To Be the Daughter of a Gypsy

AGE: 10-14

Amid the harsh reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a warm and affectionate relationship starts up between two Israeli girls and a young Palestinian man. The narrator of this extraordinary story is Taliah, a problem girl who is sent to a home for special children. The children she meets there are a collection of misfits, but many of them have brilliant fantasies. By far the greatest dreamer is Becky, a strong-willed girl whose fiery imagination charms the narrator and readers alike. Becky’s ambition is to have a “permanent father,” and when she hears gypsy music coming from Kami’s ice-cream van, she latches onto the young Arab man from the Gaza Strip. Becky imagines that Kami will rescue her but he himself is lonely and trapped, sleeping in the locked van at night, far from his family and home.
The girls lose Kami twice: first when he says goodbye and returns to Gaza, and then when he is killed in a terrorist incident.

Illustrations: Hilla Havkin.


Partial English translation available (for publishers only)