Finishing Tasting the Sky

I wasn’t sure what my reaction was going to be to our Lit Circle book, Tasting the Sky, but after finishing the book, I found it very touching, and enjoyed it very much. I found it extremely interesting to read about the culture of someone growing up in another part of the world: Palestine. Not only did Ibtisam grow up in a different culture than I, she grew up in a time of war. She was a refugee. She was forced to leave her home at the start of the six-day war, and then endured the struggle of returning to it. At the end of the book, they are forced to move again, as they have reached their breaking point. The leader of Egypt passes away, and two Israeli soldiers start harassing Ibtisam’s mother. They don’t have to think much about moving away. Reading this story made me really think about the current refugee crisis in today’s world. Ibtisam is only in second grade when she and her family are forced to move from their home for the final time. Ibtisam explains in the story how her home in Ramallah will always be her one, true home. It is hard to imagine going through as much as Ibtisam by only the age of six or seven. Constantly living in fear of a war coming to you, constantly worrying when you will have to move next. Connecting this to the refugee crisis of today, I think it is extremely important that children be thought of first. Children are so innocent and no kid deserves to grow up in a war torn environment. I always thought that refugees, especially women and children refugees, needed to be helped, but after reading Tasting the Sky, my awareness of the issue will be even more heightened.  

https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/iraq-jordan-lebanon-syria-turkey/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis

Tasting the Sky

For our Lit Circles project, I am in the group reading the book Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat. So far, I have enjoyed the book and found many things interesting in it. So far, I do not believe we have learned the name of the main character, the narrator. She is a young girl, who in the section of reading we completed, only gets up to age six. She has two older brothers, Basel and Mohammed. She has a baby sister named Maha. She is extremely close with her family; she only feels safe when she is with them, and this only grows stronger as the story goes on. In the beginning, her father is very paranoid that war will break out. She describes her father having nightmares and kicking and flailing his limbs in the middle of the night. Her mother would have to sleep on the edge of the bed, and she would bring water to him in the middle of the night to comfort him. Soon enough, war does breakout with Israel. Her and her family flee and hide away from their home. Their mother is even shot at by a plane from above, when she tries to run back into her house to retrieve more things. Luckily, she is not hit. In trying to get to Jordan to find refuge, her family along with others stop another family driving a water tanker in the middle of the road. The two families become very close. The moms and children stay together at a refugee camp, while the fathers have to find elsewhere. The war only lasts sixdays, and the families still stay together for a little bit while figuring out if they can go back to Ramallah. They finally return to their home in Ramallah, but it is not the same. They find many gunshot holes in their home, and Israeli troops train extremely close to their house. This drives the mom mad. She is always anxious and sad. She insists she takes the kids to an orphanage where she can stay with them. They have to say that their father has died. Things are rough at the orphanage, and the narrator’s two brothers are sent to another orphanage for getting in a fight. Their father returns after a while and persuade their mom to give them another chance at their home. Overall, I have found reading the experience of a child so immersed into a life of war to be very interesting. It is extremely sad. No one should have to experience such turmoil at such an early age. I am excited to get more into Tasting the Sky.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War

Finishing A&D

Aristotle and Dante went through quite the tumultuous journey in figuring out their feelings for each other. I imagine there are tons of same sex couples who go through very similar, maybe even much more difficult paths, in coming to terms with who they are attracted to and love. It was really kind of tough to see how much Ari struggled, with just about everything. He had so many barriers, so many of his own little “rules” that had to be broken down. One scene I enjoyed, was his big conversation with his dad. At last, Ari seems to finally connect with his father and have some understanding between the two. Another resolution that was finally revealed, was about Ari’s brother. Man, there was a lot that went into his brother. It included his mom having a mental breakdown, and the dilemma about his Aunt Ophelia coming out. I wonder if these two things weighed heavy on Ari when he decided to finally accept who he was. The fact that Ari’s brother murdered someone after realizing they were trans, and then hearing that his Aunt Ophelia was estranged from the family for living with another woman, I think both of these things could have made it even more difficult to accept his feelings for Dante. I think Ari must have always known his feelings for Dante. You don’t go saving someone’s life and then beating up some kids out of revenge for picking on Dante, without asking yourself why you are doing such things without even hesitation. Ari’s burden of not being able to accept his feelings even had an effect on Dante. It started to become Dante’s burden as well. Ari was bringing him down with him. It was very relieving to see Ari finally figure himself out. Overall, I didn’t know what to expect from this book, and found it interesting.

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/gay-bullying-statistics.html