In April we celebrate Arab American Heritage Month by reading and sharing stories by Arab American authors and illustrators. Celebrate in your school or library by uplifting these voices in April and all year round! Find more resources on the Arab America Foundation and Smithsonian websites.
Egyptian Lullaby by Zeena Pliska; illustrated by Hatem Aly
On sale now!
A rich, beautifully layered ode to the great city of Cairo, Egypt, its people, and culture.
Every night, my Ametti Fatma sings the sounds of Egypt to me as I fall asleep.
This is the Nile,
that flows through the city.
Swish, swoosh, swish.
This is the boat,
that glides on the Nile,
that flows through the city.
Swish, swoosh, swish.
Each night, a young girl’s Auntie Fatma puts her to bed, singing a lullaby filled with rich imagery of her home in Egypt. As Auntie Fatma sings, we are given a glimpse of modern Cairo, from boats making their way down the Nile to gentle calls to prayer from the mosques to young children joyfully playing soccer in the streets.
Join Zeena Pliska and Hatem Aly on a vibrant journey to Cairo in this gorgeous, layered song.
You Be Grandpa by Karla Clark; illustrated by Debby Rahmalia
On sale May 14, 2024
Karla Clark’s You Be series continues with You Be Grandpa, all about a grandpa who is just too tired to do the bedtime routine after a long day of activities and asks his grandson to take over for him.
Grandpa’s too tired to be Grandpa tonight.
Can you be Grandpa, just for the night?
Pick out my pjs and snuggle up close?
Read me the book I love the most?
In this clever, rhyming picture book, a grandpa tells his grandson that after a long day of playing pirates, gardening, skateboarding and more—he’s simply too tired to be Grandpa at bedtime and asks that the grandson take over for him.
An utterly relatable theme told with humor and heart provides a story parents, grandparents, and children will delight in reading together at bedtime.
A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child’s Search for Home by Maysa Odeh
On sale October 22, 2024
A young Palestinian girl living in diaspora struggles to find her homeland on a map in this gentle and heartfelt picture book.
At school, Falasteen and her classmates are tasked with finding their families’ home countries on a map, but no matter how hard she looks, Falasteen can’t find Palestine.
Can a place exist if it’s not on a map? Confused, Falasteen turns to her family for answers. Her grandfather, grandmother, and Mama encourage her to see their homeland from a different perspective, and each of their stories helps her understand her people’s history and her own place in the world.
Filled with beautiful, inspiring illustrations and thoughtful back matter that outlines key terms and historical moments, this is a story of family, resilience and home always being where the heart is.
A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui
On sale now
You can check out of Room 9, but you can never leave.
The Haunting of Hill House meets Nina LaCour in this paranormal mystery YA about the ghosts we carry with us.
Something is building, simmering just out of reach.
The room is watching. But Mira and Layla don’t know this yet. When the two best friends are stranded on their spring break college tour road trip, they find themselves at the Wildwood Motel, located in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Mira can’t shake the feeling that there is something wrong and rotten about their room. Inside, she’s haunted by nightmares of her dead brother. When she wakes up, he’s still there.
Layla doesn’t see him. Or notice anything suspicious about Room 9. The place may be a little run down, but it has a certain charm she can’t wait to capture on camera. If Layla is being honest, she’s too preoccupied with confusing feelings for Mira to see much else. But when they learn eight people died in that same room, they realize there must be a connection between the deaths and the unexplainable things that keep happening inside it. They just have to find the connection before Mira becomes the ninth.
Readers won’t be able to put down this tender thriller that includes over thirty interior black and white photos by the author!
Portrait of a Shadow by Meriam Metoui
On sale July 16, 2024
A missing sister. A mysterious boy. And a painting that holds the truth beneath its peeling edge…
Inez is missing, but missing things can always be found.
Mae knows this as a fact, even though the police investigation has come to a standstill, even though her parents are moving on. But when she goes to clear out her older sister’s studio, she finds a mess of research and a white canvas that seems even older than the ornate frame it is set in. The closer Mae gets to the canvas, the more difficult it is to pull her eyes away from its mottled surface, its heavy layers of white paint, its peeling top corner she is tempted to pull to see what’s beneath. But she doesn’t. Not yet.
Mae decides to trace her sister’s last steps in the hopes of finding answers, certain that Inez’s disappearance is related to the painting. And she knows she is desperate enough to let the strange boy who claims to have been Inez’s neighbor tag along. Even if his good looks don’t help distract from his avoidance of her questions. So begins a scavenger hunt piecing together what they can find from what Inez left behind. One that leads to centuries-old questions best left unasked and secrets best kept in the dark.
From the author of A Guide to the Dark comes another romantic and eerie mystery about the lengths we are willing to go for the truth and the ones we love.
