For this activity, Karin the Librarian has asked participants to create a Read-a-Like-List of books. We can choose any type of book, but there has to be some sort of explainable connection between the books. I've chosen to think about a group of YA books set in the Middle East. I am taking part in the Middle East Reading Challenge, hosted by Helen of Helen's Book Blog.
I haven't read a lot of YA books that take place in the Middle East, but I feel like I should. Every year, I have students who (for one reason or another) choose to serve our country and enter in one of the branches of the armed forces. Right now, I have at least four former students and two relatives who are serving in the Middle East.
It really used to feel that I needed to teach students about multiculturalism because my students needed to learn to get along with and understand ethnic populations and diversity within our own country. Now, I feel that I absolutely need to be able to prepare my students to encounter other cultures in other countries. Not the same experience.
Before I can teach, I need to learn. I've made a concerted effort in the past to read about African and Asian countries, so this year I'm going to move on to the Middle East. Here are some titles that I hope to read, in no particular order.
In the Name of God by Paula Jolin
IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq by IraqiGirl
The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye
