Part of Me: Stories of a Louisiana Family

The Sittin' Up

Almost to Freedom

The Year of the Three Sisters

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan

Amina's Song: Amina's Voice

The Girl Who Wanted to Dance

Almost Paradise

"With a sharp eye for nuances of culture and the political situation in the Middle East, Clinton has created a rich, colorful cast of characters and an emotionally charged novel." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

I am Malaak Abed Atieh, and this bird is Abdo. . . . I live in Abdo's eyes. . . . I fly high, high above Gaza City. . . . Nothing stops me, not the concrete and razor wire, not the guns, not the soldiers. I stare at them with my hard black Abdo eyes, and they do not shoot me. I am hidden.

The year is 1988 in Gaza City, and it has been a month since eleven-year-old Malaak's beloved father left to look for work in Israel, only to disappear. Every day Malaak climbs up to the roof and waits for him, imagining that she can fly to the prison cell where she is sure he waits, too. She speaks little to anyone, preferring to commune with the loyal little bird she has tamed. But her twelve-year-old brother, Hamid, has a different way of coping. He feels only anger, stoked by militant extremists who preach violence as the only way to change their fate. Malaak's mother and sister beg the boy to stay away from harm, but now Malaak lives in fear that she may lose her only brother as well. What will it take for her to find her voice — and the strength to move beyond the violence that surrounds her?

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Part of Me: Stories of a Louisiana Family

Kimberly Willis Holt, Kate Reading, 2006

The Sittin' Up

Shelia P. Moses, 2014

Almost to Freedom

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Colin Bootman, 2003

The Year of the Three Sisters

Patrice Barton, Andrea Cheng, 2015

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan, 2016

Amina's Song: Amina's Voice

Hena Khan, 2021

The Girl Who Wanted to Dance

Amy Ehrlich, Rebecca Walsh, 2009

Almost Paradise

Corabel Shofner, 2017