Shoham’s Bangle

Shoham wears a golden bangle on her wrist, just like her Nana Aziza. Their bangles jingle when they cook, and glitter in the sun. When Shoham and her family must leave Iraq, they are allowed to take only one suitcase each. They may take no jewelry. Shoham has the important job of carrying Nana’s homemade pita bread, which Nana says they will eat when they get to Israel. But when they finally arrive and it is time to eat, Shoham bites into something hard inside the pita bread.

Kar-Ben Publishing, November 2022

Kar-Ben PublishingAmazonLiteratiBooks & BooksBookshop.org
Warmth and fam­i­ly val­ues are the hall­marks of this stun­ning pic­ture book. The most touch­ing parts cap­ture the inter­gen­er­a­tional bond between Shoham and her lov­ing grand­moth­er- Jewish Book Council
What a delight it is to be invited into Shoham’s warm, multigenerational home in Iraq via the pages of Sarah Sassoon’s Shoham’s Bangle. When the family departs for Israel, the reader, too, mourns for the home and fig tree by the Tigris River that they are leaving behind.- Sydney Taylor Schmooze
The story is told gently with its young audience in mind. The bangle jangles but does not jar. It is an ingenious metaphor for what the Jews left behind in Iraq. But it’s also a reminder that what is important are not the homes Jews leave behind but those that Jews rebuild.- Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries
Sarah Sassoon’s debut picture book draws from her Iraqi Jewish background to recount the story of young Shoham and her family in their native country, and what happens when, as Shoham’s mother says, “The time has come” for the family to leave Iraq for Israel.- Hadassah Magazine
Noa Kellner’s illustrations give us the warm colors of Iraq, the tilted perspective of a plane about to take off, and a family losing their (literal) footing. A grandparent-grandchild story, a diaspora story, a family heirloom story, and a food story, all in one.- Tablet Magazine

Interviews

Chai FM

2022.11.28 – A conversation with Sarah Sassoon, Author – Book review – Shoham’s Bangle – about the author. Why a children’s book, It’s history and what the story is about. Click here to listen

Academy Launch

Join us for an inside-the-story chat and book launch with Sarah, on the 30th of November, in honour of Sephardic Refugee Day, which marks the departure and expulsion of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.