cover image If You Could Be My Friend

If You Could Be My Friend

Mervet A. Sha'ban, Galit Fink. Orchard Books (NY), $15.95 (128pp) ISBN 978-0-531-30113-5

When journalist Litsa Boudalika proposed that Mervet, a Palestinian, and Galit, an Israeli, correspond and meet, a tenuous relationship began between the two 12-year-olds, born of letters they wrote from 1988 to 1991. Their correspondence became the basis for a 1991 French documentary. At first, the girls' eagerness spills over into their correspondence ( ""I know very little about your life, but I feel friendly toward you,"" writes Mervet). They trade stories about their families and schools, favorite music and food. But just as the two open up, bitter political developments--the Intifada and Gulf War--interfere. Before long, they, like their parents, become less interested in building bridges than fortifying defenses. ""I thought things could work out, but I was wrong.... You may understand, but you are still an Arab. Because of this, I don't think we can be friends one day,"" writes Galit in one of her last letters. What might have been demonstrated smoothly in the documentary--the girls' fragile relationship contrasted with graphic footage of war and conflict--is here reduced to an intrusive literary device: the letters abruptly come to a halt every few pages so the author can intersperse terse accounts of concurrent events. Though necessary to explain the girls' increasingly hostile tone, these intrusions remind readers of just how manufactured the whole prickly ""friendship"" is, and when the girls finally unite, their meeting takes place offstage (described by Boudalika). The book concludes with a dry epilogue explaining the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and a glossary. Still, readers willing to forgive the format's shortcomings will glean some insight into the lives of a Palestinian and Israeli child, growing up in a climate of animosity. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)