Mona's grandmother, Sitti, lives "on the other side of the earth" in a Palestinian village on the West Bank. Despite their uncommon language, she and her grandmother share daily life and special moments together when Mona and her father take a trip to visit Sitti. Upon her return to the United States, Mona writes a letter to the president: "If the people of the United States could meet Sitti, they'd like her for sure. You'd like her, too." Paired with Nancy Carpenter's sun-drenched illustrations, Naomi Shihab Nye's poetic text explores a child's feelings and fears about a grandparent living far away in a part of the world that most children in the United States know only one-dimensionally, if at all, through reports in the news. (Ages 6-10)

A young girl describes a visit to see her grandmother in a Palestinian village on the West Bank.