Walking the streets, the young narrator proclaims, \u201cI come from the City of Jasmine\u2026where sweet scents dance in the wind, filling air, calming hearts.\u201d Statements that begin with the phrase \u201cI come from\u201d introduce descriptions of other locations, among them the Umayyad Mosque, Qala\u2019at Dimashq (the Citadel of Damascus), and the oasis of Ghouta\u2014all of which contribute to the youngster\u2019s sense of self. The people of Damascus, diverse in faith, skin tone, and dress, live in harmony, sharing food and a sense of community. The final pages reveal that the child no longer lives in the City of Jasmine, but each night, Baba and the young narrator \u201cfold memories of our days\u201d into a wooden Damascene box. References to warfare (expanded on in the author\u2019s note) make it clear that the family was forced to leave, but the youngster continues to sow seeds of jasmine\u2014and of hope. Rich in imagery, Presley\u2019s serene, immersive text conveys a child\u2019s abiding love for a far-away home while offering a counternarrative to news headlines and images that focus on the war and destruction that have roiled Damascus: \u201cMy home is no pile of rubble.\u201d Lee\u2019s use of cut paper gives the visuals a three-dimensional look, making the child\u2019s recollections feel intensely vivid; her delicate illustrations pay homage to Syrian mosaics and patterns, capturing a sense of time, memory, and movement.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Walking the streets, the young narrator proclaims, \u201cI come from the City of Jasmine\u2026where sweet scents dance in the wind, filling air, calming hearts.\u201d Statements that begin with the phrase \u201cI come from\u201d introduce descriptions of other locations, among them the Umayyad Mosque, Qala\u2019at Dimashq (the Citadel of Damascus), and the oasis of Ghouta\u2014all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}