One More River

Rating:
Summary: One More River
Review: After reading this book I think that I feel like I have experienced the pain myself. I think that this story opened my eyes better than a history book ever could. Personaly I think that this book was a good read.I suggest that everyone read this excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable
Review: An intriguing kids'-eye view of events surrounding the 1967 war--considerably less violent and more hopeful than Broken Bridge. Also just a good account of the trials and tribulations of dealing with life in a new country. This definitely should be paired with Naomi Shihab Nye's Habibi.

Rating:
Summary: A Changing Life, A Changing World
Review: How can you change a spoiled girl who has never done a hard day's work, into a hard working girl? The family in this book has their own method.
I thought Lynne Reid Banks did a great job in writing the story of a rich jewish girl, and how her family's decision to move to Israel changed her life. As I read this book, it kept me hooked right from the beggining and I learned a lot too. The book is filled with Jewish and Yiddish words and as I went through I learned some of them. I learned from this book how the Jewish people living in Israel thought that living there was religion enough to show they were Jewish; also how the Israelis were constantly trying to keep the Arabs off their land. The only thing about this book that, I think, could have been better is how she made it seem like the Arabs had no reason to be fighting to take the land that had been theirs before the Jewish people came and settled. I learned that religion doesn't always have to be: Jewish, Muslim etc. It could also be: Israelis, Arabs etc.

I never knew that I could learn so much, about a religion that I'm not, from a book I got for my birthday.

Rating:
Summary: Good story, serious topic.
Review: I originally read this book as a teenager and it literaly changed my life as I later went to live on a kibbutz and later still emigrated to Israel and lived there for several years. I bought this version as a gift to my Israeli daughter in part so that she can learn one of the reasons that she exists. I can't really comment on the changes as it is too long since I read the original.
Lesley is a rich and spoiled teenager living in Canada. her parents take her to live on a kibbutz in Israel. She has to share a room and to learn to live with almost no possesions. Starting as an outcast she gradually learns the language, adapts to working and learns to fit in to her new environment. She also develops a "relationship' with an Arab boy from across the river Jordan.
The story is set just before and during the 1967 Six Day War and helps to provide younger readers with an insight into the history of and politics of the time. It is simplistic in some ways but this is to be expected given the target age of its readers. It also helps to explain the optimism of the time and the assumption that Israeli occupation of the territories would be a short term thing - highly relevant given the ongoing conflict as many readers no doubt have questions about how it all started.
The story of Lesley is enjoyable for younger readers who will be able to relate to her and the history is a bonus. It is of course a story with only one point of view but I feel that it does begin to address the frustration of the Arabs in the area. This is further examined in the sequel "Broken Bridge".

Rating:
Summary: Its is great
Review: Never mind that it's a young adult book. Lynne Reid Banks' work has such a vast scope, it should not be missed by anyone.

The book is set in 1968. Lesley is a typical teenager. She's always trendily dressed, always popular, always the envied one. Then her father announces that the entire family is going to emigrate to Israel. She cries, pleads, threatens, but soon enough they arrive on a border kibbutz. Lesley doesn't speak Hebrew, can't do much in the way of chores, and is at first treated like anathema by her peers. Meanwhile, the conflict between Israel and Jordan escalates. Across the River Jordan, surprisingly lacking in width or depth, she observes over time a young boy whose loneliness reminds her of herself. Despite knowing better, Lesley cannot imagine him an enemy. When war breaks out, the world of the kibbutz seems terribly fragile, but Lesley finds herself fighting as desperately as her neighbors to hold on.

The relationship between Lesley and Mustapha, however brief, is one of the most unforgettable I've ever read about. The final scene of the book still haunts me. I reread it at least once a year.

Rating:
Summary: The best novel about the Arab-Isreali conflict, ever.
Review: Never mind that it's a young adult book. Lynne Reid Banks' work has such a vast scope, it should not be missed by anyone.

The book is set in 1968. Lesley is a typical teenager. She's always trendily dressed, always popular, always the envied one. Then her father announces that the entire family is going to emigrate to Israel. She cries, pleads, threatens, but soon enough they arrive on a border kibbutz. Lesley doesn't speak Hebrew, can't do much in the way of chores, and is at first treated like anathema by her peers. Meanwhile, the conflict between Israel and Jordan escalates. Across the River Jordan, surprisingly lacking in width or depth, she observes over time a young boy whose loneliness reminds her of herself. Despite knowing better, Lesley cannot imagine him an enemy. When war breaks out, the world of the kibbutz seems terribly fragile, but Lesley finds herself fighting as desperately as her neighbors to hold on.

The relationship between Lesley and Mustapha, however brief, is one of the most unforgettable I've ever read about. The final scene of the book still haunts me. I reread it at least once a year.

Rating:
Summary: Absolute garbage
Review: Nothing but lies. What give a Canadian the right to go and live on a Palestinian land? It shows nothing but deleberate twist of the truth. She made the Arab look like a bunch of uncivilized tribes because they are fighting invaders. She gave herself the right to go and live on a land owned by Palestinians and she wants the Palestinian to welcome her with open arms. This is the kind of propaganda that is targeting young children that have no knowledge of what the real story is. School districts that put this kind of trash on their reading list are irresponsible and should immediately remove such readings.

Rating:
Summary: P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A
Review: This book is just another piece of propaganda full of lies teaching hatred to children. I don't know if this author was some Jew teaching Pro-Semitism and Anti-Arabism to young children. I am 15 years of age and my Social Studies class was assigned to read this offensive book. Everytime we had a class discussion on the book, I always spoke out that this author is speaking sh*t! "Israel" belongs to the Palestinians, not the Jews, the Jews are from Europe, and yes they were once in Palestine ages ago, but Diaspora drived them out. So, why the hell are they coming back and stealing from the Palestinians. Someone should teach the American youth that the Jews are invading and stealing the poor Palestinians' land. And America has been biased towards the Jews. Why?!?!