Sal­i­man, his fam­i­ly, and much of his Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty know that it is time to leave Yemen and return to their roots in Israel. They make the long trek on foot through the hot, dry desert with laden camels and great hope. Before leav­ing, Sal­i­man plucks a stone from the foun­da­tion of his house and car­ries it with him so he can remem­ber where he’s from. The sense of com­fort his home has always brought him can now accom­pa­ny him on his jour­ney. The group walks for months, and they are often tired, hun­gry, or ill. They sell their don­keys to pay for the por­tion of their jour­ney that involves sail­ing on the sea. When they have noth­ing left, they hold tight to their mem­o­ries — mem­o­ries of song, dance, and their warm and famil­iar home.

Final­ly, they arrive in Jerusalem and start new lives — bet­ter ones, they hope. They con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate Jew­ish hol­i­days with spir­it and joy.

An author’s note explains that Sal­i­man’s Jour­ney was inspired by the true sto­ry of two hun­dred Jews who trav­eled from Yemen to Jerusalem in 1881 as part of a wave of immi­gra­tion known as the First Aliyah. They had faced hard­ships in Yemen and, when they arrived in their new home­land, there were even more chal­lenges to over­come. The author also describes the 1949 aliyah in which a sec­ond, larg­er group of Yemenite Jews immi­grat­ed to Israel by plane after the estab­lish­ment of the State. The author pos­es ques­tions about mem­o­ry and the role of immi­grants in the devel­op­ment of Israel. She encour­ages read­ers to speak with their fam­i­lies about their own histories.

The detailed col­or illus­tra­tions depict life in Yemen, the tra­vails of the jour­ney north, and the group’s arrival in Jerusalem. The author includes a recipe for kubaneh, a type of Yemenite bread.