The two short stories that I read for class were strange to me, being that they were children’s picture books. As I was reading I was thinking about what I used to read as a young child, Sesame Street, Barney and other young aged books about being a good child and doing everything I was asked to do. They were always very vibrant with their colors and simplistic with their words.
These children’s stories are vibrant with their words in contrast to the picture books I used to read. The Day of Ahmed’s Secret is a story about a boy who has learned to write his name in Arabic, but before he can show his family he must first fulfill his duties as a butagaz boy and deliver the cooking oils to his customers around the city of Cairo. Now, granted this story has a very child-like meaning behind it, with Ahmed being proud of showing his family he has learned to write his name, but the context of the story just bewilders me. He is a child doing a man’s job, this was never the setting for any of my picture books as a child and the sheer difference of that speaks volumes for how different the two cultures are.
In Sami and the Time of the Troubles a young boy is again the protagonist and this time he and his family are living in the basement of his uncle’s house for fear of being bombed. Again the setting and context of this story blow my mind. The fact that this children’s picture book is centered on a city being bombed makes me won
der what that can do to a child. If they grow up around violence and are being read violent picture books then what is their mindset going to be? In the story Sami and his friend Amir are playing with pieces of wood that resemble guns and Amir says to Sami “When we are older, we will have real guns.” Sami insists that the fighting will be over by then but Amir is doubtful. I used to play with toy guns when I was a child but the thought never crossed my mind to have real guns when I was older, the times that these children were raised in terrify me. I would never want that for my children and the mother of this story expresses that throughout the picture book.
These picture books were interesting because I gained a perspective into the lives of the children of the Middle East. Though I could never agree with the content of these stories they were still very interesting to read.
