Khaled Jum'a

A group of black cats and a group of blonde cats coexist uneasily with one another in this picture-book from the Palestinian territories, with the black cats living on one side of a river, and the blonde cats on the other. They share power, with a black cat functioning as leader for half of the year, and a blonde one for the other half, but there are still many disputes. When a grey cat is born, making him the leader seems the solution to the problem, but unfortunately, the disputes persist. Finally the grey cat comes up with a solution: he swaps the cats' ears, so black cats now listen with blonde ears and blonde cats with black ears. Finally, the two sides are able to hear one another...

Originally published in Arabic by the The Tamer Institute for Community Education in Ramallah, أذن سمراء ... أذن شقراء / Black Ear ... Blonde Ear was translated by volunteers, and made available in English over at the International Children's Digital Library, which features a wealth of children's books from around the world. The story itself is an interesting allegory about the pitfalls of prejudice, racism, tribalism - in short, any belief system that pits one community against another. It demonstrates that the only way to achieve peaceful coexistence is to really listen to others, and to hear them with ears sympathetic to their experiences. The accompanying artwork from Fotin Dedvaz is cute, in a cartoonish style. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for stories encouraging peaceful coexistence and/or mindful listening. Also recommended to anyone interested in Palestinian children's literature, of which this is my first example.… (plus d'informations)