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y separately published work icon Where the Streets Had a Name single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Where the Streets Had a Name
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Thirteen-year-old Hayaat is on a mission. She believes a handful of soil from her grandmother's ancestral home in Jerusalem will save her beloved Sitti Zeynab's life. The only problem is the impenetrable wall that divides the West Bank, as well as the check points, the curfews, the permit system and Hayaat's best friend Samy, who is mainly interested in football and the latest elimination on X-Factor, but always manages to attract trouble.

'But luck is on their side. Hayaat and Samy have a curfew-free day to travel to Jerusalem. However, while their journey may only be a few kilometres long, it may take a lifetime to complete.' (Publisher's blurb)

Exhibitions

22084849
19567105

Adaptations

y separately published work icon Where the Streets Had a Name Eva Di Cesare , 2017 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2018 12643353 2017 single work drama

'Hayaat is on a mission. She will even skip school to achieve it (encouraged by her best friend Samy). She is determined to retrieve a handful of soil from her Grandmother’s farm as this will make her beloved Sitti Zeynab well again. Standing between her and her goal is the impenetrable wall that divides the West Bank.

'With themes of displacement, family, freedom and friendship, this is a powerful story of one family’s response to the confinements of curfew and how they rise above, with humour and love.'

Source: Monkey Baa

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Notes

  • Dedication: To my grandmother Sitti Jamilah, who passed away on 24th April 2008, aged 98. I had hoped that you would live to see this book and that you would be allowed to touch the soil of your homeland again. It is my consolation that you died surrounded by my father and family and friends who cherished you. May you rest in peace.

    And to my father — may you see a free Palestine in your lifetime.

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it is set in the Middle East.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Pan Macmillan Australia , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 9011246000888123801.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: x, 286p.p.
      Description: maps
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 1 October 2008.
      ISBN: 9780330424202
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Marion Lloyd Books ,
      2009 .
      image of person or book cover 5539806923386017232.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 227p.
      ISBN: 9781407112145
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Scholastic Press ,
      2010 .
      image of person or book cover 2489653440721006441.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 313p.p.
      Edition info: 1st American ed.
      ISBN: 0545172926, 9780545172929
Alternative title: حينما كان للشوارع أسماء : رواية /​ رندة عبد الفتاح ؛ ترجمة أميرة نويرة، نبيل نويرة
Transliterated title: Ḥīnamā kāna lil-shawāriʻ asmāʾ : riwāyah
Language: Arabic

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Promoting Identity and a Sense of Belonging : An Ecocritical Reading of Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Where the Streets Had a Name Muneera Muftah , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Asiatic , December vol. 16 no. 2 2022; (p. 87-102)
'This paper examines Randa Abdel-Fattah’s novel entitled Where the Street Had a Name (2008).The main goal is to examine how interacting with ecology, culture, and nature in the contexts of the host land and the homeland as depicted in the novel promotes identity and a sense of belonging. It also aims at analyzing the links between land and identity from an ecocritical perspective and how Palestinians’ land and identity are psychologically, mentally, and physically interconnected. Through using natural forms of Palestine, humans’ and non-humans’ interconnectedness and the symbol of the iconic jar of homeland soil and its possibilities for revitalising Hayaat’s identity, Abdel-Fattah attempts to reveal her ecological connection to the land of her origin and how this tight connection promotes identity and shapes the sense of belonging. This paper reveals that it is impossible to separate Palestinians from their homeland because the land is part of their identity. Therefore, the current debate provides new perspectives on how to open a new horizon for identity strengthening in Abdel-Fattah’s and other Muslim diasporic writers’ works.' (Publication abstract) 
Grafting Eco-disaporic Identity in Randa Abdel-Fattah's Selected Novels Areej Saad Almutairi , Ruzy Suliza Hashim , M. M. Raihanah , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: GEMA Online , vol. 17 no. 4 2017; (p. 179-190)

'This paper is based on three selected novels entitled Does My Head Look Big In This? (2005), Ten Things I Hate About Me (2006), and Where The Streets Had A Name (2008) written by Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979), a Palestinian-Egyptian Australian Muslim diasporic writer. In this article, we examine the manifestations of grafting eco-diasporic identity by Abdel-Fattah in order to address how identity graft is operated by interacting with ideology, culture and nature in the contexts of the host land and the homeland as represented in the three selected novels. Using Colin Richards’ theory of graft as a framework, we explore identity contestations of Muslim young adults in the novels from an ecocritical and diasporic perspectives. In the novel Does My Head Look Big In This?, the images of Amal’s sense of being marginalised in the semiosphere of the host land and the sense of self-respect of her Muslim rootedness and heritage of the homeland semiosphere frame the fractured graft of identity. The character of Jamilah, in Ten Things I Hate About Me displays genuine manifestations of the collective emblem of the grafted identity. Finally, the symbol of the iconic jar of the homeland soil and its potentiality of regenerating Hayaat’s identity in Where the Streets Had A Name exhibits the ecological semiosphere in which the grafted identity is shaped. The current discussion, therefore, offers fresh insights into allowing a new horizon for identity grafting in Abdel-Fattah’s works as well as other writers within the tradition of Muslim Diasporic Literature.'

Source: Abstract.

A Handful of Soil : An Ecocritical Reading of Land in Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Where the Streets Had a Name M. M. Raihanah , Ahmed Yahaya Hamoud , Ruzy Suliza Hashim , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Asiatic , December vol. 8 no. 2 2014; (p. 137-148)
'This article explores how Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979-), a Palestinian-Egyptian Australian diasporic writer, engages with the land as being ecocritically functional in her Palestinian-centred novel Where the Streets Had a Name (2008). The premise of the article is that a fictional representation of the Palestinian struggle for emancipation against occupation can be read for its environmental concerns; in particular, for the representation of the intersections of nature and culture. To this end, the article proposes a tripartite approach in reading politics of environment in the narrative by focusing on the effects of land on mind, body and voice. The analysis is carried out through the lens of ecocriticism and it reveals the symbiotic interconnections between humans and land. The findings reveal that the crisis experienced by the Palestinians in Abdel-Fattah‟s fiction goes beyond the need to preserve their past as the land has strong implications on their present state of mind, body and voice.' (Publication abstract)
Reading and Viewing : Mapping Different Worlds Deborah McPherson , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 45 no. 1 2010; (p. 62-63)

— Review of Where the Streets Had a Name Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2008 single work children's fiction
Aussie YA Published in Arabic 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , July vol. 89 no. 9 2010; (p. 11)
Untitled Melinda Bilbey , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , September vol. 88 no. 3 2008; (p. 39)

— Review of Where the Streets Had a Name Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2008 single work children's fiction
On the Road : The Tale of Two Sittis Lorien Kaye , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 15 November 2008; (p. 22)

— Review of Finnikin of the Rock Melina Marchetta , 2008 single work novel ; Where the Streets Had a Name Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2008 single work children's fiction
Find It or Flee from It, You Can't Ignore Truth Angie Schiavone , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 November 2008; (p. 37)

— Review of Give Me Truth Bill Condon , 2008 single work novel ; Hunting Elephants James Roy , 2008 single work novel ; Where the Streets Had a Name Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2008 single work children's fiction
Cracks Still Show Yossi Klein , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 307 2008; (p. 67)

— Review of Where the Streets Had a Name Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2008 single work children's fiction
[Untitled] Helen Purdie , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 23 no. 5 2008; (p. 39)

— Review of Where the Streets Had a Name Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2008 single work children's fiction
Aussie YA Published in Arabic 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , July vol. 89 no. 9 2010; (p. 11)
A Handful of Soil : An Ecocritical Reading of Land in Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Where the Streets Had a Name M. M. Raihanah , Ahmed Yahaya Hamoud , Ruzy Suliza Hashim , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Asiatic , December vol. 8 no. 2 2014; (p. 137-148)
'This article explores how Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979-), a Palestinian-Egyptian Australian diasporic writer, engages with the land as being ecocritically functional in her Palestinian-centred novel Where the Streets Had a Name (2008). The premise of the article is that a fictional representation of the Palestinian struggle for emancipation against occupation can be read for its environmental concerns; in particular, for the representation of the intersections of nature and culture. To this end, the article proposes a tripartite approach in reading politics of environment in the narrative by focusing on the effects of land on mind, body and voice. The analysis is carried out through the lens of ecocriticism and it reveals the symbiotic interconnections between humans and land. The findings reveal that the crisis experienced by the Palestinians in Abdel-Fattah‟s fiction goes beyond the need to preserve their past as the land has strong implications on their present state of mind, body and voice.' (Publication abstract)
Promoting Identity and a Sense of Belonging : An Ecocritical Reading of Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Where the Streets Had a Name Muneera Muftah , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Asiatic , December vol. 16 no. 2 2022; (p. 87-102)
'This paper examines Randa Abdel-Fattah’s novel entitled Where the Street Had a Name (2008).The main goal is to examine how interacting with ecology, culture, and nature in the contexts of the host land and the homeland as depicted in the novel promotes identity and a sense of belonging. It also aims at analyzing the links between land and identity from an ecocritical perspective and how Palestinians’ land and identity are psychologically, mentally, and physically interconnected. Through using natural forms of Palestine, humans’ and non-humans’ interconnectedness and the symbol of the iconic jar of homeland soil and its possibilities for revitalising Hayaat’s identity, Abdel-Fattah attempts to reveal her ecological connection to the land of her origin and how this tight connection promotes identity and shapes the sense of belonging. This paper reveals that it is impossible to separate Palestinians from their homeland because the land is part of their identity. Therefore, the current debate provides new perspectives on how to open a new horizon for identity strengthening in Abdel-Fattah’s and other Muslim diasporic writers’ works.' (Publication abstract) 
Grafting Eco-disaporic Identity in Randa Abdel-Fattah's Selected Novels Areej Saad Almutairi , Ruzy Suliza Hashim , M. M. Raihanah , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: GEMA Online , vol. 17 no. 4 2017; (p. 179-190)

'This paper is based on three selected novels entitled Does My Head Look Big In This? (2005), Ten Things I Hate About Me (2006), and Where The Streets Had A Name (2008) written by Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979), a Palestinian-Egyptian Australian Muslim diasporic writer. In this article, we examine the manifestations of grafting eco-diasporic identity by Abdel-Fattah in order to address how identity graft is operated by interacting with ideology, culture and nature in the contexts of the host land and the homeland as represented in the three selected novels. Using Colin Richards’ theory of graft as a framework, we explore identity contestations of Muslim young adults in the novels from an ecocritical and diasporic perspectives. In the novel Does My Head Look Big In This?, the images of Amal’s sense of being marginalised in the semiosphere of the host land and the sense of self-respect of her Muslim rootedness and heritage of the homeland semiosphere frame the fractured graft of identity. The character of Jamilah, in Ten Things I Hate About Me displays genuine manifestations of the collective emblem of the grafted identity. Finally, the symbol of the iconic jar of the homeland soil and its potentiality of regenerating Hayaat’s identity in Where the Streets Had A Name exhibits the ecological semiosphere in which the grafted identity is shaped. The current discussion, therefore, offers fresh insights into allowing a new horizon for identity grafting in Abdel-Fattah’s works as well as other writers within the tradition of Muslim Diasporic Literature.'

Source: Abstract.

Last amended 14 May 2021 16:41:34
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