The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story

Aya Khalil

Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing, Feb 18, 2020 - Juvenile Fiction - 36 pages

2021 ARAB AMERICAN CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD WINNER

Children's Africana Book Award (CABA) 2021 Honor Book

NCSS 2021 Notable Social Studies Book

Kanzi’s family has moved from Egypt to America, and on her first day in a new school, what she wants more than anything is to fit in. Maybe that’s why she forgets to take the kofta sandwich her mother has made for her lunch, but that backfires when Mama shows up at school with the sandwich. Mama wears a hijab and calls her daughter Habibti (dear one). When she leaves, the teasing starts.

That night, Kanzi wraps herself in the beautiful Arabic quilt her teita (grandma) in Cairo gave her and writes a poem in Arabic about the quilt. Next day her teacher sees the poem and gets the entire class excited about creating a “quilt” (a paper collage) of student names in Arabic. In the end, Kanzi’s most treasured reminder of her old home provides a pathway for acceptance in her new one.  

This authentic story with beautiful illustrations includes a glossary of Arabic words and a presentation of Arabic letters with their phonetic English equivalents.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - deslivres5 - LibraryThing

Lovely illustrated picture book about Kanzi, a recent Egyptian immigrant to the U.S. with her family. She is starting third grade and comes upon some teasing issues on the first day of school. How her teacher deals with the teasing and fosters kindness and pride of heritage is wonderful.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - managedbybooks - LibraryThing

This was really cute and I loved the illustration style! This was very wholesome and I loved the way this introduces different cultural aspects in ways that children can grasp and recognize.

About the author

Aya Khalil is a freelance journalist and blogger who has taught at all levels from preschool to college. her first book, The Arabic Quilt is based on events from her childhood, when she immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt with her parents and siblings. She lives in Toledo, Ohio, with her husband, Abdalrahman, and their two children.

Anait Semirdzhyan grew up in a multicultural family and lived in several countries with diverse cultures before settling in the Seattle area with her husband and twin daughters. Her illustrations begin as pencil sketches on cold-press watercolor paper. She then inks the outlines, paints with watercolors, and scans the illustrations in order to edit them in Photoshop. She is the illustrator of The Arabic Quilt and other works that can be viewed at www.anaitsart.com.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story
• Author: Aya Khalil
• Illustrated by: Anait Semirdzhyan
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing, 2020
• ISBN: 0884487563, 9780884487562
• Length: 36 pages
• Subjects: Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes / Emigration & Immigration; Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes / Friendship