The Cloak from Baghdad (a graphic novel) by Carol Isaacs; Kar-Ben Imprint of Lerner Publishing; (c) 2026; ISBN 9796765-670231; 88 pages; $17.99. Goes on sale Sept. 1, 2026.
By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
History can be made more palatable for tweens if it is cloaked in fantasy. In this case, the magical elements are a cloak that makes one invisible and the ability to travel through time.
Ten-year-old Louise, born in London, is the only Iraqi descendant in a class otherwise populated by Ashkenazi Jewish girls. She has thick curly hair and pronounces certain words the way her immigrant parents do, making her a convenient target for teasing.
Why did her family immigrate to England from Iraq? Louise’s parents want to shield her from knowledge of the antisemitism that brought an end to more than two millennia-long Jewish settlement in Iraq, once known as Babylon. So, they avoid her questioning. However, Louise’s maternal grandma is more sympathetic to her quest for knowledge. She presents her granddaughter with a cloak that makes her invisible. As soon as she puts it on, she is whisked back 30 years to the time in Baghdad when her mother is her age. The era is the 1940s, and Nazi influences are beginning to be felt.
Trailing her mother, Flora, and her uncle Eli as they go to Jewish school, Louise finds adventure in the souk; in her mother’s classroom, where she meets a blonde student from a Syrian Jewish family. In quick order, the well-drawn graphic novel explores how Iraqi Jewish children celebrate Purim and Passover; swim in the Tigris River; and get bullied by older Arab boys about the way they pronounce Arabic words with a Jewish dialect.
Louise visits Baghdad’s open-air synagogue; attends a henna party for a neighbor who is a bride to be; and experiences a sandstorm, called a khamsin. Meanwhile, antisemitism continues to grow to the point that mobs take to the streets and burn synagogues, beating up Jews, and forcing them from their homes.
When the mob bangs on the family’s front door, they make their escape to the roof of the apartment building and then jump to another roof. They are protected by an Arab business partner with whose family they are good friends. The family escapes to London.
When Israel’s independence is recognized by the United Nations, even more Jews escape from Iraq. And, thus, Louise comes to know a little more about the history of Iraqi Jews. And so will 8- to 12-year-olds
for whom Carol Isaacs wrote and illustrated this tale.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.