Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Part 1

Reading Check

1. In what year does Ibtisam’s story begin in Tasting the Sky?

2. In Sundra, an Israeli soldier frightens Ibtisam when he tells her that what city has been destroyed?

3. What kind of mail does Ibtisam receive at her private post office box, PO Box 34?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Tasting the Sky opens with a free-verse poem written by Ibtisam. Why do you think she chose to begin her memoir this way? What is the primary imagery in the poem?

2. Part 1 is entitled “A Letter to No One.” What is the meaning behind this section title?

Paired Resource

“Songs of My Foreign Accent”

• In this 11-minute TEDxCoMo presentation, Ibtisam offers an overview of her life and story, as told through a discussion of her Palestinian accent.
• Throughout the talk, Ibtisam emphasizes that she has long held a belief that language is power and that there is a healing power in words that helped her overcome and process her trauma, reinforcing the theme of Finding Refuge: The Healing Power of Words.
• Discuss the 5 English-language words that Ibtisam calls out as particularly meaningful to her. In Part 1, how do these words (or related words) come into play?

Part 2, Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. What river must Ibtisam cross as they flee their home in Palestine and go to the city of Al-Salt?

2. What kind of animal is Souma?

3. Having abandoned their own home in Palestine, Ibtisam and her family take refuge by cramming into what room of Hamameh’s small house in Part 2, Chapter 4?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Flashing back to 1967 in Part 2, Chapter 1, what are Ibtisam and her family doing when news of the war reaches them? Set the scene, noting where the family is and what Ibtisam and each of her family members are doing.

2. In Part 2, Chapter 6, Ibtisam and her brothers get into trouble, and it is related to a man pushing a cart of basbooseh. What is basbooseh and what sort of trouble do they get into?  

Paired Resource

Palestinians in Jordan, 1948-1967

• The Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (IEPCQ) is an online resource by the Institute for Palestine Studies and the Palestine Museum. In this entry of the IEPCQ, the editors discuss the influx of Palestinians into Jordan immediately after the 1948 Palestine War.
• This resource relates to the theme The Poison Inside: The Lasting Effects of War.
• This entry concisely describes the origins of the conflict that rippled out from this period into modern times.
• Were Palestinians treated as equal citizens after entering Jordan? How does this period complicate the Palestinian notion of “home” and “homeland”?

Part 2, Chapters 7-11

Reading Check

1. When the family returns to their home in Ramallah in Part 2, Chapter 7, Ibtisam’s father gets a job doing what?

2. What is munawarat?

3. Ibtisam’s brothers occasionally scavenge left-behind objects from the Israeli soldiers to make toys. What is an example of this?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Part 2, Chapter 9, Ibtisam’s father attempts to make modifications to their home in Ramallah to make Ibtisam’s mother feel safer, and so it feels more like a “home.” What sort of modifications does he make to their house?

2. In Part 2, Chapters 7-11, Ibtisam begins to understand how education can foster self-expression and freedom. What is an example of this? Be sure to cite one or more specific moments from the text that illustrate this concept.

Paired Resource

“How Manal is Challenging Traditional Gender Norms in Palestine”

• Kiva is a non-profit whose mission is to help expand financial access to underserved communities throughout the world. In this video by Kiva, they profile Manal, a woman in Palestine who founded her own sewing company when her husband became ill and could no longer be the sole provider for their family.
• Like Ibtisam’s mother, Manal finds freedom and a means of self-expression in her sewing business.
• This resource relates to the theme Finding Refuge: The Healing Power of Words.
• How does Manal’s story compare with Ibtisam’s mother’s story? How was it more difficult for a woman to challenge traditional gender roles in the 1960s versus in modern times?

Part 2, Chapters 12-14

Reading Check

1. When Ibtisam’s brothers contract itchy sores on their heads at school, what treatment finally works?

2. Ibtisam’s father decides that Basel and Muhammad need to be circumcised like what religious figure’s sons?

3. What does mansaf refer to?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Part 2, Chapters 12-14 describes a pivotal year in Ibtisam’s life, marked by a series of losses. What are these losses and how do they fit into the larger themes of the memoir?

2. How does war affect Palestinian culture and traditions, especially as shown in this section of the memoir? Describe the special occasions in this section that demonstrate this.

Paired Resource

“Why Al-Aqsa is Key to Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”

• In this video, Al Jazeera English explains why one site in Palestine—Al-Aqsa—is considered a holy site for practitioners of three major religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity), and how the fight over this site has shaped the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• In this section of Tasting the Sky, Ibtisam and her family’s Islamic faith becomes prominent. We see how Islamic prayer demonstrates Finding Refuge: Healing Power of Words for Ibtisam and her family while they participate in the religious circumcision ceremony.
• Imagine if you could discuss this video with Ibtisam and her family. How do you think they’d respond to this piece? How does faith complicate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Part 2, Chapters 15-18 and Part 3

Reading Check

1. Ibtisam’s mother surprises her in Part 2, Chapter 15 by sewing her what stuffed animal?

2. At school, Ibtisam does not like drinking what kind of beverage, donated by the United Nations to the school?

3. Despite her mother’s warnings, Ibtisam explores what forbidden area after school?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is the death of Egyptian leader Jamal Abdel in 1970 particularly distressing for Ibtisam’s mother and father?

2. The memoir ends with a return to 1981 and a quote from Philo of Alexandria. What is the nature of the quote, and why do you think Ibtisam ends her story in this way?

Recommended Next Reads

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

• This 2017 novel by a Palestinian-American author spans a 60-year period, telling a multigenerational story of the Yacoub family, whose lives are devastated by various wars and conflicts in the Middle East.  
• The book deals with The Poison Inside: The Lasting Effects of War, as well as The Loss of Childhood Innocence.
• Through this work of fiction, Hala Alyan gives valuable perspective on many of the real-life historical events that shaped Ibtisam’s life in Tasting the Sky—notably the Six-Day War.
• Salt Houses on SuperSummary.com

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valérie Zenatti

• In this 2009 novel, seventeen-year-old Tal Levine is an Israeli girl who forms an unlikely bond with a young Palestinian man across the Gaza Sea. They send each other messages in a bottle, and their correspondence changes both of their lives forever.
• Letter writing as a form of catharsis to process trauma—and The Healing Power of Words—is very important for both Ibtisam and Tal.
• This novel approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a different angle, and it is told by an Israeli girl in modern times.
• A Bottle in the Gaza Sea on SuperSummary.com