'Where the Streets Had a Name' by Randa Abdel-Fattah is a book about a girl named Hayaat in the middle east who experiences all of the trouble there. Hayaat had broken glass in her face when she was escaping from her city, and now she has permanent scars. Her grandmother laments over how she was forced out of her own home in Jerusalem. Hayaat makes it her goal to get some soil from her grandmother's neighborhood, but there are complications. Hayaat does not have a blue card, so even though Jerusalem is only six miles away, Hayyat cannot enter the usual way. Instead, Hayaat and her helping friend have to go around the back and illegally enter by climbing over the wall.
If I could rewrite any part of the story, I would change the scene where Hayaat tries to get the soil. Instead of failing at getting her grandmother's neighborhood's soil, I would let her get it.
- Emi, Grade 6, Winsor School
