Eleven Words for Love: A Journey Through Arabic Expressions of Love

A tender tale of love and remembrance.

Eleven Words for Love can be described as a bilingual concept book and can be integrated creatively in writing, SEL, and art activities.

PreS-Gr 2--This concept-driven picture book uses semantics as the basis for an immigration narrative, exploring 11 different types of love embodied in Arabic words while visually representing a Middle Eastern family's journey across the globe. The text presents each of the words for love in Arabic script and as it would be written in English, giving the book a valuable bilingual element. As the elementary-age narrator (presented as female) poetically defines each type of love in English, the illustrations reveal the story of her family as they leave their homeland with just a single suitcase of mementos and begin a new life in a hospitable, joyfully multicultural country. As they settle into their home--welcoming a new baby, the narrator beginning school, making friends, getting a dog--memories of their homeland and cherished relatives remain, extending the notion of love across time and space. Younger children will need guidance to unlock the book's narrative elements, but older ones will enjoy assembling the story from the visual cues. Clarke's illustrations reinforce the child's perspective: bright and deliberately simple, with hearts and rainbows serving as visual motifs of love and hope. The people are rendered with clear facial expressions and a one-dimensional quality reminiscent of naïve art. The primary medium appears to be pastels and acrylics, thickly applied so as to evoke a child's drawings, with the texture of the canvas showing through and subtly reinforcing the notion of the past underpinning the present. VERDICT An affirming picture book that will be particularly welcomed by libraries seeking stories about refugees and the migration experience.--Leonie Jordan

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Alongside the lyrical definitions of love, the textured, bright, collagelike illustrations beautifully chronicle the family's journey. The photographs of cherished memories are deftly interwoven alongside scenes of the characters building a new life. . . Relying on cultural touches such as a keffiyeh that one character wears, the story offers a glimpse into the lives of a Palestinian family uprooted from their home. A tender tale of love and remembrance.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

We all know that language can be nuanced, but the idea of there being 11 different words for 11 different sorts of love is simply delightful. . . Vibrant pastel illustrations from Clarke add depth and context, depicting love among intergenerational, biological, and chosen families. Eleven Words for Love can be described as a bilingual concept book and can be integrated creatively in writing, SEL, and art activities.
—Booklist

An affirming picture book that will be particularly welcomed by libraries seeking stories about refugees and the migration experience.
—School Library Journal

[A] lovely book, which illustrates the many different ways there are to care. . . Each kind of love is illustrated by Clarke's vibrant double-page watercolor pencil collage paintings, which show both brown- and pink-skinned people embracing, playing, chatting over the fence. Abdel-Fattah's poignant rhyming story celebrates the many ways we cherish the world and the people in it.
—The Star Tribune

Current events add sharp poignancy to this explanation of the nuanced meanings of 11 Arabic words that describe love. Besides introducing the foreign language and its calligraphy, the book will help children understand distinct relationships recognized by English speakers, too.
—The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

If you've ever thought English needed more words for different kinds of love, you'll appreciate the Arabic expressions highlighted in this book.
—We Are Teachers