Shlomo Frankin and Muhammad Jabar both live in Israel. Shlomo, who is Jewish, lives in the village of Nataf with other Jewish families and has never had any Arab friends. Muhammad, who is Arab Moslem, lives in Abu Gosh, an old Arab village, and has never had any Jewish friends. The parents of each of these ten-year-old boys have decided to send their son to a remarkable school in a remarkable village called Neve Shalom (Hebrew) / Wahat al-Salam (Arabic), or Oasis of Peace. At the school, Arab and Jewish teachers together teach Arab and Jewish children, who learn about the customs, history and language of both cultures in a curriculum designed to foster friendship rather than fear. Text and photographs depicting first the separateness of Shlomo's and Muhammad's lives, and then their meeting and burgeoning friendship, build understanding of the current tenor of Arab and Israeli relations and hope for a peaceful future. (Ages 7-10)

Through a young Jewish boy named Shlomo and a young Arab boy named Muhammad, the Dolphins give young readers a warm and intimate look at a unique Arab-Jewish community that has been nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize and whose purpose is to promote peace and harmony between Arabs and Jews.