Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review As in Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak (2004), Ellis gets behind the news images and lets the most vulnerable civilians bear witness to what today's wars are doing to their lives. With the help of interpreters, she interviews child refugees from Iraq, now living in Jordan, and a few who have made it to Canada. A brief general introduction talks about the contemporary politics and the ethnic and religious diversity, and Ellis is clear about the brutality of Saddam, his fall, the role of oil in the conflict, the U.S. invasion, and bombing. Accompanying each of the following interviews with young people is a brief introduction and a photo, although a few children didn't want to be identified. Some have strong opinions for and against Saddam and the U.S.; most do not. What is haunting are their graphic recent memories of what they witnessed, including school bombings, violence against their families, arrests, and displacement. One hates the invaders; another bonds with an American soldier who comes to search for weapons. Many live in a foreign country that does not want them. An important, current title that will have lasting significance.

Horn Book

In this look at young lives shattered by the Iraq War, Iraqi refugees (most living in Jordan) ranging in age from eight to nineteen tell their stories of displacement. The narratives are clear-eyed and wrenching, underscoring the damage that war inflicts on its most innocent victims, the children. A cogent introduction and a map provide context for readers. Websites. Glos.

Kirkus Reviews

In her previous volume, Off to War: Voices of Soldiers' Children (2008), Ellis interviewed Canadian and American children whose parents were off at war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Here, she has interviewed Iraqi children whose lives have been shattered by war. Depending on the estimates, 90,000 to 1.2 million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the Second Gulf War, and almost five million have become refugees. Many of the children in this volume are older than those in the previous work and have seen the war firsthand, so they have much to say about their experiences. Most are now in Jordan, so this report is a bit limited by not including those who stayed behind, but the voices are poignant, insightful, angry and hopeful. Their stories are given a solid context by a fine introduction that provides a brief history of the war, a two-page map and prefaces to each person's story. Photographs of the interviewees and a glossary round out an important chronicle of war and the world's most vulnerable—the children. (Internet resources) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)

School Library Journal (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Gr 6-9 In the fall of 2007, Ellis visited Jordan in an attempt to bring attention to the plight of adolescent Iraqi refugees. The resulting book is a collection of heartrending entries based on interviews with displaced kids between the ages 8 and 19. Though young in years, these individuals have suffered through more death, destruction, and violence than most people endure in a lifetime. Their voices run the gamut from sad to hopeful to angry to insightful. Most express frustration at living in a land that doesn't necessarily want them, and more than one espouses an anti-American sentiment. But the young people are honest in their desire for an end to the war, peace among nations, a solid education, and a place to finally call home. The introduction offers a clear, concise summary of the events leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion. Maps of both the Middle East and the world provide readers with an understanding of where this is all taking place, and the photographs accompanying the stories personalize the harrowing plights (though some interviewees declined to have their pictures published for safety reasons) that are hard for those who haven't lived them to comprehend. Kelly McGorray, Glenbard South High School, Glen Ellyn, IL

Voice of Youth Advocates

Child refugees from the Iraqi war tell their stories in their own words in this companion book to Off to War: Voices of Soldier's Children (Groundwood, 2008/VOYA December 2008), a collection of stories of children of American and Canadian soldiers. This collection offers a non-North American perspective of what occurred and is occurring in Iraq. Short autobiographical narrations of children, ages eight to nineteen, are prefaced with background information about Iraq or the child and their photos. Two themes recur throughout the stories: the lack of control that the children feel over their circumstances and the loss of their childhood. The stories are poignant, heart wrenching, and ring with truth. As if from the mouth of babes, in this case from ten-year-old Haneen, comes, "The war happened because Iraq has oil. And there is a high building somewhere in America that was blown up. They thought Iraq blew it up, so that's why they blew up places in Iraq." There is an introduction of eighteen-year-old Eman but no story because Eman is unable to talk. Her mother believes her problem is the result of chemicals that came from the bombs dropped on Iraq. The vocabulary is difficult for upper elementary students, but could be very effective as a read-aloud. All ages can relate to these children. The book, which is a good fit for school libraries, could be a starting point for a discussion on the impact of war on children from the child's perspective.ùSusan Allen.