Carmi, Daniella. Samir and Yonatan.

Scholastic. 183p. c1994. 0-439-13523-0. $4.99. JS *

After an accident on his bike, Samir, a young Palestinian boy, is sent to a Jewish hospital to await the arrival of an American surgeon who will repair his leg. At first, surrounded by Jewish patients and staff, Samir feels isolated and resolves not to speak. But then, after lights out, Yontan, the boy in the bed next to his, begins talking to him about the stars and planets and distant worlds, "... worlds made of ice and gases and rocks and red sands and black oceans, worlds surrounded by marvelous colorful rings, glittering like gems." Worlds that hold the possibility of a way of life that is different--one without illness and limitations and war. Slowly, with the help of Yonatan's friendship, Samir begins to enter into the rhythms of his new environment.

Interspersed with these conversations are Samir's memories of his life back at home. He thinks about his brother Fadi's death and wonders if he was at fault because he ran faster. He questions his father's ability to love him after this loss. And he compares Yonatan to his friend Adnan--two boys who tell fantastic tales--and comes to prefer Yonatan's gentleness to Adnan's cruelty.

And yet Samir's feeling of being different, of being in enemy territory, does not completely fade. The political and religious tensions between Jews and Arabs are played out in another patient's (Tzahi) antagonism towards Samir. When Tzahi offers to show the other children in their room the device that helps him urinate he excludes Samir. When he is not ignoring Samir he steals his food and taunts him with his brother's prowess as an Israeli paratrooper. And when Tzahi's brother comes to visit, Samir, spying the label on a box he is carrying, begins to wonder if Tzah's brother is the soldier that shot and killed Fadi.

This thoughtful and well-written book would be a good starting point for discussion on the current situation in the Middle East. Its easy and flowing style makes it accessible to middle schoolers, while its topic makes it equally appropriate for older teens. An ALA Notable Book and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. Debra Mitts Smith, Woodstock, IL