My Lists
Featured Lists
REVIEWS
School Library Journal
Reviewed on January 1, 2014 | Preschool to Grade 4
K-Gr 3—In stark descriptive language, Ondaatje eloquently retells a traditional Muslim hadith, chronicling the words and actions of Muhammad. For years, an uncomplaining camel carries loads of spices, dates, silver, and wool across the desert for the merchant Halim. The stoic beast endures unrelenting journeys, climbing steep dunes, wading through endless oceans of sand, and standing for hours under the hot sun. Oblivious to its plight and offering no sympathy, the merchant rides "on the camel's b...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Guide
Reviewed on January 1, 2013
A camel suffers under hard-driving master Halim. The Prophet Muhammad comforts the beast, and the camel weeps. Its tears "sifted into Halim's dre...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Junior Library Guild
Reviewed on November 1, 2013
This moving story about feeling compassion has universal implications. In his author’s note, Griffin Ondaatje reflects that most of us have “left a camel in the sun, whatever that ‘camel’ may be . . . maybe it is even a part of ourselves.” Lyrical prose captures the different realities of the camel and his master. While the “burning sun” beats down on the title character, Halim “[rides] on the camel’s back as ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
