Daniel and Ismail by Juan Pablo Iglesias

Bibliography

Iglesias, J. P., Peris, A., Stavans, I., Nowodworski, E., Press-Danieli, F., & Sayegh, R. (2019). Daniel and Ismail = Daniel Ve-ismaʼil = Dānyīl wa-Ismā'īl. Yonder, Restless Books for Young Readers. ISBN 1632061562

Plot Summary

Daniel and Ismail are very alike. They even have the same birthday! While some of their presents are different, they both received a soccer ball and share a love for playing. Together, they play with their soccer balls while wearing their new birthday items. When they accidentally take each other’s gifts home, their parents are upset. Neither quite understands their parents' hate for someone that seems so much like them. 

Critical Analysis

Although the book does not directly say, Daniel and Ismail are a Jewish and Palestinian boys in Chile. Readers can know this because each child has received a gift that represents their respective cultures; Daniel a tallit, a Jewish ritual object, and Ismail a keffiyeh, a head covering. However, without the support of background knowledge, future research, or explanation by someone else, this will not be apparent to the reader. 

 

The illustrations of the boys show them to be almost identical except for their aforementioned gifts, hinting at the message that although these boys are enemies according to many in their communities, they are not all that different. The adults that express anger when they realize each boy is wearing the other’s gifts when they return home from playing soccer together, can only be seen partially. Each page is full of color too. It appears as though the illustrations are from the perspective of the child much like the story itself. The book reads from right to left, which is explained to the reader, and includes translations in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. 

The story’s theme might be lost on children who lack the awareness of the significance of each boys’ culture in the place that they live, and the book does not provide any extra elements that provide readers with explanations of the history of conflict of these two cultures. However, if combined with some background knowledge from an adult, children will enjoy this book about how, though we have our differences, we all share our humanity. 

Review Excerpts and Awards

“Young children, who are the audience for this book, may well take these encounters at face value—as merely games of soccer. Adults will approach the story from their own vantage points, well knowing the endemic imbalance of power behind the scenes. Given the complexities this picture book tries to contain, it’s too bad there is no guide for caregivers to help them navigate a discussion of this issue with children. Well-meaning but simplistic.” (Kirkus Reviews, 2019). 

“Chil­dren may need expla­na­tions of a real­i­ty not pre­vi­ous­ly intro­duced in the book. Anoth­er focus of dis­cus­sion may be the par­al­lel use of a tal­lit, which is a Jew­ish rit­u­al object, with a kef­fiyah, a tra­di­tion­al head cov­er­ing which has acquired the mean­ing of nation­al aspi­ra­tions for Pales­tini­ans. The objects are clear­ly meant to be a kind of short­hand for Jew­ish and Pales­tin­ian iden­ti­ty but, at the same time, they are real things. In par­tic­u­lar, Jew­ish chil­dren who are at all famil­iar with the pur­pose of a tal­lit might ques­tion why Daniel receives it as a birth­day gift and why he brings it outdoors.” (Jewish Book Council, 2019). 

Connections

Have students complete a “find someone who” activity including items like “someone with the same hobby as you” or “someone who has the same number of siblings as you”. When they finish, have a discussion about what commonalities they found and what they were surprised by. Remind them that even though people are different from us in some ways, they are often like us in many ways too!