Lovely illustrations, and a good life lesson. I was a little surprised by how quickly Hamza changed his attitude toward Samuel, but kids can be fickle, so it's not completely unbelievable, just a bit surprising.

Note: I received a digital copy of this book through NetGalley. ( )

A great interpretation of a real historical person. While the character ages and exact story is fictional, the inspiration, and name in the book are pretty real. The concept taught in the book is part of the inspiration to write it by the author. ( )

This book teaches intercultural communication and conflict resolution between a Jewish boy and a Muslim boy.
Ages- 5-7
Source- Pierce County Library Systems

This story takes place in the Medieval Times and illustrates the blossoming on an unexpected friendship between two rivals. The main character, Samuel, is the son of one of the most powerful men in castle. After a few different petty incidence occur between himself and Hamza, the son of the tax collector, he begins to plot ways to get the boy to apologize for calling him an idiot. At first, given his title, he simply wants his father to handle it and punish Hamza in any way his father saw fit. But instead, he ends up killing two birds with one stone by learning that it would be more beneficial to friend Hamza instead of treating him like he did him. The moral of the story is that love will always be stronger than hate and that you will always catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked that fact that the plot of the story was very child orientated with the conflict and the illustrations really enhanced the story, but I thought the writing wasn't engaging at all. It made for a very boring book over all. The plot of the story has a child-centered conflict about one kid trying to figure out how to make the other stop saying bad words to him, as his dad is a very important person. This plot of this story is a conflict that many kids will probably face throughout their schooling, allowing the kids to place themselves into the story. An example of this is when the child of the top advisor goes over to force the child of the lesser class eat a lemon, the child of the lower class turns it into a game of catch. Throughout this book the children play many different games and grow to become friends, a story any child could understand. The illustrations in the book enhance the story by creating colorful and alive images. The image that stood out the me the most that is a good example of this is when the child of the higher class is dreaming of tying a cloth over the lower class boy's mouth, the image shows the child in different color cloths, with the higher class boy tying a long piece of cloth over the other boy's mouth. However, the writing wasn't descriptive, which lead the story to not be engaging. One of the sentences says that one of the children would tie the others with a piece of cloth, and that's it. It's not descriptive or interesting, and I feel like this would turn child off of reading this book. The main message is to not judge people and to always be friendly, as some of the best friendships come out of conflict. ( )