"The Lemon Tree": Chapter 1- Reading Skills

Unfortunately, I couldn't get The Mark of Athena from the library. So as I roamed through my room for a new book, I came across a book that I bought over the summer. It is called The Lemon Tree. I started reading it in the summer; however, the book got a little to difficult to understand, so I stopped. The book is about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. After reading a brief overview of the war in English 1A, I started to understand the terms that they used in the book. By the way, this book is based on a true story; in fact, the author, Sandy Tolan, spent 7 years uncovering the story.

The first chapter of the book is quite easy to understand. The chapter is pretty much about a grown-up man named Bashir Khairi and his cousins going to their birth place in Palestine, which is now Israel. Palestinians were banned from Israel, so this is a dangerous journey. They travel on bus to the city that they were born in, al-Ramala. Then it switches to the perspective of Daila, a college student. She is just doing some daily routines. Then it goes back to Bashir's view. They have entered al-Ramala. They go to Bashir's cousins' houses. Finally, they reach Bashir's house and the chapter ends with Bashir pressing the doorbell.

I think that the later in the book, Bashir will be allowed in to go into the house and I think that they will stay there for a while and adapt to the Israeli culture. I also think that the government will find out about them being Palestinians and they will be kicked out of Palestine. I do have some questions though about this book. First off, what type of government did Israel have when Bashir and his cousins came? And finally, where is Bashir's family living, since they were kicked out of the country? Hopefully, these questions are going to be answered later on in the book.

This book sound kind of like the conflict between the Americans and the Native Americans back when America became a country. The Americans, who came to America, kicked out the Native Americans from the land. Likewise, the Israelis kicked out the Palestinians from their home. I also have a personal connection to this book and how Bashir felt. When I first came to Mason, I felt misplaced, because I didn't know anyone in Mason. The only difference is that Bashir actually had memories there and I didn't.
Overall, this book seems pretty good so far. I think that this book might actually be very good, if I understand the information in it.

Click for a book review on The Lemon Tree.