There are eleven words for love, and my family knows them all.
A family flees their homeland to find safety in another country, carrying little more than a suitcase full of love.
As their journey unfolds, the oldest child narrates eleven meanings for love in Arabic as her family show, and are shown, all different kinds of love in their new home. And they also remember the love they have for their homeland and for those left behind or lost along the way.
In the Arabic language, there are over fifty words describing degrees of love. That’s 50 stories, 50 life-words. This lyrical and heartwarming book takes you on a journey through eleven of these Arabic expressions of love, and will leave your heart and mind full once you reach the end.
Award-winning author Randa Abdel-Fattah and acclaimed illustrator Maxine Beneba Clarke have joined forces to create 11 Words for Love, a moving and joyful book for children from all backgrounds about the many ways we love.
Abdel-Fattah takes you on a moving journey of love through the Arabic language, uncovering deeper meanings of hope, loss and nostalgia. Through ‘Al-Ta’alloq’ we learn about the bond between sisters and, more outwardly, about the power of familial relationships. And through ‘Al-Showq’ we discover a yearning kind of love – a love for something unattainable. These two Arabic words and their meanings for love exude what this picture book is about: assimilating into a new country and the safety it can provide, while simultaneously longing for a country and its people that can only be reached through nostalgic memories.
I admire the level of thought and intention on each page, allowing prose and illustrations to weave together seamlessly. As we learn words of love about homeland and longing, we see the child holding a scrapbook showing an image of what she yearns for, moments that are in her past. And as we learn words of love about community, neighbours and family, these illustrations are in full spreads, indicating the child’s present. It’s a simple yet effective way to convey these themes and concepts to a young readership through visual cues. It’s personal yet relatable on so many levels.
11 Words for Love is a poignant picture book about the process of change, the power of family and community, and, most importantly, humanity: how ‘lovely it is to love and be loved, facing the world heart-full.’ This is a story that children will love having read to them, but also that parents and carers will equally enjoy reading. I recommend it for children aged 1+ and for anyone interested in learning about new languages and cultures.
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