At the start of 1991, eleven-year-old Ali Fadhil was consumed by his love for soccer, video games, and American television shows. Then, on January 17, Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein went to war with thirty-four nations lead by the United States.
Over the next forty-three days, Ali and his family survived bombings, food shortages, and constant fear. Ali and his brothers played soccer on the abandoned streets of their Basra neighborhood, wondering when or if their medic father would return from the war front. Cinematic, accessible, and timely, this is the story of one ordinary kid's view of life during war.
About the Author :
Jennifer Roy is the author of the highly acclaimed Yellow Star, which won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, was an ALA Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, and a NYPL Top Book. She is also the author of Cordially Uninvited and Mindblind and the coauthor of the Trading Faces series. www.jenniferroy.com.
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.'
'Based on co-author Ali Fadhil's real experiences, Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein skilfully portrays war from a child's perspective, mixing relatable obsessions with comics and video games and battles with bullies with larger concerns.'
'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.'
'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.'
'This slightly fictionalized biography of a half-Kurdish boy growing up in Saddam Hussein's Iraq during Operation Desert Storm is riveting. The book is full of homey details of a family simply trying to outlive and out-wait the madness of war, the bizarre behavior of a narcissistic dictator, and the fact that their home in Basra is situated right between Hussein's capital city of Baghdad and Kuwait — the small oil-rich country he has invaded. History in a nutshell.'
'This is an important book both for younger and older readers, particularly in these uncertain times where "hate" seems to be a universal currency particularly among those who should be leading the way to a global peace. I highly recommend it for discerning readers from around ten years upwards.'
