Haugen, Kanzi’s teacher, discovers her new student in tears, she tells Kanzi that “being bilingual is beautiful” and that she shouldn’t let anyone make her feel ashamed. Her Baba tells her he’s packed her favorite kofta sandwich for lunch, but Kanzi secretly wishes he had made peanut butter and jelly, because she doesn’t want to be “different.” When Kanzi forgets her lunch, her Mama brings it to school and speaks to her in Arabic, calling her “habibti.” Molly, one of Kanzi’s classmates, overhears and mocks both of them while another classmate laughs along. K-Gr 3.Įgyptian American Kanzi and her family have just moved to a new town where Kanzi will be starting third grade. Good for ages 6-8.Review: The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story Every title like this brings us closer to cultural understanding across the board. It can be difficult to find just the right one, but from what I’ve seen, this book is one of those that I will happily add into the lineup. There are a few books that I go to automatically to teach these kinds of lessons. Despite any structural or linguistic issues I might have, this book brought me to tears during the closing poem. Some of the wording seemed awkward, but that could just be a matter of I am not used to reading a story fully in the present tense. We are shown a way to overcome those differences in a nice, productive manner. Without getting too harsh, we are shown one little girl already aware of the cultural differences she will face and another with observable learned prejudices that we know come from her mother. Through the efforts of an understanding teacher and a supportive mother creating a class project to make a quilt with everyone’s name written in Arabic, even those with reservations and learned prejudices come around.Įxpressive color pen-and-ink drawings in a classic illustration style, The Arabic Quilt is a heartfelt examination of a young immigrant’s experiences going to a new school in a new country. Kanzi soon finds herself being picked on for her differences. But some people are harder to please than others. She even puts her own likes and home culture aside, hides them down deep, to better assimilate.

She loves swimming, poetry, and her Teita’s quilt. Kanzi moved with her family from Egypt to America.

The arabic quilt