THE TURTLE OF OMAN

In this young tween novel by acclaimed poet and National Book Award finalist Naomi Shihab Nye, a third-grade boy named Aref says good-bye to everything and everyone he loves, including his wonderful Siddi, and prepares to move from Muscat, Oman, to Detroit, Michigan.

Aref, a third-grader who lives in Muscat, Oman, does not want to move. His mother is desperate for him to pack his suitcase—but he refuses. Finally, she calls on his grandfather, his Siddi, for help. Rather than packing, Siddi and Aref travel around Muscat and the rest of Oman visiting their favorite places and having adventures. They visit the beach and go fishing, camp overnight in the desert, travel to a nature reserve to see the sea turtles, sleep on the roof under the stars, and visit a giant sinkhole. At each stop, Siddi finds a small stone that he later slips into Aref’s suitcase—mementos of home.

This gorgeous and literary novel shines with emotion and gentle humor and explores themes of moving, the Middle East, family, nature, immigration, and love and is sure to be a standout read-aloud in classrooms.

Naomi Shihab Nye was named a National Book Award finalist for 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. The author has been honored with a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the I.B. Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, and four Pushcart Prizes, as well as numerous honors for her books for younger readers, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. She is also the editor of the poetry anthologies Is This Forever, or What?: Poems and Paintings from Texas; The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East; Salting the Ocean; What Have You Lost?; This Same Sky; and Time You Let Me In; as well as the author of the novels Habibi and Going Going, the essay collection I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay?, the short story collection There Is No Long Distrance Now, the picture books Baby Radar, Sitti’s Secrets, and Come With Me, and the poetry collections Honeybee and A Maze Me. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.