• Age: 0
• Grade: p to 12
• Reading age: 0

Deborah Ellis presents the stories of children of the war-torn Middle East, based on interviews with Israeli and Palestinian children.

In a rehabilitation center for disabled children, twelve-year-old Nora says she loves the color pink and chewing gum and explains that the wheels of her wheelchair are like her legs. Eleven-year-old Mohammad describes how his house was demolished by soldiers. And we meet twelve-year-old Salam, whose older sister walked into a store in Jerusalem and blew herself up, killing herself and two people, and injuring twenty others. All these children live both ordinary and extraordinary lives. They argue with their siblings. They dream about their wishes for the future. They have also seen their homes destroyed, their families killed, and they live in the midst of constant upheaval and violence.

This simple and telling book allows children everywhere to see those caught in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as children just like themselves, but who are living far more difficult, dangerous lives.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.6

Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.3

Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6

Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

Deborah Ellis is the internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books for children, including The Breadwinner Trilogy; The Heaven Shop; Lunch With Lenin; Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees; and Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS. She has won many national and international awards for her books, including the Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Book for Older Readers.Deborah knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of 11 or 12. Growing up in Paris, Ontario, she loved reading about big cities like New York. In high school, Deborah joined the Peace Movement, playing anti-Nuclear War movies at her school. Since then Deborah has become a peace activist, humanitarian and philanthropist, donating almost all of the royalties from her books to communities in need in Asia and Africa. Heavily involved with Women for Women in Afghanistan, Deborah has helped build women’s centers and schools, giving children education and finding work for women.In 2006, Deborah was named to the Order of Ontario. She now lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Deborah Ellis' profile page

• Short-listed, Rocky Mountain Book Award
• Long-listed, BC Teen Reader's Choice Award Stellar Awards
• Long-listed, OLA Silver Birch Award
• Commended, CCBC Our Choice (Starred Selection)
• Commended, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice - Best of the List
• Commended, Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) YA Top Forty (or so) List

...stirring...These young people come from diverse faiths - they are Jewish, Muslim and Christian - and yet it is the commonality of their experience that impresses the reader.

Yellowknifer

...it also gives a wrenching sense of childhood during a terrorist war, expressed in what appear to be genuine voices. It requires discussion after reading and would be an especially apt choice for school libraries. Recommended with reservations for Grades 5 to 12.

Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

...a moving, sometimes chilling, expression of the disruption and distress created in young people's lives by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as well as a reminder of the human capacity for hope and renewal.

Quill & Quire

To read the collection as a whole is inspiring.

VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)

Highly recommended for school and public libraries.

Resource Links

An accessible historical overview that is fair to all sides...

Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

Here is a balanced and thought-provoking work recommended for school and public libraries.

Multicultural Review

An excellent presentation of a confusing historic struggle, told within a palpable, perceptive and empathetic format.

School Library Journal

A balanced historical introduction provides background for the interviews in which children talk about how the choices other people have made have affected their lives. Ellis alternates Israeli and Palestinian voices and prefaces each of the accounts by an informative discussion of pertinent issues and a profile of the interviewee and his/her experiences...The candid and passionate voices in these narratives may be used to awaken interest and encourage discussion among young readers.

Canadian Materials