Yesterday, the Columbus Avenue branch of New York bookstore Book Culture held a “special storytime.”
Join us on Saturday, November 18th at 11am for a special storytime as Golbarg Bashi reads from her new book P is for Palestine at Book Culture on Columbus!
The story of Palestine is the story of our humanity. It is story of all people, all nations, throughout history, seeking a pride of place. Anyone who has ever been to Palestine (to some also known as the Holy Land) or who has Palestinian friends, colleagues, or neighbors knows that this proud nation, located on the western-most point of Asia, not that many nautical miles away from Cyprus, Alexandria (Egypt) and Greece, is at the center of our world. It is home to the sweetest oranges, most intricate embroideries, great dance moves (Dabkeh), fertile olive groves, and sunniest people!
Inspired by Palestinian people’s own rich history in the literary and visual arts, specifically by children’s authors and illustrators such as Naji al-Ali (1938 – 1987), Ghassan Kanafani (1936 – 1972), and Mohieddin El Labbad (1940 – 2010) among others, an academic and children’s author and a socially conscious illustrator have teamed up to create P is for Palestine: A Palestine Alphabet Book—a book for children of all ages where the story of Palestine is told as simply as the English ABC…in an educational, colorful, empowering way, showcasing the beauty and strength of Palestinian culture.
We were able to publish P is for Palestine: A Palestine Alphabet Book by financing its publication through the crowd-fundraising platform LaunchGood.com. We are grateful to them and to every single person, bookstore, and institution that took a chance with our newly established publishing house and pre-purchased this book and thus made its publication a reality.
You may recall when I first heard about this book at the beginning of the year, I created my own version of sorts.
And I was not that far off. Photos taken of the book by a pro-Israel activist Karen LichtBraun show there’s glorification of violence and terrorism
Wishing for Israel’s destruction
And of course outright lies and propaganda
(yeah, right)
This is made all the more infuriating, given what the author, Golbarg Bashi, claims she aims with the book
Inspired by Palestinian people’s own rich history in the literary and visual arts, specifically by children’s authors and illustrators such as Naji al-Ali (1938 – 1987), Ghassan Kanafani (1936 – 1972), and Mohieddin El Labbad (1940 – 2010) among others, an academic and children’s author and a socially conscious illustrator have teamed up to create P is for Palestine—a book for children of all ages where the story of Palestine is told as simply as the English ABC…in an educational, colorful, empowering way, showcasing the beauty and strength of Palestinian culture.
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The simple story of Palestine is today shrouded in convoluted misinformation and contested narratives. But at the heart of the matter stands a proud people with a compelling truth which sustain their historic struggles to tell their story of dispossession to the world. Our P is for Palestine is a modest step in that direction.
Furthermore, children the world over are increasingly exposed to a barrage of psychologically damaging disinformation that violates the sanctity of their young life and compromises their trust in the world. In this book we tell the story of Palestine in a manner that enriches their hope in our future. As a result, P is for Palestine follows in the footsteps of great many alphabet books about countries, customs and the beauty of the world around us in good ‘ol English and other European languages!
Shame on everyone involved with this book full of lies and support of terrorism, which is psychologically damaging to children. And that includes Book Culture.
