| Book Description | Video game villains and real-life dictators dominate daily life for eleven-year-old Ali Ali Fadhil has very simple likes and dislikes. It is 1991 in Iraq and all Ali wants to do is read his comics and play football and video games. But President Saddam Hussein has other plans. After he invades neighbouring Kuwait, the U.S. and their allies launch Operation Desert Storm to force him out. Over the next forty-three days, Ali and his family would survive bombings, food shortages and constant fear. Cinematic and timely, this is the story of how war changed one boy's destiny forever and would one day bring him face to face with Saddam himself at the UN trial. |
| Editorial Review | Ali's narrative voice captures the tension of a boy who is young enough to cry when his mother burns a comic book to cook their rice and old enough to comprehend the absurdity of Americans dubbing the nightly bombing "the video game war." A disturbing but accessible portrait of a civilian child's perspective on war.' -- Publishers Weekly 'This blending of biography, historical fiction, and realistic fiction paints a vivid portrait of daily family life in Iraq and the trials many faced. A good choice for most middle grade shelves.' * School Library Journal * 'What strikes are the mundane aspects of the brief war: going out to play and explore a familiar but ruined neighbourhood, the boredom and fear of awaiting scheduled airstrikes, living with uncertainty about loved ones returning home. Still, there's room for optimism and humour despite Fadhil's harrowing experience. |
| About the Author | Jennifer Roy is the author of 40 books, including the highly acclaimed Yellow Star, which won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Excellence in Children's Literature and a School Library Journal Best Book. She is also the author of Cordially Uninvited and Mindblind. |
| Parental Rating | 5+ |
| Publication Date | 06 Sep 2018 |
| Number of Pages | 176 |
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