The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye

In this gentle story set in the city of Muscat in Oman, young Aref is preparing to leave for the United States with his mother. He doesn't want to leave his country, his city and his friends and resists packing his suitcase. To help accept moving away, his mother enlists the help of Aref's grandfather, Sidi.

The story opens with Aref and his mother accompanying his father as he waits to go through customs at the airport in Muscat. His father is travelling on ahead of them to Ann Arbor, Michigan where his parents plan to stay for three years to study. He will have to travel to Kuwait, Frankfurt, New York and then finally on to Ann Arbor, Michigan. It will be a fifteen hour journey! They will follow in a week's time, after his father has settled into their apartment. Aref's parents are professors at the university in Muscat.

When they return home, Aref continues to complain to him mother about moving to America. He worries he won't be able to play soccer there, that he won't have any friends. But his mother assures him that he will make new friends there and to view the next three years as a great adventure. She also reminds Aref, that unlike millions of refugees, he will be able to return to his home country of Oman, in three years time.

Aref and his parents live in a two-storey home in a very modern neighbourhood.Despite these assurances Aref is certain he will miss his school in Oman, despite his new school in Michigan having a space camp and International Night where students from different countries share their culture and food. His best friend, Diram, gives Aref a T-shirt with their photos on it, asking him not to forget him. Another friend, Sulima also arrives with a gift. Sulima had lived in the United States when she was younger and she also reassures Aref, reminding him that the zoos, roller coasters, trains and skating rinks are lots of fun.

Aref knows he will miss his family's house, and with his uncle's family moving into their home, he doesn't want his cousins, Hani and Shadi using his room. He tells his mother he doesn't like sharing. And he certainly will miss his grandfather, Sidi.

Recognizing Aref just might need some help from his grandfather, Aref's mother calls him to come visit. Aref and his grandfather had made many plans to do different things over the years such as go to Masirah Island and watch the kite surfing, or march around Al-Hazem Fort. But with Aref leaving in a week what will happen?

Aref is so reluctant to pack his suitcase that he even wonders if he doesn't pack maybe he won't have to go to the United States. He isn't even excited about the airplane either. But then Sidi arrives in his "clackety green jeep" that he calls Monsieur". When Sidi asks Aref how packing is going, Aref tells him he can't fit any good things like his friends, his schooll, the Mutrah Souq or the sea turtle beach into it. When Aref continues to struggle and is very unhappy, his mother arranges for Sidi to take him overnight.

Sidi decides to take Aref on a series of trips exploring some places they haven't been before. At each site, Aref learns something that helps him come to accept his move to America and to finally pack his suitcase.

Discussion

The Turtle of Oman is a short, middle school novel that explores the themes of dealing with change, moving to a new country, what it might be like to move to a strange, new country, and the grandfather-grandson relationship.

Young Aref doesn't want to leave his beautiful home in his beloved country of Oman. He worries he will miss so many things and that he will forget his country. He wonders at the beginning of the novel,
"What if he forgot everything he had already learned, by leaving? Three years of being gone were not short. Not short at all. Anything could happen."

It is Aref's grandfather, Sidi who helps him come to terms with having to move to America for three years. Aref doesn't want to go; he doesn't want to leave his home, his friends, his school and all the good things that his beautiful country of Oman has to offer. But as he travels with Sidi to various favourite places, Aref begins to see his move differently.

Sidi gives Aref a stone as a memento at each place they visit: for example, a flatstone which he draws a smile on and the brown stone with grey speckles from the first beach they visit, the strange orange speckled stone from a meteorite. He tells Aref to use the stones to help him think of the different places they have visited.

At the Night of A Thousand Stars camp, Aref discovers the possibility of hope. His grandfather tells Aref that they will be connected, that if necessary he will take a computer class at the library to learn how to use email. By staying connected, Aref will know what is going on in Muscat. He won't forget his home. Sidi has Aref run around the camp while he sits in a chair and watches. No matter where Aref runs, Sidi can still see him, allowing Aref to realize that distance will not separate them.

At the camp. Aref and Sidi unexpectedly encounter a falconer named Jamal the falconer and his falcon, Fil-Fil. When Aref is allowed to have the falcon sit on his arm and then launch him into the air, he admires the bird's freedom and his ability to return back to the falconer. This is a reminder to Aref, that his trip is a sign of freedom to explore more of the world by going to Michigan, and that he will eventually be returning home.

At the turtle beach, Aref and Sidi talk about the wonder of the turtles who must navigate many hazards to return to nest each year. Sidi tells Aref, "I know...It's one of the wonders of the world...They must have imprints inside their cells - turtle directions. No one has to tell them. It pulls them right in. And it pulls all of them back and back to the same beach for years." Aref realizes that  like the turtles, he has something inside him too, that will always draw him back home, that will lead him back to Muscat, Oman.

His travels with Sidi reassure Aref that he will not forget  his home country of Oman, that he will be free to return and that like the turtles, he has those memories written inside him. Sidi, by encouraging Aref during their travels, to pause and remember specific scenes, is also helping him to create those memories that will remain with him forever.

Aref's upcoming journey to America also forces him to re-evaluate how he thought about his fellow students from other countries at his school. His school has students from Denmark, Thailand, Mexico, Iraq, the United States, India and Scotland. Yet he's never wondered how they felt being in a strange country or if they were homesick. His own fear of leaving make him wonder why he never considered asking them. Later on in the novel, he experiences the same emotions and fears that his fellow international students might have experienced when he asks Sidi, "...what if I don't make any friends in the United States...I will be the new one now. I won't know the same things they know. What if no one likes me?..."

The Turtle of Oman is a sweet, gentle story about a young boy coming to terms with a big change in his life. It offers a perspective that young students in the United States and Canada can explore, as they encounter newcomers to their own countries. A second novel, The Turtles of Michigan was recently published.

Book Details:

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
New York: Greenwillow Books     2014
313 pp.