Compiled by Aseel Salama
By Baraa Musabbeh
The book can be borrowed at community libraries in the West Bank, purchased at Tamer Institute’s Resource Center in Ramallah, or ordered from its website.*
No Warmth in the Tent is the fourth book in the Children of the Sea and Oranges book series, launched by Tamer Institute for Community Education to preserve the voices of Palestinian children during the genocidal war on Gaza. In this book, compiled by writer Aseel Salama, we read 38 texts written by children who were displaced by the aggression to shelters in Khan Younis, where the temporary refuge became a space for writing amid harsh conditions.
These texts, presented in Arabic and English translation, are accompanied by artwork that was created by other children as part of the Return Track, one of the expressive pathways under the title Here We Remain. The track was carried out in collaboration with artists Hazem Al-Zumar, Mohammed Othman, Lamis Al-Sharif, Cleopatra Naim, Alaa Al-Ja’bari, Iman Younis, Rufaida Sahweil, Abeer Jibreel, Fidaa Al-Hasanat, and Jihad Jarbou. It also extended to include displaced Palestinian children in Egypt, who explored a fundamental question through acrylic on canvas: “What does it mean to return home?” The children produced approximately 140 paintings that depict their homes as they remembered or imagined them after the war. The institute used these works to form a visual testimony that accompanies the texts.
While the texts may not be fully complete artistically or linguistically, they convey the intimate details of daily life that cameras often fail to capture, ranging from shortage of bread to spending Eid without sweets. This book is not merely a form of documentation or psychological release; it is a living body of knowledge that captures the impact of war on imagination, language, and memory. The book targets readers aged 10 years and older.
*As Tamer Institute for Reading Development’s website is currently under reconstruction, you can order the book by sending a WhatsApp message to Tamer Institute’s literary production team at +972 59-791-1022.
