The Lemon Tree (Young Readers' Edition): An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

by Sandy Tolan

Overview

In 1967, a twenty-five-year-old refugee named Bashir Khairi traveled from the Palestinian hill town of Ramallah to Ramla, Israel, with a goal: to see the beloved stone house with the lemon tree in its backyard that he and his family had been forced to leave nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he was greeted by one of its new residents: Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust. She had lived in that house since she was eleven months old.
On the stoop of this shared house, Dalia and Bashir began a surprising friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and later tested as political tensions ran high and Israelis and Palestinians each asserted their own right to live on this land. Adapted from the award-winning adult book and based on Sandy Tolan's extensive research and reporting, The Lemon Tree is a deeply personal story of two people seeking hope, transformation, and home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547603947
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	168,731
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	9 - 11 Years

Table of Contents

First Words vii

Maps

Palestine under the British Mandate, 1936 viii

United Nations Partition Plan, November I947 ix

Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza after the Armistice Agreement, 1949 to June 1967 x

Israel and the Palestinian Territories, with Israeli Settlements, 2005 xi

Occupied Palestinian Territory in the West Bank xii

Introduction 1

1 Bashir 4

2 Dalia 11

3 The House 14

4 Bulgaria 20

5 Division 24

6 Expulsion 31

7 Emigration 38

8 Refuge 45

9 Arrival 52

10 Gaza 62

11 Tension 67

12 War 73

13 Six Hours 81

14 The First Encounter 87

15 Longing 95

16 Explosion 106

17 Conviction 113

18 Solution? 122

19 Dalia's Letter 127

20 Bashir's Reply 135

21 Open House 144

22 Heart 150

23 The Lemon Tree 155

Afterword 158

About the Research for This Book 167

To Learn More 169

Sources 173

Index 191

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2020

Gr 6 Up—In this young readers' adaptation of the 2007 book, Tolan details the true story of the unexpected friendship between Bashir Khairi, a Palestinian man of Arab ancestry, and Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, an Israeli woman of Jewish descent. These two individuals found they shared a connection. Their families lived in the same stone house at different time periods. Nineteen years before Landau's family moved in, Khairi's family lived in the house. During the formation of Israel in 1948, six-year-old Khairi and his family were forced to flee their hometown. Landau and her family relocated from Europe to Israel after World War II. In 1967, soon after the Six-Day War, Khairi and Landau met as young adults. For a time, they maintained a tenuous friendship and an openness to conversation. Tolan deftly explores both sides of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He connects news stories to real people and describes the mental, emotional, and physical impact of violence, occupation, and forced relocation. Although the text would have benefitted from a time line and a little more explanation about Zionism, the compelling narrative provides readers with insight into an impossible situation. Front matter includes territorial maps and information about Tolan's research methods; back matter features an annotated list of books, articles, and films on the topic, as well as an extensive list of sources. VERDICT Tolan makes an incredibly complicated topic comprehensible, creating empathy and understanding for people on both sides of the conflict.—Sarah Reid, Four County Lib. Syst., NY

School Library Journal

★ 2020-07-28
The true story of a friendship between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab that transcends political tensions and violence.

It is 1967. Three Palestinian men—Bashir Khairi and his cousins Yasser and Ghiath—are on a journey from Ramallah to see their childhood homes in al-Ramla. Yasser is turned away; Ghiath’s is now a school. Bashir knows whether he may enter his old home depends on who answers the door. Dalia Eshkenazi, who has wondered “why would anyone voluntarily leave such a beautiful house,” welcomes them despite misgivings, “sens[ing] a vulnerability in these young men [that makes her feel] safe.” Dalia and her family, Holocaust survivors, had moved from Bulgaria to Palestine when she was just a baby. Welcoming the three men into her home opens the door to a connection, a bond between the Khairis and Eshkenazis, one that could represent hope and peace. The story unfolds in chapters that alternate between Dalia and Bashir along with chapters focusing on the histories of the land and of each family. In this young readers’ adaptation of his 2006 book for adults of the same name, Tolan seamlessly weaves in the modern history of Palestine/Israel—including dates, roles played by leaders, and details from both Bashir’s and Dalia’s experiences. The writing is rich, especially when describing the house—it and its lemon tree form the center of this moving story.

Captivating and complicated. (maps, author’s note, sources) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Through broad sweeps of narrative going back and forward in time, Tolan's sensitively told, eminently fair-minded narrative closes with a return to that lemon tree and its promise of reconciliation. Humane and literate—and rather daring in suggesting that the future of the Middle East need not be violent.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Moving, well-crafted . . . readers will experience one of the world's most stubborn conflicts firsthand.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[Tolan] sensitively describes the tough friendship between Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, the daughter of Romanian Jewish immigrants who settled in Ramla, and Palestinian Bashir Khairi, who in 1967 knocked on her door to look at the house his family lost when it was forced to flee in 1948 . . . Tolan uses the beloved backyard lemon tree to drive home the shared humanity of the successive inhabitants of one home.” —LA Review of Books

“Tolan weaves together dramatically different perceptions of the conflict and its context and explains how the lemon tree grew to become a powerful symbol of home.” —NPR.org

“A balanced presentation of the issues. . . . puts a very human face on a centuries-old conundrum.” —School Library Connection

“[A] compelling narrative. . . Tolan makes an incredibly complicated topic comprehensible, creating empathy and understanding for people on both sides of the conflict.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher