Middle School
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Israel Book Connections is a list of recommended books about life in Israel. Each book has been chosen based on its quality, the presentation of Israel, and its avoidance of stereotypes in presenting the complexities of the region.
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 After the War
Carole Matas (Simon and Schuster, 1997), 305 pages, Middle School and early High School
Ruth, 15, has survived the Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald. Desperate and alone, she makes her way back to her Polish homeland only to discover that Jews are still viewed with suspicion and hatred. There she meets Saul, a young emissary from pre-state Israel, who persuades her to join a group of Jewish children on their way to find refuge in British Mandate-era Palestine.
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 Broken Bridge
Lynne Reid Banks, (Harper Collins, 1996), 336 pages, Middle School and up
Broken Bridge, the sequel to One More River, continues the story of Lesley Shelby, whose parents came from Canada to live on a kibbutz in Israel. Lesley's teenage daughter, Nili, witnesses a terrorist attack in which her Canadian cousin, who is visiting Israel, is killed. The book traces the aftermath of this act of terrorism and shows its complex effects on the victim's Israeli and Canadian relatives as well as on the perpetrators.
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 Ilan Ramon: Jewish Star
Devra Newberger Speregen (Jewish Publications Society, 2004), 144 pages, Middle School and up
This biography tells of the heroic life of Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. Through portraits and interesting details this book celebrates Ramon’s life, culminating with his tragic death aboard the shuttle Columbia in 2003.
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 Journey of Hope: the Story of Ilan Ramon, Israel's First Astronaut
Alan D. Abbey (Gefen Publishing House, 2003), 53 pages, Middle School and up
Journey of Hope captures the courage and heroism of the life and death of Colonel Ilan Ramon. Filled with NASA photographs, images of Holocaust artifacts that Ramon carried with him onto the Columbia shuttle, the famous Hebrew poem read at his funeral, and the complete transcript of President George Bush’s comments at the official memorial ceremony for the Columbia Seven.
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 One More River
Lynne Reid Banks, (HarperCollins Publisher, 1993), 248 pages, Middle School and up
Fourteen-year-old spoiled Lesley moves with her parents from Canada to Israel. Left behind is her brother Noah, a family outcast. Set in the period around the Six-Day War, One More River follows Lesley as she adjusts to her new life on an Israeli kibbutz and explores her friendship with Mustapha, an Arab boy from a nearby village.
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 The Return
Sonia Levitin, (Random House, 1998), 181 pages, Middle School
The Return tells about Operation Moses – the 1985 airlifting of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel. Twelve-year-old Desta accompanies her brother and younger sister from Ethiopia to the Sudan , where Israelis are waiting to transport them to the Jewish state. When her brother is killed on the way, Desta is forced to take the lead and confront the perils of the journey so they can reach their destination.
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 The Singing Mountain
Sonia Levitin (Simon and Schuster's Children, 2000), 304 pages, Older Middle School and High School
What starts out to be a fun-filled trip to Israel with friends before starting college turns out to be a spiritual awakening for Mitch Green. To the consternation of his assimilated parents, Mitch becomes a baal teshuvah – someone who returns to his Judaism – and decides to stay in Israel after his trip. It is through his awestruck eyes that the reader gets to see a biblical and modern day Israel.
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