The Story of Hurry
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
After a major invasion of the Gaza Strip in late 2008, twenty-year-old Mahmoud Barghout decided to become a zookeeper. He saw that the children around him were exhausted by war, and so to provide respite, he set up the Happy Land Zoo. But the war made feeding and caring for the animals impossible—they died of thirst, hunger, or injury—and replacing them meant finding large sums of money and overcoming the blockade or the risk of bringing them in through tunnels connecting the Strip to Egypt. So Mr. Barghout came up with a solution for at least one animal: he dyed two local white donkeys with dark stripes, to create zebras, which visiting children could touch and even ride.
The Story of Hurry recounts the tale of these “made in Gaza” zebras, of an inventive zookeeper just like Mr. Barghout, and of the wondrous capacity of the imagination of children. Written by Emma Williams, together with thought-provoking mixed-media illustrations by Ibrahim Quraishi, this picture book for inquisitive children aged 3 to 103 includes an historical note for parents, teachers, and librarians.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Williams, a physician and journalist who witnessed the second Palestinian intifada while living in Jerusalem, bases this haunting, hopeful, and relevant story on an incident that took place in the Gaza Strip in 2008. Hurry, a donkey who is always in a rush, slows down enough to notice that the local children are often sad, thirsty, and afraid ("Some nights, the sky thundered and brightness cracked the sky"). Longing to make them happy, Hurry and a boy named Wattan visit the keeper of the zoo, where most animals have died, who suggests how Hurry can "help dream": he dyes Hurry's fur to resemble that of a zebra, giving kids the chance to see and even ride an "exotic" animal. Both Williams's prose and Quraishi's mixed-media illustrations strike a balance between portraying raw reality and leaving room for interpretation and discussion. An assemblage of photos, stark silhouettes, and abstract flourishes, the pictures mesh comforting and disturbing images Hurry himself appears as a wooden toy, a striking symbol of innocence in a story built around children forced to grow up quickly. Ages 3 7.
