Friends in Strange Garments

Friends in Strange Garments is a vivid collection of illustrated tales in which children from Palestine, Greece, Albania, Poland, Bulgaria, and beyond emerge as strangers only in dress, custom, and landscape. Beneath the regional detail lies a larger vision: boys and girls everywhere share courage, kindness, work, play, and the longing to be understood. Shaped by the author's wartime relief experience in Europe, the book quietly argues that peace begins when children recognize one another's humanity. The opening stories follow Rahmeh in Palestine, helping her family prepare for a journey to Jerusalem, tending camels and lambs, and facing a hyena with fearless loyalty until an English soldier rescues her. From there the book moves to Omar at the Pigeon Mosque, where patience and labor teach him to read and write and open the way to useful work. In Greece, boys at ancient Olympia and in a cliffside village encounter artists, bullies, and Christmas traditions, discovering honor, friendship, and bravery. Later chapters bring the hardships and tenderness of Zorka with her piglets, and Todor in Bulgaria, whose best clothes lead him to Sofia, a brief meeting with the King, and encounters that reveal the dignity of faith, poverty, and national pride. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.