Habibi

Today in our response groups we discussed the book Habibi. We talked a lot about what it means to be living in an age not a place. We found many examples throughout the book which discussed how the age has changed and how certain things that used to be acceptable when Poppy was young, were no longer acceptable; most importantly the issue with Liyana being friends with a Jewish boy. We then began to wonder why Poppy tends to make Liyana feel as if she’s an outsider by not allowing her to be friends with certain people. Maybe he just did it because he didn’t know how else to handle the situation. He knew that being friends with a Jewish boy was not okay and didn’t want his family to be looked down upon, especially since they had just arrived. We don’t think he is purposely trying to hurt Liyana and make her feel as if she doesn’t belong, but actually trying to do just the opposite.
Throughout the book there are also many issues dealing with Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. When first reading the book, I really did not pick up on the negative stereotypes that were being portrayed. After reading an article by Don Cohen, I was definitely opened up to this. I do feel it tends to put Jews down and has the potential to be very offensive to some people. However, I do feel that in any book you are going to have some type of negative stereotype towards one group or another. I feel that in today’s society it is very hard to find a book that is agreed upon by everyone. With everything going on in the world, especially in the Middle East, it’s very hard to accommodate everyone accordingly. It’s definitely something that we all need to work on especially being teachers, trying to incorporate everyone into the reading without offending people.