Ronit and Jamil

Reviewed by: Elizabeth Andersen - Westbrook High School, Westbrook, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: July 18, 2017

Review

The story of Ronit & Jamil demonstrates that themes from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet are still relevant to modern-day, teen romance. In this novel-in-verse set in Israel, Ronit is the daughter of an Israeli pharmacist and Jamil is the son of an Arab doctor. Ronit’s father brings medicine to Jamil’s father, and a young love is sparked with a single glance. To sneak past their family, Ronit and Jamil furtively text each other and find ways to meet, but alas, their secret is discovered and they must escape their families to be together. Laskin begins the book with a brief history of Israel and impartial explanations of the tension between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The novel contains scattered words in Hebrew and Arabic which are defined in footnotes. At the beginning, each chapter alternates between the two lovers and readers must keep track of the language and pronoun clues to know who is speaking. This is not a flaw, but something to consider for reluctant readers. Unlike Shakespeare, this story of young love does not end in tragedy; it contains a strong theme of hope for the young lovers and the future of their country.

Overall Book Score: very good