Israel Fiction for Young Adults
Explore captivating Israel fiction for young adults with our curated list of top books. Discover thrilling stories, rich cultures, and unforgettable adventures set in Israel.
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Duel
by David Grossman
David is a twelve-year-old boy living in Jerusalem in 1966. His best friend just happens to be seventy-year-old Heinrich Rosenthal, who lives at the Beit Hakerem Home for the Aged. Their friendship takes an unexpected turn when Mr. Rosenthal receives a threatening letter from the man he once knew as "the bully of Heidelberg University." The letter accuses Mr. Rosenthal of stealing a priceless painting and challenges him to a duel if it is not returned immediately. But Mr. Rosenthal didn't steal the painting. Who did? Determined to find some answers and prevent the duel, David plays detective and ultimately uncovers the story of two beautiful paintings, one of a woman's eyes and the other of her mouth, given by the artist to the two men who are now willing to kill one another over them. With some brilliant sleuthing and a bit of luck, David manages to pull together the strings of a story that began more than thirty years before, preventing a tragedy by bringing a long-dead memory to back to life.
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Samir and Yonatan
by Daniella Carmi
Samir, is sent to an Israeli hospital where he makes friends with an Israeli boy, who travels with him to Mars, and finds peace about his brother's death.
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Checkpoints
by Marilyn Levy
Tensions in 2002 Jerusalem have not interfered much with sixteen-year-old Noa's life, and she is even forming a friendship with a Palestinian Muslim girl, but the Passover suicide bombing in Netanya changes Noa's family forever and transforms her faith, politics, and friendships.
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Running on Eggs
by Anna Levine
When Karen and Yasmine become friends as well as members of a mixed Arab and Jewish track team in Israel, relatives and friends of both girls disapprove of the relationship.
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The Zigzag Kid
by David Grossman
The picaresque adventures of Annon Feuerberg, 12, an Israeli policeman's son kidnaped by his father's arch-enemy, a master thief. The thief takes Annon on a number of jobs and introduces him to beauty in the person of a young actress.
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Under the Domim Tree
by Gila Almagor
A moving story about three girls coming of age in post-Holocaust Israel. Like most of the children in Udim, a youth village nestled along Israel's coastal plain, Aviya, Yola, and Mira share a common sorrow--the pain of longing for lost loved ones. Through their struggles, the girls find friendship and the comfort of knowing they're not alone.
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One More River
by Lynne Reid Banks
Lesley lives in Canada and thinks life is just great, she has got friends, she likes school and they are very comfortably off. But then her father makes a fateful decision, the whole family is going to emigrate to Israel and lead a more fully Jewish life. Lesley is horrified and very resistant. However, once she gets to her new country and a very different life, she begins to find it stimulating and enjoyable. A strange relationship with Palestinian boy Mustafa, who lives on the other side of the Jordan river, is a big part of the new Lesley. A very exciting book, set in the 1960s about life in a pioneering new country.
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Broken Bridge
by Lynne Reid Banks
This is the sequel to One More River. Time has moved on, it is the 1990s and this is the story of Lesley's Israeli daughter Nilli. The First Intifada is underway and people are being murdered in the streets of Israeli cities. Palestinian anger has overflowed and Mustafa has become a killer, he can see no other way to free his people from Occupation. When Mustafa fails to kill Nilli he becomes a hunted man. This book brilliantly captures the tragedy and hopelessness that has gripped the region and presents both sides with sympathy and balance. There are so few fictional accounts of the Arab/Israeli conflict that Lynne Reid-Banks splendidly readable and well-researched account fills a gap. Short-listed for both the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal when first published in 1994.
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Return
by Sonia Levitin
Fifteen-year-old Desta belongs to a small, isolated mountain community of Ethiopian Jews. She and her brother and sister leave their aunt and uncle and set out on the long and dangerous trip to freedom -- an airlift from the Sudan to Israel, the Promised Land. They travel barefoot, facing hunger, thirst and bandits. "Vivid and compelling...Levitin's tour de force is sensitively written." BOOKLIST. An ALA 1987 Best Book for Young Adults.
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When I Was a Soldier
by Valerie Zenatti
The story of one girl's experience in the Israeli national army where strict routines, grueling marches, poor food, and lack of sleep are the norm, but service has its rewards as well.
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Soumchi
by Amos Oz
Soumchi is eleven years old, and growing up in British-occupied Jerusalem, just after World War II. His universe is enriched immeasurably when he is given a bicycle, but before he fulfills his dreams of riding into the desert and exploring Africa, he shows his new prize to a friend. Persuaded to swap his bicycle for a new train set. Soumchi's series of misadventures begin as he trades away one possession after another--but as he imagines ever more colorful ways of escaping his predicament he finds something he never expected--his first love. With "Soumchi, Oz brings to life a protagonist in the tradition of such memorable scamps as Huckleberry Finn; Soumchi is fresh, funny and always engaging.
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The Lady with the Hat
by Uri Orlev
Yulek, a Holocaust survivor, finds himself tragically alone at war's end. Hoping to begin again, he makes his way to Palestine, where he meets a Jewish girl named Theresa. Together they struggle to rediscover the joy of living.
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The Storyteller's Beads
by Jane Kurtz
Running for their lives to escape the political upheaval in Ethiopia, two young girls, Rahel and Sahay, must overcome their fear and prejudice and turn to each other to survive in the debut novel of the author of Fire on the Mountain.
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The Source
by James A. Michener
In his signature style of grand storytelling, James A. Michener transports us back thousands of years to the Holy Land. Through the discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener vividly re-creates life in an ancient city and traces the profound history of the Jewish people—from the persecution of the early Hebrews, the rise of Christianity, and the Crusades to the founding of Israel and the modern conflict in the Middle East. An epic tale of love, strength, and faith, The Source is a richly written saga that encompasses the history of Western civilization and the great religious and cultural ideas that have shaped our world. Praise for The Source “Fascinating . . . stunning . . . [a] wonderful rampage through history . . . Biblical history, as seen through the eyes of a professor who is puzzled, appalled, delighted, enriched and impoverished by the spectacle of a land where all men are archeologists.”—The New York Times “A sweeping [novel] filled with excitement—pagan ritual, the clash of armies, ancient and modern: the evolving drama of man’s faith.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “Magnificent . . . a superlative piece of writing both in scope and technique . . . one of the great books of this generation.”—San Francisco Call Bulletin
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Exodus
by Leon Uris
For use in schools and libraries only. An American nurse and an Israeli freedom fighter get caught up in the re-birth of Israel.
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The Haj
by Leon Uris
“The narrative is fast paced, bursting with action, and obviously based on an intimate grasp of the region, its peoples, their tradition and age-old ways of life.”—John Barkham Reviews Leon Uris retums to the land of his acclaimed best-seller Exodus for an epic story of hate and love, vengeance and forgiveness and forgiveness. The Middle East is the powerful setting for this sweeping tale of a land where revenge is sacred and hatred noble. Where an Arab ruler tries to save his people from destruction but cannot save them from themselves. When violence spreads like a plague across the lands of Palestine—this is the time of The Haj.
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Someone to Run With
by David Grossman
Capturing the lives of Israeli street kids, follows two teenagers--Assaf, a shy and awkward sixteen year old, and Tamar, a talented young singer--and the missing dog that brings them together.
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How to Ruin a Summer Vacation
by Simone Elkeles
When sixteen-year-old Amy, a spoiled American, goes to Israel for a three-month summer vacation with a father she barely knows, she is not prepared for his Jewish family and the changes they bring about in her life.
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How to Ruin My Teenage Life
by Simone Elkeles
In this sequel to "How to Ruin a Summer Vacation," everything in 16-year-old Amy Nelson Barak's life is going wrong. What's a girl to do when everyone is trying to ruin her life?
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The Weight of the Sky
by Lisa Ann Sandell
A sixteen-year-old girl travels to Israel to spend the summer on a kibbutz and discovers who she is and what she wants out of life.
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Real Time
by Pnina Kass
Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent political attack and finds answers about his own past.
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Masada
by Gloria D. Miklowitz
In the year 72 C.E., after a four-year war between Rome and Judea, only one fortress remains to be taken: Masada, high above the Dead Sea in what is now Israel. Two years later, the commander of the famous Roman Tenth Legion, Flavius Silva, marches toward Masada to capture or kill the 960 Jewish zealots who hold it. In this eloquent and powerful novel, we meet 17-year-old Simon ben Eleazar, son of the Jewish leader of Masada. Apprenticed too Masada s only physician, Simon learns to help victims of the enemy s onslaught as he struggles with his love for Deborah, the intended of his best friend, and with the painful decision he must ultimately make.
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After the War
by Carol Matas
After being released from Buchenwald at the end of World War II, fifteen-year-old Ruth risks her life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.
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Flying Lessons
by Nava Semel
Living in a village in Israel where her father grows oranges, a motherless girl befriends a sensitive shoemaker from Djerba from whom she hopes to learn how to fly.
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Becoming Gershona
by Nava Semel
Living in Tel-Aviv in 1958, twelve-year-old Gershona experiences first love, learns a family secret, and crosses the line between childhood and adulthood.
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Boy from Over There
by Tamar Bergman
The story of an Israeli kibbutz and the children who lived there.
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Brothers Divided
by Eli Jacobs
Iranian agents have ignited a major civil war crisis in Israel. The Brothers Division, a top secret arm of the Mossad -- the Israel secret service -- enlists the aid of Jon Warren, an American reporter with strong Israel connections to help them defuse the situation. But when Jon discovers the truth, the Brothers Division disowns him and the conspirators target him for elimination.
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Light Years
by Tammar Stein
Maya Laor leaves her home in Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia after the tragic death of her boyfriend in a suicide bombing.
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The Garden
by Carol Matas
During the struggle to create the state of Israel in 1947, Ruth Mendolsohn, who helped young refugees flee Poland in "After the War", is a member of the Haganah, a group of Israeli fighters that believes only in self-defense. Her brother thinks that terrorism is necessary to get results. War seems inevitable and both will have to fight. Will they find the security of a place they can call home?
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Jeremiah's Promise
by Kenneth Roseman
The reader ventures trough Israel, traveling myriad paths that wind from Israel's cities to the kibbutzim, from service in Israel's army to helping Yemenite Jews adjust to their new surroundigs.