Saliman and the Memory Stone

by Erica Lyons, Yinon Ptahia (Illustrator)

When young Saliman's family left Yemen in 1881 to move to Jerusalem there were so many things they could not take along. Promising to remember it all, even the names of each their goats and the color of their fur, he clutched his memory stone, a piece of his house that he kept in his pocket, as a way to keep Yemen in his heart.


Saliman and the Memory Stone is a fictionalization of the real emigration of hundreds of Yemeni Jews to Jerusalem. Saliman might be leaving home, but he will always have his memories of Yemen. And even when they are without, he is reminded that he has everything he needs in his heart and in his community.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2024

Reviews

[I Trump · Rating 5 out of 5]

The words and lovely illustrations come together to tell a story of a family who moves from the country they borrow to the country they want to call home. The hardships the family faces are done in a sensitive way. The importance of memory is a touching theme.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story of a young boy who barely understands why his family is forced to leave behind their home, their land and his beloved goats is poignant and tugs at the heart. Saliman doesn’t want to leave but he’s surprisingly calm about it. His elders explain to him that possessions are transitory and that the things he prizes aren’t his to keep. What he can keep and what can’t be taken away from him is the camaraderie of his people, his joyous memories of his goats, their names and the colors of their fur, the scents of his favorite foods.

This is a child’s encapsulation of the power of faith, how it binds a people and how they take their traditions with them wherever they go even when they’re uprooted from their homeland. We are reminded that Judaism is just such a faith, one that encompasses many different peoples simply by the nomadic nature of those who practice it. Unlike Christian missionaries, whose edicts and mandates dictate that they go abroad and proselytize, Judaism was and is internal, a faith that comes about because of belief shared from father to son and was spread by nomads who traveled from one place to another because of necessity rather than religious edict.

The illustrations paint a desert of shining gold and a brown-skinned people in colorful robes and shining jewelry. The backdrops suggest dunes stretching far into a mustard-yellow sky. The rolls of parchment loaded onto the back of a patient donkey remind you of the epithet often giving to the Jews: People of the Book. (I am a little puzzled by Saliman's relative telling him that their journey is somehow inspired by The Song of Solomon. I always understood that part of the bible to speak of amorous love between a young girl and her ardent swain. What does it have to do with travel abroad?)

This slim child’s tale will be a treat for American children curious about what happens in other lands and other folks when they must travel from it.

[Jessica]

An educational children’s story about a Jewish family’s migration from Yemen to Israel, inspired by the author’s friend’s family’s journey in 1881.

Saliman doesn’t understand why his family has to move or the hardships they endure, but a keepsake “memory stone” from his childhood home, is a sweet memento and a valuable lesson for any reader that our memories are always with us, no matter where we go.

I appreciate the “words to know” included in the back of the book, but it might be more useful if included in the front to help young readers better understand what they’re about to read.

PJ Library books always include great additional content to support the story, such as a recipe to make kubaneh, a traditional Jewish Yemenite bread, and “Talk It Over” discussion ideas.”

[Berrie Torgan-Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible story of Saliman and his family's journey from Yemen to Israel. I love how Saliman took a rock from his home in Yemen to help him capture memories. The author did not shy away from the hardships that Saliman and the other villagers endured during the trek to a new land. She also brilliantly captured the personalities of Saliman's family. For example his grandfather's hand with a map of their journey and his mother's beautiful voice rising above the others. I would recommend this book for guiding age appropriate discussions with children about the hardships and hope of immigration.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may appear to be a story of one boy on a journey toward a dream, but it is the story of every child who has moved or had a change in live. The memories cling and give strength through the passage until fresh new life begins. This will touch adults and children alike and is a wonderful read aloud! It should be in every public library.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully told story about a Jewish family's journey from Yemen back to their ancestral homeland in Eretz Yisrael in the 1880s. This story offers needed representation of Mizrachi Jews and their history while also offering a story that should resonate for many groups of people who have experienced (or whose ancestors experienced) moving from one land to another with its losses and joys.

[Cindy Schrauben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyons has created a vivid picture of the fears and struggles of a child forced to leave his home. Her beautiful literary style sings as Saliman creates new memories and hold the old closely. Emotion is evident on every page, both in the words and Ptahia's illustrations

[Erika Dreifus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both a moving universal story of change/relocation/leaving "home" and an engaging introduction to the under-explored history of the migration of Yemenite Jews to the Land of Israel/Ottoman Palestine in the early 1880s.

[Songju Daemicke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important story beautifully written by the talented Erica Lyons. It’s about the history of the migration of Yemenite Jews to Israel in the early nineteenth century. Everyone can relate to it through their own experience of leaving or changing their home, a familiar situation. Well done.

[Lisa Cloherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is well written, beautifully illustrated, and informative. A must read!

[Martha Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saliman keeps a stone to remember his home in Yemen as he and his family travel to Israel in 1881. Nice pictures accompany a story that man people do not know about.

[Julie Ditton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erica Lyons has written a story about a young boy who travels from his home to a distant land. In the 1880s a small group of Jews from Yemen were part of the first Aliya, the wave of immigration of Jews from the diaspora to their biblical home. Lyons captures the idea beautifully when the grandfather says "Yemen is a borrowed place. Our home is far across the sands and seas in Jerusalem" She details the hardships; the empty bellies, the walking, and selling belongings for boat passages. But the author also beautifully captures family; the sound of mother singing and the "map" of their travels in the wrinkles of the grandfather's hand. Saliman takes a small stone from his home to carry with him. He calls it his memory stone, and uses it to help him recall his old home as he travels to the new one. This not a Sukkot story, but the tale is bookended by Sukkot. The family begins its journey in the fall and the following year, when he celebrates the holiday in Jerusalem, he realizes that home is not a place, but the memories that people carry with them.

Israeli artist, Yinon Ptah, is from a family that emigrated from Yemen. As she mentions in her forward, she employs various brush techniques to resemble script and drawings from ancient Yemen scrolls and she uses a pallet of reds and browns to echo the landscapes and fabrics of Yemen.

Older readers can learn more about the history of immigration from Yemen to Israel in the authors not e at the end. The afterward also includes a glossary, the illustrator's family recipe for kubaneh, a traditional bread from Yemen and a map of the region showing Saliman's journey.

This book may capture a time and place that is distant to the reader, but a story of having to move from the home that you know or adapting to some other big change is one that many children can understand. I received an electronic review copy of this book, but the opinions are entirely my own. I recommend this book for Jewish youngsters, children with a Yeminis heritage and for any child who is facing a big move. It can also be used in the classroom during a discussion about immigration.

[Natalia Paruzel-Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saliman and the Memory Stone is a beautifully written book who all children who have moved will relate to and find solace in. As an immigrant myself, Saliman's journey woven with hardship and perseverance spoke straight to my heart. Loved every word!