Wishing Upon the Same Stars
When twelve-year-old Yasmeen Khoury moves with her family to San Antonio, all she wants to do is fit in. But her classmates in Texas are nothing like her friends in the predominantly Arab neighborhood back in Detroit where she grew up. Almost immediately, Yasmeen feels like the odd girl out, and as she faces middle school mean girls and navigates making new friends, she feels more alone than ever before. Then Yasmeen meets her neighbor, Ayelet Cohen, a first-generation Israeli American. As the two girls grow closer, Yasmeen is grateful to know someone who understands what it feels like when your parents’ idea of home is half a world away. But when Yasmeen’s grandmother moves in after her home in Jerusalem is destroyed, Yasmeen and Ayelet must grapple with how much closer the events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are than they’d realized. As Yasmeen begins to develop her own understandings of home, heritage, and most importantly, herself, can the two girls learn there’s more that brings them together than might tear them apart…and that peace begins with them?
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection now out from HarperCollins!
A Texas Library Association 2023 Spirit of Texas Reading List selection!
A Children’s Book Council 2023 Notable Social Studies Trade Book!
A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, 2023 Edition!