Discovering Something New Every Day was an Al-Amri family motto. Aref's father said people started playing this game the day they were born. (p7) - Naomi Shihab Nye

Aref kept staring at the sleeping turtles on the beach as they climbed. Turtles weren't just cold-blooded reptiles. They were miracles. (p201)

during the Gulf War, I remember two little third grade girls saying to me - after I read them some poems by writers in Iraq - 'You know, we never thought about there being children in Iraq before.' And I thought, 'Well those poems did their job, because now they'll think about everything a little bit differently.' They'll feel closer to that place in a different way. (2002)

When we were born
we were blank pieces of paper;
nothing had been written yet.