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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hilarious and informative.
I hated this book. It had no plot, very little interesting character development, nor did it have an interesting writing style. This book was assigned for my English class, but nobody liked it. Most of the characters are biased on either side of the Arab-Israeli crisis. Liyana is an annoyingly weird character.She uses stupid similes and metaphors that no real 15-year-old would ever use. She obsesses over a stupid kiss for half of the book before she starts obsessing over another boy. Then when he kisses her, she writes a poem about the kiss. About a week after their kiss, he said, 'I never kissed another girl before'. They're all a bunch of wierdos. It was an awfully annoying poem. It did not surprise me that the author was a poet. She tried to write a 272 page long poem with paragraphs. This book was a waste of my time.
Habibi is a sweet book, more a snapshot in time than a story. It centers on a young teenage girl who moves with her family from America to Palestine—Israel—to be near her father’s relatives and experience his culture. No great conflict or excitement dominates the narrative; instead, the reader gets rich descriptions of Jerusalem, of Liyana’s extended Arabic family, of the citizens of many nationalities she encounters, and the Jewish young man she befriends. A hope for peace permeates the book even as the conflicts of the war-torn region rage on both the national and personal level. In the middle of the conflicts, the happenings in the story seem almost to stand still as Liyana finds her way in her new country.
I have been reading Nye's poetry for some time. I am older than her intended audience, but figured that was not a problem. Poetry does not have an age limit in either direction.
Nye is Palestinian and so I wanted to know more about her other writings and how her background affects what she writes. So I picked up her most well-know work, Habibi. This was a quick read for me, about 300 pages aimed at young adult readers. Given all that affects the Palestinian story, I believe Nye has done a good job with this novel. Many young readers could relate to the story of a teen being taken out of her comfort zone. That gives them entry into this complicated story.
I have personal feelings about the Palestinian-Israeli mess, my college roommate is Israeli, but I believe we have all lost our way in this violence. I found Mornings in Jenin more realistic, but Habibi is good for its intended audience.
I recommend this book to American teens who don't understand that others' lives are affected by US politics, to those who think they have a great deal of pain in their lives and to those teen readers that are curious about the rest of the world.
Nye is Palestinian and so I wanted to know more about her other writings and how her background affects what she writes. So I picked up her most well-know work, Habibi. This was a quick read for me, about 300 pages aimed at young adult readers. Given all that affects the Palestinian story, I believe Nye has done a good job with this novel. Many young readers could relate to the story of a teen being taken out of her comfort zone. That gives them entry into this complicated story.
I have personal feelings about the Palestinian-Israeli mess, my college roommate is Israeli, but I believe we have all lost our way in this violence. I found Mornings in Jenin more realistic, but Habibi is good for its intended audience.
I recommend this book to American teens who don't understand that others' lives are affected by US politics, to those who think they have a great deal of pain in their lives and to those teen readers that are curious about the rest of the world.
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I never imagined that lips would be warm...
My goodness, why not? It's not as if there were no lips in your life before the symbolic (if pointless) ones on the first page of this book.
I really had high hopes for this book - it was an interesting premise, and Naomi Shihab Nye is a lovely poet. But it was just terrible: clunky, unbelievable characters, and contrived writing. I just couldn't believe that the father would have put so little thought into the trip; that Liyana was so clueless; that the mom didn't object or apparently have any difficulty adjusting to life in Palestine.
Also, what fifteen-year-old copes with her anxiety by whispering assonant nonsense syllables, like "whillydilly ping pong"?
My goodness, why not? It's not as if there were no lips in your life before the symbolic (if pointless) ones on the first page of this book.
I really had high hopes for this book - it was an interesting premise, and Naomi Shihab Nye is a lovely poet. But it was just terrible: clunky, unbelievable characters, and contrived writing. I just couldn't believe that the father would have put so little thought into the trip; that Liyana was so clueless; that the mom didn't object or apparently have any difficulty adjusting to life in Palestine.
Also, what fifteen-year-old copes with her anxiety by whispering assonant nonsense syllables, like "whillydilly ping pong"?
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced