The Button Box
The Button Box
Historical Fiction / Morocco / Ages 8-13
Kar-Ben Publishing
2022
152
With the help of a magic button, Jewish Ava and Muslim Nadeem go back in time to ancient Morocco to help Prince Abdur Rahman escape to Spain and fulfill his destiny as the ruler of a country in which Jews and Muslims work together to make medieval Spain a center of science, mathematics, music, and poetry.
In this historical fiction novel situated both in present day and medieval Morocco, readers get to know cousins Ava and Nadeem who embark on a time travel adventure back to meet their ancestors in the year 755. Ava is Jewish and Nadeem is Muslim, and in addition to being cousins, they share a close friendship. Their grandmother, Granny Buena, lovingly introduces them to the mysterious Button Box, the box of family stories, which has been held in their family for over a thousand years. She does so while weaving threads of family wisdom with metaphors of sewing (e.g., “when you are stuck, dear, always try a different way”). Ava and Nadeem’s curiosity about the button box is peaked, and through a set of magical circumstances, they land in Sabtah (the present autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta in Northern Morocco) and meet their ancestral family. One of the ancestors is Ester, a Jewish spice seller in the markets of Sabtah, who transcends the gender roles imposed on her to become one of the heroes. Ester, Ava, and Nadeem will go on to play a major role in helping the fleeing Omeyad prince Abd Al Rahman I (in the book, his name is written as Abdur Rahman) safely cross over to Spain (Al Andalus), and readers who know the history know that Abd Al Rahman I eventually would rule over the Umayyad Emirate of Al-Andalus from 756 to 788.
Readers of this book will learn a number of important aspects of the history and cultures of medieval North Africa and the Mediterranean region. First, Jewish and Muslim identities coexisted fluidly in the Maghreb region, an intercultural shared history that is particularly important for all to know given the modern polarization of Jewish and Muslim identities especially since the 20th-century rise of zionism. The close ties between Ava and Nadeem are a positive way to showcase interfaith relations. Second, the book importantly centers the Mediterranean region as the geographic unit of the plot, where we learn about the cultural, economic, linguistic, and religious interconnectedness of Syria, North Africa, and Europe. One noteworthy example of the legacies of these interconnected histories is the language spoken by Granny Buena, Ladino. A Judeo-Spanish language still spoken today by Jewish minorities across contexts, Ladino is currently under threat of extinction. My Arabic-speaking daughter enjoyed the interspersed Arabic words as well, from “Jada” (grandmother) or “Alhamdulillah” (Thank God) as I am sure Hebrew-speaking children will enjoy the interspersed language “Baruch Atah Adonai…” (We praise you, eternal God). Third, readers will gain humanized insights into the life of Abd Al Rahman I because they will learn about his real historical flight from Damascus, and his crossing into andalusian territory. In addition readers will gain a host of cultural details about life in Morocco in the mid-8th century, including the foods present at the market, clothing, and aspects of the geography of Ceuta. Finally, the book celebrates the scientific accomplishments of Judeo-Islamic science, including medical knowledge, recasting an important perspective of the contributions of scientific knowledge, which typically gets silenced in the dominant discourse about science and medicine that are grounded in the West.
Reviewers writing elsewhere have written that the book privileges the perspectives of Jews in Morocco. While I agree, given that Morocco and the Maghreb more generally, is known to be Muslim, this emphasis is important to delve deeper into Jewish life in the region, since Jews have resided there since ancient times. However, while a book cannot do everything, it is regrettable that the Imazighen, indigenous peoples of the region, are not given a more agential role. They are mentioned on a few occasions in the book, and the fact that Abd Al Rahman I’s mother was Amazigh is as well. However, no Amazigh character is centered, the authors use the less preferred term, Berber, which carries colonial ideologies, because Berber comes from the Greek barbaros which means barbarian and it was used by the French colonizers. In terms of historical frame, an additional issue with the book is that aspects of the macro history of Islam and the transition from the Umayyad to the Abbasids is missed. The book centers on Abd Al Rahman who ended up founding the Umayyad Emirate of Al Andalus. The Umayyad empire in 750 was much weakened and the Abbasid were the ruling Islamic Caliphate with Baghdad as a center. The emirate that Abd Al Rahman’s Ummeyad would go on to found in Al-Andalus was a much smaller Western part of the Islamic world. Thus, the map the authors provide at the beginning of the book, that shows an Ummeyad empire in 755 stretching across North Africa, Spain, and the Levantine region is a simplification of what was a much more divided, transitioning Islamic world at the time. Further, Abd Al Rahman I is portrayed as a peaceful prince that seeks to avoid violence, whereas the Abbasid envoys that were pursuing them are vilified. Instead, students should be reminded that both these Islamic caliphates were about empire building, with armies and with aims to control territory.
In the note at the end of the book, the authors importantly urge readers of the need to be allies to Jews and Muslims in a context of anti-semitic and islamophobic United States. This is crucial. One rectification on data is in order: while the book states that Jews make up 60% of the target of hate crimes in the U.S., incident analysis of the target of hate crimes by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows that in fact most hate crimes are anti-African American (https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime).
Despite these issues, as aclassroom text, teachers can use this book as an entry point to teach about the globalized medieval Mediterranean region, and to discuss interfaith and syncretic engagement, and to ensure that readers know about the Golden Age of Spain and its important scientific and cultural advances. For genre-based teaching, this book is an exciting adventure text where characters and plot are well developed. Teachers will appreciate the glossary included at the end, and the background information about Sephardic Jews and Muslims. With a critical eye toward the issues mentioned above, the book will be enjoyed by teachers, students and families alike. It is a versatile book that can be enjoyed from grades 2-6!
The reviewer would like to thank Khadija El Karfi Joss, Boston University, for her comments on this review.
Elsa Wiehe, Ed.D.
Boston University
Published in Africa Access Review (March 21, 2023)
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