Institute for Curriculum Services

Levine, Anna
Front Street/Cricket Books, 1999. 183pp
ISBN: 0812628756
Recommended for ages 9-13

Karen is a 13 year-old Israeli girl who lives in a village abutting the Lebanese border, near an Arab village where another young girl, Yasmine, lives. Karen lives with her mother and younger brother - her father was killed in the first Lebanon war. Karen and Yasmine meet on the school bus and discover a shared love of running - they are on the same track team at school. They build their friendship running together in the demilitarized zone between their two villages, and against the odds win the approval of their reluctant families.

This is a really sweet story. Although it does not shy away from the rough politics and animosities that accompany an Israeli village and an Arab village on the Lebanese border, Anna Levine does an excellent job focusing the story on Karen and Yasmine, without blaming one society or the other for the conflict. The story has good guys - the tolerant ones - and bad guys -- the intolerant ones, like Karen's best friend, and Abdullah, Yasmine's older brother, both of whom are initially dismissive of the other side's humanity.

Yasmine is a very positive character in her own right: she is not just "the Arab befriended by the Jewish girl" in the book. In fact, Yasmine is the proactive one, insisting on teaching Karen how to improve her running.

This book is about revealing false assumptions and tearing down the fences - real and metaphorical - that prevent people from realizing their natural friendships.

Levine does an excellent job, as noted, of addressing the conflict but avoiding demagoguery. The most influential people in Karen's life are the tolerant ones, those who use the memory of her father to push her to achieve success in her running, which, in turn, establishes her friendship with Yasmine.