Just A Thought-- Book Awards

As a Special Education major and simply as a person who cares and advocates for the rights of those with special needs, I found it rather alarming that only one prominent award exists for the categories of special needs. It such a broad topic: It deals with issues of both physical, emotional, and academic disabilities, not to mention disorders which can range from schizophrenia, depression, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, and so many more. Unless we create more book awards that strive for the things that we look for in a class such as authenticity and lack of generalization and stereotypes, how can we expect things to change? I also feel that it is time for publishers to step up and stop publishing material that is inaccurate and hurtful because kids, no people base so much of what they believe about the world and the people in it from different forms of media. We tell children to explore the world and read, but if what they are reading is filled with misconceptions, instead of bringing people together it only further alienates them.

Reflections: Thoughts After Reading "Al Capone Does My Shirts"

I don't quite understand it. How is it that we read and have experienced terrorist attacks, school shootings, come across people everyday that look as typical as you and I that end up being rapists, murderers, drug dealers/users, womanizers, self mutilators, and yet we never so much as blink? However, the moment a person with a noticeable disability walks into a room...the room goes silent, we notice. Whether it's the person who is completely annoyed that they've been inconvenienced by having to wait for a person with a physical disability to pass by or to load a bus or the gawker who can't look away... we notice. Why as a society do we feel as though persons with disabilities are such a hassle? What I don't understand is that while a great majority of us will oppose the death penalty in a sense fighting for the lives of some of the most disturbed people who have committed the most atrocious acts, we can't seem to extend simple courtesies to people with disabilities by not calling each other "retards" or referring to people that make a mistake as riders of the short bus or simply not parking in a handicap spot when you clearly don't have a disability and these are just things we can do in our daily lives. On a grander scale we should be advocating for all people and writing about them in respectful ways.

I will never understand why we fight for the right to keep school mascots, protect criminals, and bring our favorite television shows back on air, but we fail to defend the rights of those with disabilities, worse yet, we often times shun these people whose only crime is being unique. Why?

"Habibi"

I’d like to start off by saying that I did enjoy this book. However, I don’t feel as though I am informed enough to determine whether or not this is a good representation of Arab culture or relations between Arabs and Jewish people. I loved the characters and their growth and I think that if not to represent Arab culture this would be a great book to discuss when discussing themes of societal clash and acceptance. While reading Habibi, I found myself completely taken in by the character of Liyana because I could really relate to her, especially her unyielding attitude and her constant opposition to tradition. Then I started to question this all together. Does the book fixate on Liyana’s half American heritage by giving her these characteristics? After battling with myself on possible answers; I began delving into the book and looking for subtle stereotypes that I could draw up and unfortunately I found more than I would have liked to. I think one of the most noticeable stereotypes was that against Jewish people. I think only representing Omer as a person who was accepting of all people was a definite mistake. Although it was nice to see that even within Liyana’s family there were people who were just as intolerant. The short glimpse into Omer’s past with his father also helped to bring a sort of understanding of indiscretions from both sides. So I guess in the end, if I did more research on both cultures and found a book to narrate the story from a Jewish perspective than I would add this book to my library.

Other questions that I raised while reading were the following:

- Does this book portray the spiritual aspects of Islam and other religions in an authentically?
- Was the state of the government--- corrupt soldiers, unsafe checkpoints- truly representative of how the government truly is?
- Would Jewish/Arab relationships be accepted and acknowledged publicly?
- What was the author trying to get across in writing this novel?