The Story of Hurry

September 29, 2014
Williams, a physician and journalist who witnessed the second Palestinian intifada while living in Jerusalem, bases this haunting, hopeful, and relevant story on an incident that took place in the Gaza Strip in 2008. Hurry, a donkey who is always in a rush, slows down enough to notice that the local children are often sad, thirsty, and afraid ("Some nights, the sky thundered and brightness cracked the sky"). Longing to make them happy, Hurry and a boy named Wattan visit the keeper of the zoo, where most animals have died, who suggests how Hurry can "help dream": he dyes Hurry's fur to resemble that of a zebra, giving kids the chance to see and even ride an "exotic" animal. Both Williams's prose and Quraishi's mixed-media illustrations strike a balance between portraying raw reality and leaving room for interpretation and discussion. An assemblage of photos, stark silhouettes, and abstract flourishes, the pictures mesh comforting and disturbing imagesâHurry himself appears as a wooden toy, a striking symbol of innocence in a story built around children forced to grow up quickly. Ages 3â7.

August 15, 2014
In Gaza, where zoo animals and children share a difficult life, a zookeeper nourishes children's dreams by painting stripes on a donkey to stand in for a zebra. Basing her story on an actual event, widely publicized in 2009, Williams tells it from the point of view of the donkey, who wants to make needy, frightened children happy. She introduces but does not flesh out two child characters-thoughtful Wattan and sad Sumood-and "Moody," the sympathetic zookeeper. By keeping the focus on the donkey, called Hurry, she distances readers just enough to keep the children's plight from being unbearable. Illustrator Quraishi adds a light touch by using a jointed wood-and-elastic-cord toy for his donkey/zebra. His digitally combined mixed-media images are made from photographs, watercolor, marker and probably more. An extensive afterword offers adult readers facts behind the story of this "dry and lonely land," where the severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods have created a virtual prison, with inadequate power or water and constant fear of military attack; it does not go on to document the ultimate closure of the zoo. The author keeps this description evenhanded, laying blame for Gaza's problems on both sides. A powerful anti-war story in a modern setting. (Picture book. 5-9)

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