but

does not guarantee it.

This novel meets many of the criteria for receiving the Notable Books

for a Global Society award. The first and most impactful piece of criteria the

book demonstrates is showing two or more cultural groups interacting with

one another substantively and authentically. Within the novel there are many
cultural interactions between members of both armies in the war. While the

reader does not see a lot of direct contacts with soldiers throughout the

book, the reader still gets a sense of a substantive amount of conflict. These

interactions are as authentic as they can be, for they are told through the

eyes of a three year old. Another aspect of the award criteria this book

meets is it offers and in-depth analysis of cultural issues. This book explains

in great detail what life was like living in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict. An example of culture being represented in the book is when the

narrator describes refugees turning to their religion for help. She says Allabu

Akbar, God is greatest. Everyone awake repeated the words. But was God

going to end the war today? End our flight and send us home? I wanted to

know. We raised our arms above our heads in the shape of empty baskets for

God to fill with the days rations of our lives (39). This is just one example of

how the novel shows Palestinian culture through religion.

When evaluating the books based upon the second list of criteria for

the Notable Books award, the novel goes above and beyond all standards.

The book invites critical analysis and response by providing the readers with

a raw and emotional story. This book provokes the reader to learn more

about the Six-Day War and Middle East conflict in general. The experiences

the narrator goes through can only make one evaluate their own lives and

how people all over the world have very different experiences from one

another. The genre of historical fiction has a bad reputation among children

for being boring and useless, however this novel could not be more the
opposite. The author provides such an excellently written story that the

reader gets lost in the action and emotion. This unique memoir not only tells

Ibtisams history, it tells her journey of survival. The language and style of

the novel is exceptional and is the main reason this piece of multicultural

literature is so great.

This book should be included in middle and high school classrooms to

teach about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A potential teaching lesson for

this book could be used in a history classroom. Students could read this

novel during a unit based on Middle East conflicts. Giving the students

background knowledge on the subject would help them be able to dissect

and understand all parts of this complicated novel. This book should

definitely be used as an aid to understanding the conflict because it is told

from the perspective of a child. Students would be able to relate to the book

and gain a real perspective of what it was like for children living in war and

terror. This book could also be accompanied by a short novel describing life

as an Israeli child during this time, giving the students two opposing

perspectives.