This book should be required reading. It takes a topic that spans over a hundred years and an entire nation and people and centers it around one girl. Centering Ahed helps create a digestible scope and foster connection and empathy with a real, tangible person. For that reason alone this book is amazing. But it is also just really well written and compelling. For starters, I loved Ahed’s voice. It was so charismatic and instantly captivated me. I deeply appreciated her honesty and vulnerability in this book as she wrote about some of the worst moments in her life and everything her and her family have endured. And I greatly admired her strength and perseverance. I also thought there was a good balance between Ahed speaking about her lived experience and also providing historical context and broader information about Palestine. There was also strong balance in the tone of the book. There were moments of pain and deep emotion, but also hope and love. So overall this book was incredibly well done and everyone should read it.