Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Shepherd's Granddaughter

The Shepherd's Granddaughter by Anne Laurel Carter. Groundwood Books. 2008.

My Review

The Shepherd's Granddaughter, a novel for children by Anne Laurel Carter, deals sensitively with the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflicts. It focuses on the emotional upheaval that this conflict causes a young Palestinian girl and her family.

Throughout her book, Carter highlights the importance of cooperation, and of discussion. Carter's book is anti-extremist. Although Amani's brother frequently mentions extreme, terrorist solutions to their situation, these are always dismissed in favour of more peaceable conflict resolution methods. Admirably, Carter aptly portrays a pro-Palestinian story without being overtly anti-Semitic. The Jewish characters in this book (the settler's son and the rabbi) are kind and helpful. Each goes out of his way to help the family survive together.

This children's book should be read widely by older children as a means for discussing current conflicts and their impacts on the lives of innocent civilians.

1 comment:

  1. Cristina,
    Nice site! I'm a big book lover, too. I have my own take on the Shepherd's Granddaughter:

    I have a child in a Toronto elementary school. It’s come to my attention that children in the class and children across Ontario in Grades 7 and 8 are reading The Shepherd’s Granddaughter by Anne Laurel Carter, a book that seems designed to teach kids to hate Israelis...

    read the rest here, published in The Jewish Tribune:
    http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php/201003292852/Open-letter-to-Ontario-s-education-minister.html

    ReplyDelete