Yara's Spring by Jamal Saeed and Sharon McKay

Yara's Spring is a heart-breaking fictional story of a young girls life in Syria during the Syria War and her journey to freedom.

Yara's story begins on March 11, 2011. Ten-year-old Yara lives in Bustan al-Qasr, in the middle of Aleppo with her mama and baba and her Nana. Baba's brothers and sisters had left Syria years ago and her mama has only one brother, Sami who lives in Damascus. On this morning, Yara gets up and runs errands for her Baba who is a baker. Their bakery sits in front of their two story family home. Yara's best friend, Shireen lives across the street. After delivering bread to their neighbours in need, Yara returns home to find her Uncle Sami visiting. Sami works as a high school teacher in Damascus, and Yara loves him dearly. 

Uncle Sami tells his mother, Nana that a revolution is coming, that they need democracy, a chance to choose their own leaders. He tells her the "Arab Spring" is coming. The Arab Spring began in Tunisia and then to Egypt and now has come to Syria. Schoolboys wrote graffiti on the walls of the school in the city of Dara'a. The words were about President al-Assad, so the principal called the police. who then arrested the boys. Sami tells Nana, that it is like what happened before. Yara doesn't know what Sami is referring to and he refuses to elaborate.

Shireen comes to get Yara for dance class. As they leave, they see her father getting into a car to go to a funeral. Shireen's mother, Roja and her twin brother, Ali watch him leave. At dance class after they watch the senior girls rehearse, Nana gives Shireen a whispered message that sends her running out of class. Nana tells Yara that Shireen's father has been arrested at the funeral. The man who died was a rebel, who belonged to the Kurdish Future Movement which Shireen's father supported. He is now a political prisoner, worse off than a criminal as there will be no lawyer or trial for him. Nana explains to Yara that Shireen's family will suffer too: Roja will not be able to continue working at the university.

A year later, Yara's mother gives birth to a baby boy, Saad, at home due to the war that is raging in Syria. Shireen's father continues to languish in prison. Another year passes, it is now 2014. The war continues on as Yara celebrates her fourteenth birthday. Aleppo is now a divided city, with West Aleppo controlled by the government of President al-Assad and East Aleppo where Yara and her family live, under rebel control. As a result, East Aleppo is bombed frequently. Yara's mama had wanted to move, but Nana and Baba were against leaving behind the bakery they had built. 

On her birthday, Yara is playing with two year old Saad, now a happy, active little boy. On the roof, as Yara is helping hang the laundry, Nana gives her a small paper bag of candies. On the opposite rooftop, Shireen and Ali wave their happy birthday greetings to her. Ali had  wanted to join the rebels but Roja refused to allow it, scolding him about ending up in prison like his father. Suddenly, Yara sees six helicopters coming and as they fly over her home, they drop their bombs. The rooftop collapses, sending Saad flying past her, while Yara tumbles through the air and is buried in the rubble of her home. After being rescued, Yara learns her baba and mama have been killed in the bombing, but Saad is safe, having landed in Roja's laundry basket. However, he is so traumatized, he stops speaking. Nana is injured and Yara sees her being taken away in an ambulance to a hospital.

Yara and Saad are taken in by Roja. After several days, Ali goes to search the hospital but cannot locate Nana. Determined to find Nana, and believing her to be still alive, Yara insists on continuing the search. Meanwhile, Shireen shows her family's passports to Yara, but tells her that they will never leave Syria while her father is in prison. Shireen points out to Yara the difficulty in leaving the country: getting to Turkey means getting past ISIS, Iraq requires a visa and Hezbollah in Lebanon makes that route unlikely as well. But Yara suggests they could travel to Jordan where her Uncle Sami lives in Damascus.

Remembering that her parents kept their papers in a tin box under the big table in the bakery, Yara and Shireen struggle their way into the ruins of Yara's home. With the help of Ali, Yara manages to pull out the red tin that contains their passports. And waiting outside the ruins of their house is Nana, thin and limping because of her wounded leg. Back in Roja's home, the tin box is opened revealing a horde of jewelry and American money as well as photographs from Nana's past. The box also contains Yara's family's passports, their Syrian National Identity Cards and their family registry document.

The next day, Nana tells Yara's the story of her past, a story identical to the one being played out again with Yara's generation. Nana also tells her that she spent time at the home of a man, Rifa'at, who helped her after the hospital she was at was bombed. Rifa'at also helps people escape Syria. And that is what Nana is determined to do, along with Yara and Saad. She plans to hire Rifa'at to take them to Damascus, where they will journey on to Jordan. It is a dangerous journey that will require every bit of courage and determination Yara has to survive.

Discussion

For young readers wanting to understand the impact of war, Yara's Spring offers a realistic portrayal through the eyes of a young girl caught up in the Syrian conflict. Jamal Saeed, himself a political prisoner in Syria for over ten years, has experienced the tragedy of war in his home country of Syria and his first-hand experience is evident throughout this novel. 

To help orient his young readers, Saeed offers two maps at the front of the novel, one showing Syria's placement in the Middle East and a second map showing the major cities in Syria and Yara's journey from Aleppo, south to the Azraq Refugee Camp where the story begins. This is where the reader first meets Yara, an exhausted, emotionally traumatized refugee, struggling to come to terms with everything she has experienced on her flight out of Syria. She is haunted by what has happened, her conscience troubled in a way no young person should have to experience. As she sits down to rest, in a part of the refugee camp that's private, she tells her story in a flashback.

Saeed is able to capture the war and refugee experience from many different perspectives. There is Yara's Uncle Sami, who was filled with hopeful expectation at the coming Arab Spring, only to have it turn to fear. In Nana, there is the fear that what happened before is now happening again and she is determined to save what's left of her family. There are the rebels who patrol the streets in East Aleppo, seeking "men and boys of fighting age" to come out and join their cause. "...Tell them that only by fighting will their lives have meaning. Tell them that they will go to paradise if they are killed fighting for our faith." There are Shireen and Ali who desperately want to fight for a better future for the country. There is Umm Fadi, the woman who lives upstairs in the safe house in Damascus who is blindly devoted to President al-Assad and who believes he is protecting Syria and that the bombing of Aleppo is justified, "The people in those areas are not only hiding terrorists, they are allowing their children to be used a human shields! It is not the President's fault..."

Yara's Spring highlights the resiliency, courage and determination of those in Syria who decide to leave. Yara embodies all of these qualities but Saeed also portrays the toll the war has had on her. After the death of her parents, sights and smells in her ruined home trigger panic. While staying at Hafa's compound in Ar Rastan, the smell of the food and spices, suddenly triggers a flashback. "Suddenly overwhelmed, she closed her eyes and once again heard the chu-chu-chu of helicopter blades. The sound of the explosion, the sensation of flying through the air, of her limbs trying to detach themselves from her body, of a scream caught in her throat, of being buried alive. No, no, no!"

It's no surprise Yara has anxiety and likely post traumatic stress. Yara must also come to terms with the fact that she killed a man when Ali was kidnapped and she experiences deep conflict over leaving Syria. She believes she is a coward, not a warrior like Ali and Shireen who have remained in Syria to fight on for their country. However, Mr. Matthew, Matthew McGonagall, Yara's case counselor points out to her that she has protected Nana and Saad and that this required great courage. He also reminds her that the fate of Syria does not depend on her choice to emigrate to Canada.

Yara's Spring is also a portrait in compassion and charity amidst the ruins and violence of war. When Yara and Saad are left alone, Roja, herself in dire circumstances, doesn't hesitate to take the two children into her house. When Yara's group is traveling south through checkpoints, they encounter unimaginable brutality. At one checkpoint, while Yara's group has their documents checked they witness a young boy being handcuffed and forced from his father who begs for his sons life. In an act of courageous kindness, Nana intervenes, pretending to be the father's neighbour and to bribe the terrorists with American money and save the boy's life. These acts of kindness are not just restricted to Yara's group either. After almost dying in the mountains, Yara and her group are rescued by a monk who takes them to a Catholic monastery. There Father Ricardo and the nuns care for Yara, Nana and Saad. He tells her that they help all regardless of religion and offer her safety. It is a wonderful tribute to the few Christians who remain in the Middle East, often at great risk and persecution.

Jamal Saeed and his co-author Sharon E. McKay have crafted a book that feels realistic in its portrayal of the Syrian conflict, of the plight of Syrian refugees, while also ending on a hopeful note. Yara, in her heart hopes to return some day to her beloved Syria. Yara's Spring is well written and a must-read for young Canadians, to help them understand the backstory of Canada's Syrian refugees.

Book Details:

Yara's Spring by Jamal Saeed and Sharon E. McKay
Toronto: Annick Press    2020
298 pp.

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes tells the story of one boy's journey to escape war in his beloved Syria. This deeply moving novel makes the Syrian refugee crisis painfully real to young readers. The story is narrated by "Destiny"

Tareq is Nour and Fayed eldest child. Eventually his family came to include his brother Salim who was two years younger, his younger sisters Farrah and Susan and the twins Ameer and Sameer. Tareq's paternal grandmother also lived with them. The family was not well off but their small apartment was filled with love. On a hot summer night in 2015, Tareq's family was shattered forever when his neighbourhood was bombed. While trapped beneath the slab of concrete that had been his family's kitchen wall, Tareq dreams of his family, his five month-old twin brothers, his sisters watching television, his mother making food and his tetya (grandmother) drinking  tea. He remembers his brother Salim who has great affection for their sisters and his love of soccer.

But Tareq's nightmare is all too real as he is pulled from the ruins by men in white helmets. The bodies of his mother, tetya and his younger sister Farrah are pulled from the crushed apartment building and Tareq is sent to the hospital. While he is being treated, Tareq shows the doctor pictures on his phone of his siblings and learns that Susan will be fine. But Ameer and Sameer are dead, Salim missing. Tareq weeps as his father holds him.

Tareq's father, Fayed drives to Raqqa to meet his older brother who has promised to help him leave the country by giving him money. Raqqa is now controlled by Daesh, al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham-or or ISIS. These religious fundamentalists have set up their own brutal laws. All Fayed knows is that he has to get his two surviving children out of the country. As they travel to Raqqa, Tareq notices the effect the drought has had on the land, "the once-lush greenery that held beautiful loquat and citrus trees had disintegrated into dusty brown cracked earth." Each checkpoint is a harrowing nightmare;  at one they encounter a young government army soldier who extorts money from Fayed, they meet the shabiha who are the pro-Assad civilian militia who are equally terrifying, and at others Daesh soldiers angrily yell at Fayed, questioning his small beard, Susan lack of a proper head covering, telling Fayed that he is kafer.

Once in Raqqa, Fayed and Tareq see the full horror of life under Daesh. There are heads mounted on spikes on the main roundabout. Tareq is shocked to see that Raqqa has also changed. The streets with many bombed-out buildings are empty, patrolled by men with long beards carrying Kalashnikov rifles. A shopping trip with his cousin Musa quickly turns into a terrifying experience as the two boys are  forced to Naim Square where they witness the shooting and beheading of a young man. On the drive home, Musa realizes they have been followed. Within minutes of their arrival, men come to the house but Tareq's Uncle Waleed and his father manage to talk the men out of taking the two boys, who they want to recruit for Daesh.

As a result of this, Uncle Waleed tells Fayed and Tareq they must leave the city immediately and continue on to Turkey. Only a few weeks after they leave, Daesh close off the city. Tareq, along with his father and sister, his cousin Musa and Shams and Asil who are a neighbour's daughters, travel through the Aleppo countryside, arriving finally at the Turkish border. Having missed the bus crossing the border, the group walks the last exhausting mile into Turkey.

In Turkey, Musa and Tareq travel to Istanbul in an effort to make money for the trip to Europe while Fayed and Susan live in Gaziantep. However, making money proves to be more difficult than Tareq realizes. In Istanbul, Syrians are not well treated,and Tareq is almost cheated out of his payment for working at a new restaurant. Musa tries to encourage Tareq to stay, to work harder to make Turkey his home, but Tareq is determined to leave for Europe. He's had enough of Turkey, and is concerned for the well being of his little sister Susan.

To that end Tarek meets his father and sister in the coastal city of Izmir where they hope to find someone to help them cross over the Aegean Sea to Greece. In Izmir they find not only Syrians but people from Afghanistan who are also feeling war and the Taliban. Tareq's journey will continue in a leaky boat with fake life jackets, leaving behind his beloved father. It is a journey that will almost cost him and his sister their lives, but will teach Tarek the importance of finding the helpers, those people who care and who give of themselves.

Discussion

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes tackles the Syrian refugee crisis in a haunting and memorable way that captures the reality and puts a human face to this tragedy. The refugee experience is told by "Destiny" which describes itself "...as the end of a sequence of events that you and your kind actively shape." and as "just the end result of your choices". This unbiased witness tells the story of a Syrian boy whose life is forever altered when his home is bombed by the Syrian military. Abawi used Destiny as the narrator because she felt this was the best way to tell the refugee story as Destiny sees events from all points of view, the refugees, the helpers, and a group of people Abawi calls "the hunters" those people who rape, murder or act with cruelty. Destiny has also seen the past.

Abawi also chose to use Destiny to tell the story because she felt this was the best way to help her readers fully understand the refugee experience:

"In life, for some people it is very difficult to put oneself in another’s shoes and see the world from their perspective. It’s also challenging to share your struggles with others who you feel would not understand it, or even judge you for them. Each and every one of us also has thoughts and secrets that we are afraid to express. In terms of this novel I think that Destiny could be that voice for each character so they don’t have the opportunity to hide behind the protective wall all humans construct."

Abawi sets the stage by having Tareq dream, as he lays half buried in the rubble of his home, about his family as they were before the bombing. He remembers the most intimate details of his mother, "hair in a bun and a mole on the side of the neck", "breathing in her scent of perfumed flowers and spiced cooking." He remembers his tetya, his sisters Susan Farrah who was the little tomboy, his twin brothers Ameer and Sameer, playing soccer with his brother Salim, before he regains consciousness in the horror of a completely destroyed home filled with the dead. This happy, loving life will be only a memory for Tareq and his father as they flee their homeland of Syria.

Abawi uses her characters to inform readers, providing background information about the Syrian conflict. For example through the character of Musa, readers learn about the radical Islamic terrorist group called Daesh. When Tareq is in Raqqa his cousin Musa explains Daesh to his cousin, telling him, "...this city has been taken over by the world. They come from France, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, America, Kuwait, Britain, Libya-everywhere. I swear I hear them speaking more French and English than Arabic, wallahi!" He tells Tareq that Daesh originated in Iraq and that they fear them the most. In a conversation with his cousin, Musa tells him, "These people don't know the first thing about Islam...I guarantee most of them have never even read a Quran in their lives. They are criminals in their home countries. ..Do you know that they even found out some of the guys who came here from England had purchased a Quran for Dummies book instead of the actual Quran?"  He also references the Salafism, stating, "The Salafi cancer has spread.", claiming "...But the Saudis have had the oil money to spread this deadly disease...Think about it. The world buys Saudi oil-they're so rich, they have golden toilet seats. They also have the money to print their own interpretation of the Holy Quran in every language you can think of and ship it out. They claim to have the purest form of Islam, when in reality they created it more than a thousand years after the Prophet Muhammad's death!...And then on the other side, you have President Assad, the Alawite, and his backing from Iran and the Shias."

Throughout Tafeq's journey readers learn about the many problems Syrian refugees usually encounter as they make their way through Turkey, across the Aegean Sea, through Greece, Macedonia and on towards eastern Europe to Germany. For example, Syrian refugees working to earn money for the crossing are frequently cheated out of wages in Turkey. Refugees are charged exorbitant fees for being smuggled across the Mediterranean, and are placed in leaking boats with fake life jackets. Women and girl refugees are particularly at risk, repeatedly raped by smugglers, while others are stolen and trafficked for the sex trade. Even crossing the Aegean, the Turkish coast guard attacks refugee boats with the intention of sinking them rather than helping. These are just a few of the problems Abawi highlights in her novel.

Abawi doesn't shy away from the horrors of the Syrian conflict nor the brutality of ISIS. Tareq and Musa witness the brutal execution and beheading of a young man, his parents in attendance. "A battery of bullets ripped through the young man, whose body convulsed. His mother collapsed, his father too shocked to try to lift her back up. The firing eventually came to a halt. But the horror didn't end....He grabbed the limp head by its mane, lifting it from the puddle of blood it had rested in, and ran a sharp blade back and forth across the neck, slashing the flesh. The boy's father finally fell next to his wife, thumping to the ground."

Abawi also portrays those who do care, the numerous helpers who come from many countries - characters such as Alexi an American from Connecticut who came to Greece to visit family. However Alexi's life is changed forever when she sees the refugees and is moved by their suffering to volunteer. There are others too from every country around the world: Michael who is from Singapore, Sivan and Mariam two medics from Israel, Hashem a British born Syrian, Famke from the Netherlands, Hilda from Germany and Tina from China.

Destiny focuses on Alexi who, in an attempt to bridge the gap between cultures, organizes a small dinner with the workers and Tareq and a few other refugees in the transit camp. Their sharing of food and stories brings hope and relief. "They talked about the beauty of their cities and the destruction of their lives and loved ones. Both volunteers and refugees shed tears, salty droplets of relief as they set free the stories that were trapped in their hearts and minds." Alexia encourages Tareq by telling him what she learned as a child from Mr. Rogers. "I'll never forget the advice he said he got from his mother. 'Always look for the helpers.' ...she explained. "Look, you've had a pretty horrible journey so far. And it's not even close to being over. But when you think that the world is against you, please just take a moment and look for them-the helpers.' She shrugged. 'I don't know, it may make things better.' "

There is also an interesting discussion between Tareq and the London-born Syrian, Hashem. Tareq expresses the view that "there are a lot of people who hate us." but Hashem states this is fear and not hate. Tareq doesn't accept this. "My point is, we are the ones afraid. We are the ones who have suffered. How can complete strangers be afraid of those of us who have seen what real suffering is? They can't be afraid of the weak. We should call it what it is: hate." Abawi presents a rather simplistic view to her readers of how the refugees are viewed in Europe when in fact the issue is much more complex. Tareq is partially correct in that some of the European reluctance to take in refugees might be based on "hate", but the issue is more complex than the character Tareq is shown to  understand. For European countries , many of whom are struggling economically (Greece for example has received billions in bailout money), other factors come into play. For example, the sheer volume of refugees, how to integrate refugees who have a culture that is very different from secular, post-Christian Europe and the lack of response by other Arab/Muslim countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabi and Lebanon are important considerations.

Abawi ends her novel on a somewhat hopeful tone; Tareq receives some happy news and he and Susan do make it safely to Germany. There is also a hint of a future perhaps with Jamila, a young Afghani woman who lives with her sister Najiba and their aunt in Frankfurt.

 A Land of Permanent Goodbyes, is both revealing and deeply moving, and exquisitely crafted novel,offering young readers the opportunity to experience the refugees plight and  the challenge to be helpers, not hunters in this human tragedy.


Book Details:

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi
New York: Philomel Books      2018
272 pp.

Escape From Aleppo by N.H. Senzai

Escape From Aleppo tells the story of the Syrian War through the eyes of a young girl as she makes her way across the city of Aleppo after getting separated from her family.

Early on the morning of October 9, 2013, Nadia Jandali is awakened by her cousin Razan who tells her they must leave at once. Nadia is filled with fear and attempts to crawl back under her bed where she's been sleeping. She can hear the deep boom of bombs called barmeela in the distance. These are barrel bombs filled with shrapnel which are dropped onto rebel held areas by the Syrian army. Nadia is forced awake, grabs her backpack and a burlap bag to meet the rest of her family.

Nadia's cousin, Malik who is the eldest son of Khala Fatima (Nadia's maternal aunt), believes the helicopters are coming their way and that they need to leave. Nadia's family have formulated a plan that Nadia, her mother and grandmother, and her three aunts and their children will assemble downstairs in the apartment building. The building was built by her grandparents thirty-five years ago and has four apartments, each housing a son and his family. Nadia's mother orders them to go downstairs while she hunts for Nadia's younger brother Yusuf's shoes. Razan's job is to help Nadia leave the building.She's rarely been outside in the past year after she was hit by a barmeela and severely injured. The trauma from that event has made Nadia terrified to leave her home.

At the front door, Khala Fatima, Khala Lina, Khala Shakira, and Nana debate what to do next but Khala Lina is emphatic that they need to go to the dental clinic where they have arranged to meet their husbands and sons at noon. Suddenly Malik comes tearing down the stairs telling them they need to leave immediately because the government military helicopters are heading towards them. At the last minute Nadia's mother, Amani comes downstairs carrying Yusuf and the group exits the back door - all except Nadia. As Nadia is forcing herself out the door and Malik races back to help her, their building is rocked by a barmeela, throwing Nadia down the steps and against an abandoned Jeep. Stunned, Nadia lays there hearing Malik yell for her.

In the confusion of the bombing, Malik believes Nadia is beneath the rubble and dead and her family leaves, not knowing she is uninjured but dazed. As another bomb explodes, Nadia rolls under the jeep and falls unconscious. She awakens later that afternoon, her family gone, determined to travel to Dr. Asbahi's dental clinic. Nadia flees through the city encountering a group of children playing on a playground surrounded by the graves of rebels and government soldiers. In trying to find her way through the ruins of Aleppo, Nadia soon finds herself lost. Unable to find the mosque, a landmark on the way to the dental clinic, hungry and exhausted, she runs into a shop for shelter during a rainstorm. It is late in the evening and she is tired and defeated.

Nadia discovers she has taken shelter in a pharmacy. She soon falls asleep underneath a desk in the office and doesn't awaken until very early the next morning. But Nadia learns she's not alone; an elderly man "in loose woolen pantaloons and a navy vest, a taqiyah (skull cap) covering his cropped white hair...Past him, near the door, stood a sturdy, dun-colored donkey." are also in the pharmacy. Relieved he is not a soldier or worse, Nadia attempts to get out the door of the pharmacy but finds it blocked by the donkey. Terrified but responding to the old man's kindness, Nadia tells him all that has happened to her and asks him if he knows the way to the Asbahi clinic. He tells her he does and that he will take her there after he completes a short errand. However, one thing leads to another and Nadia discovers her journey with the elderly man named Ammo Mazen, is filled with unexpected revelations and leads her to discover the hidden inner strength she needs to reunite with her family.

Discussion
Escape From Aleppo tells of one girl's journey across war-torn Aleppo and Syria to the safety of Turkey where her father and family waits for her. The main story is set in 2013, and takes place over a period of five days. It is told through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Nadia who travels through the city of Aleppo with a mysterious elderly man, Ammo Mazen. During this time the reader is shown the impact of war on Nadia's life, the effect on her family and her community

Senazi makes use of flashbacks to demonstrate how much Nadia's life has changed from before the start of the Syrian war. In 2010 and 2011 life for Nadia and her family is filled with ease and comfort. Her tenth birthday party is a feast of Nadia's favourite food, "kabob karaz - grilled lamb meatballs prepared with cherries and pine nuts.", a "towering chocolate cake...adorned with pink sugar roses", and attended by "Her family and friends from school, along with her parents' friends and neighbors, gathered in her grandparents elegant dining room..." She's the center of attention in a "satin aquamarine dress", with nails painted a matching shade of blue and she has a "stack of presents".  Nadia's life revolves around the finals of Arab Idol, auditioning for television commercials, the wedding preparations for her cousin Razan's marriage and her final exams. Life is full of possibilities.

In contrast is Nadia's life in the present, in 2013. After being injured in a barmeela attack, Nadia has a scar that runs from her knee to her hip and has a piece of shrapnel that remains in her leg. Once told she resembled the Arab Idol semifinalist, Carmen Suleiman, Nadia's appearance after escaping the bombing of her home in Salaheddine two years later is much altered. "Her eyes shifted, catching her reflection in the mirror. A stranger stared back at her: face covered in dust, hollowed cheeks marked with pale white scars. A cut, caked with dry blood, from where her head had hit the Jeep. Her hair, once thick and wavy, had been hacked off because of lice. Spiky and short, it now lay stuffed under an ugly olive-green woolen cap..."

After the bombing, Nadia looks at their family's apartment building which is mostly destroyed. "She peered inside Khala Lina's apartment, cut in half, her embroidered silk curtains still hanging from the window, fluttering like a maroon flag. A leather sofa hung from the ledge, it's matching love seat lying on what remained for Khala Fatima's kitchen below, her stove flat as an atayaf, a sweet cheese-stuffed pancake. Nana's beautiful cream-and-gold china lay scattered across the ground like snowflakes, broken in a million pieces."

The devastation of the war is shown as Nadia's journey through Aleppo to catch up to her family. She travels "past houses where shells had punched great holes and others that had collapsed completely, blocking the surrounding alleys with rubble." She watches an ambulance pull up to "what had been a large apartment complex, now a stack of concrete pancakes with jagged metal rods protruding from all angles. Survivors huddled near the road, coated in dust, consoling the injured while parmedics bandaged a boy's leg. And old man knelt beside teh rubble, weeping, his bent figure shielding something. Nadia got a glimpse of golden bangles and a frail arm." The city is filled with broken down cars, uncollected trash, abandoned stores, salons and mosques, snipers hiding on roofs, and there are "hundreds of checkpoints that had sprung up around the city, each manned by a different group, either affiliated with the Syrian army or one of the hundreds of rebel groups."

Throughout the story, Senzai incorporates various facts about the war. For example, readers learn how the Syrian War was rooted in the uprising in other parts of the Middle East. During Nadia's birthday party, the adults in the family gather to watch the television broadcasts of the self-immolation of a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bousid, Tunisia. The demonstrations in Tunisia spread to the surrounding countries of Jordan, Algeria and Oman while in Egypt, demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo lead to the removal of dictator Hosni Mubarak. This was followed by unrest in Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco and Libya. These demonstrations come to be known as the Arab Spring. In Syria it begins with the arrest and torture of a group of boys from Deraa who had written anti-government slogans on their school.  Through a flaskback, Nadia remembers the discussions at home between her grandfather and the rest of the family about how the U.S. wanted Assad to resign and how U.N. peacekeepers were sent in to monitor the situation. Later on as Nadia and Ammo Mazen are walking through the streets they encounter a woman who tells them about the sarin gas attack by the Assad government on rebels in Ghouta, near Damascus. An encounter with a group of rebels and an Egyptian-American journalist explains the rebel's view of the involvement of ISIS in the war. "The road you were on is blocked by those foreign bastards who call themselves ISIS. They've been fighting other rebel groups to usurp power...These foreign hypocrites use religion as an excuse to fight some glorified war, seeking power and fame. They are ruthless barbarians, posting videos on the Internet of their atrocities, like blowing up ancient sites or killing civilians for not following their brand of Islam."

Senzai uses the character of Ammo Mazen, to highlight the efforts of the Syrian academics to preserve their historical treasures from destruction in the war. Readers learn that "Most of the museums in the country, and all six of Syria's World Heritage sites, have been affected in one way or another..." Some of those treasures turn out to be rare books brought by Ammo Mazen and include "Kitab al-Tasrif by medieval Arab surgeon Abulcasis, Katib Cheleb's seventeenth-century Islamic atlas, and other rare books of poetry,history, science and mathematics."

Nadia's journey through the ruins of Aleppo to the safety of Turkey mirrors her own personal journey from a fearful traumatized girl to one who acts with courage and decisiveness when needed. Senzai has crafted a realistic protagonist in Nadia Jandali. She's a typical teenager - impulsive, self-absorbed but she is also courageous, intelligent and caring. At the beginning of the story, Nadia has been housebaound for almost a year, filled with fear. Spurred by the loss of her family, Nadia forces herself to try to find her way to the dental clinic in the hopes she will meet up with her family. "She realized that if she kept her eyes down and didn't look around too much, she could keep the fear at bay. Don't think. Just move."  Her encounter with Ammo Mazen forces her to trust him despite the fact that he is a complete stranger. His kindness surprises her. "She realized that she had to trust him, at least a little, if she was going to find her family."  Although she does get to the Asbahi clinic, a note from her family telling her where to meet them leaves her feeling abandoned and angry. It also means that she must continue to rely on Ammo Mazen who she suspects is not telling her the full truth of who he is. Nadia is impatient and dismissive of Ammo Mazen's decision to travel by donkey. "Nadia mutinously stared at the smelly donkey, snoring away with Mishmish curled up under her neck. All he has is a bunch of junk, she fumed. Why is that so important?..." Instead she discovers that the old books are rare treasures to be preserved. As Ammo Mazen's healthy begins to deteriorate and he collapses, Nadia wants to abandon him. "I should just ditch them and go find my familiy on my own.It would be easier and faster..." she thinks but she reconsiders. "He had helped her when she needed it the most. And now she would help him. For now, the questions she had didn't matter. she would trust him." And when Ammo Mazen is attacked and his donkey and cart stolen, it is Nadia who comes up with a plan that retrieves them and allows their journey to the border to continue. In the end, Nadia and Basel a little boy they have picked up along the way, leave Ammo Mazen in the care of an elderly woman. Nadia's questions are answered

Escape From Aleppo is a well-written, interesting novel that portrays the realities of war without being too graphic. It is informative, giving younger readers the basic background of the Syrian war which is still ongoing, while putting a face to the conflict through Nadia, Basel, Ammo Mazen and the many other characters.

Book Details:

Escape From Aleppo by Naheed Hasnat Senzai
New York: A Paula Wiesmen Book            2018
324 pp.

Welcome To Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird

Twelve-year-old Omar Hamid lived with his family in Bosra, Syria. By his own admission, it was a beautiful town with Roman ruins in the center that regularly drew tourists from all over the world. His father worked at the tourism office while his mother, Leila cared for their family. At this time, Omar family consisted of his older brother Musa who has cerebral palsy, his fifteen-year-old sister Eman, his five-year-old brother Fuad and his baby sister Nadia. Omar worked in his Uncle Ali's hardware store before school and when school ended at 1pm, he worked with Rasoul trying to get the tourists to buy from his souvenir shop.

At his uncle's shop one morning, a man Omar calls Mr. Nosy warns his Uncle Ali about his son studying at university telling him to stay away from politics. He tells him there are terrorists everywhere. Uncle Ali is shaken by this, closes his shop and tells Omar he's leaving town. On the way home from school that day, Musa reveals to Omar that they are moving to Daraa because their father has been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Omar's family move to Daraa happens the same time the trouble began. Their last day at school Omar overhears Musa's friends talking about two fifteen-year-old boys who sprayed slogans on walls calling for the downfall of the Syrian government. They were caught and tortured. As the family is packing, Omar's parents quarrel over sixteen-year-old Eman continuing school. His mother wants her to continue but the father feels she should be married.

They move to his granny's flat in Daraa. Also living in Daraa is his Auntie Majda and her little girls. At school Omar is shocked to see Musa become part of a group led by a boy named Bassem. Musa tells Omar that Bassem's cousin was his friend in Bosra and that he and his friends have been involved in plotting a revolution. Along with his nerdy friends back in Bosra, Musa has discovered the terrible things the Syrian government has been involved in; arrests, disappearances and torture of citizens. They want to live in a democratic state and have been organizing the marches and demonstrations. Musa challenges Omar, asking him if he cares that he lives in a dictatorship.

One day after mosque, Omar discovers Musa has a phone given to him by Bassem. When he arrives home, Omar finds his mother frantic because there are demonstrations in Daraa. She sends him out to get Granny and Nadia who have gone to Auntie Majda's home. Omar witnesses the demonstration and the Syrian government troops opening fire on the students. One of those students is his brother Musa whom Omar helps to flee. They hide his cell phone just before they are confronted by a soldier but manage to convince him they are not involved in the demonstration. With Bassem's help they rescue Granny and Nadia who have been trapped outside Auntie Majda's flat. Eventually Omar retrieves the phone which has film of the demonstration and Musa gives it to Bassem and Latif.

The student actions ignite a civil war that begins to engulf them all. Every day there are marches followed by funerals. Latif is shot in the head and dies in hospital. The internet is cut off, the schools closed and then tanks roll into Daraa, besieging the city. A tense moment occurs when the soldiers begin searching every house. Musa has to hide both his phone and a little notebook. He and Omar manage this and the soldiers leave without discovering either.

Soon a full scale civil war is happening. The electricity is cut which means no lights, no mobile phones, and no fridge. There are bombings and shootings. Omar is constantly afraid, his younger brother Faud begins wetting the bed, Eman gets a rash and Musa has nightmares. Then one day Baba returns home because the Ministry of Agriculture is closed. When he learns that Musa is out, Baba is furious and Omar is sent out to bring him home. On their way back, Omar is shot by a soldier, the bullet grazing his arm. Even worse a shell lands on the house next to theirs, destroying both homes. After spending the night huddled in a shed, Omar and his family work to clean up their apartment. However, Uncle Feisal shows up offering them a way out of Daraa. He takes them to Leila's brother-in-law's farm outside Bosra.

Uncle Mahmud and Auntie Fawzia take Omar and his family in, giving them the storeroom to stay in. Baba returns to Daraa to stay with a friend in a quiet part of town, away from the fighting. Meanwhile Omar begins helping out on the farm, working with his cousin Jaber. Life on the farm seems tranquil and safe with the fighting confined mostly to the cities. But soon the violence spreads into every area of Syria and Omar and his family must flee, leaving everything behind. It is a journey that will take them far from home, to a distant land and a new life.

Discussion

Laird has written a solid novel that offers young readers the chance to learn about the Syrian war and the plight of refugees. The experiences of young Omar and his family opens a window on the culture of Muslim Syrians.  In some ways the Hamid family is not that much different from families in the West. Omar like many children, doesn't like school. Instead, he's interested in making money and someday owning his own business. His older sister Eman has dreams of continuing school. Musa, whose intelligence is hidden by his cerebral palsy, is politically engaged and wants to work for a democratic Syria. Omar's mother and father love and care for their children and simply want to raise their children in a safe, clean city. They are part of a large extended family who care for one another.

However, some things are very different in Syria. This is especially true of how women and the disabled are treated. Omar's older sister Eman is a good student but because education is strictly segregated, Eman attends an all girls school. Eman wants to be a teacher, a goal Baba does not support. Her mother does because she wanted to be a teacher before she was forced into marriage to Baba at age fifteen. When the family is forced to move to Daraa, Baba decides that Eman will no longer attend school. "Education's a waste of time for girls. Eman's sixteen already. It's high time she was married. I've had a good offer..." Omar's mother is shocked at this revelation and refuses to move to Daraa unless Eman is able to continue school.  Eman tells Omar, "...I want to do something Omar! I want to be a teacher! Have my own life!"  

Later on when war comes to the farm outside of Bosra where Omar's family has fled, Eman learns that her father, mother and auntie have all worked to arrange her marriage to Abu Bilal, a man who is later discovered to have raped and nearly killed another girl. Eman's feelings don't matter and she is never consulted. She resists the marriage, but is slapped and abused by her family. In desperation she attempts to starve herself and threatens to kill herself. Omar watches and is powerless to help his older sister. It is only in the refugee camp, without the presence of Baba, that Musa stands up to Bilal and refuses to allow the marriage to happen.

The attitude towards Omar's disabled brother Musa is also very different. Omar relates that "The teachers had written him off for years and said he was stupid." Musa has been laughed at, beaten and even had his arm broken at school. He's been bruised, insulted and had his notebooks destroyed.  But in spite of this Musa has persisted in attending school. It was his seventh grade teacher, Mr. Ibrahim who recognized Musa's intelligence and this forced Omar to recognize that his brother is a "brainbox". Even some of his own family struggle to accept Musa. Omar states that "Granny couldn't bear the sight of Musa. 'There have never been any deformed children on our side of the family,'   I heard her say to Baba, looking accusingly at Ma."  Musa becomes politically active and is involved in the planning of the initial actions against the Syrian government. He shows great courage and takes terrible risks to fight for what he believes in. Always an outsider because of his disability, this offers Musa a chance to belong to something important.

Laird who visited and volunteered at two refugee camps, Za'atari and Azraq in Jordan, provides her young readers with a real sense of what life is like in these camps. Through the characters of Eman and Omar, Laird describes the hopelessness for the future. "Eman shrugged. 'So what? Anything's better than living in limbo here! What have we got to look forward to? Nothing. There's no school for Musa and me, no work...Eman sighed. 'I just feel hopeless, that's all.We're in a sort of prison. We're nowhere. And we might be here forever." Yet when the opportunity to leave the refugee camp and travel to Britain arises, Omar and Musa feel fear and Musa resists. "...But in England we'd be just a bunch of refugees, living on charity. You know what the British say about Arabs and Muslims? They think we're all crazy terrorists..."

Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan

In Omar, Laird has crafted a strong, appealing main character whose actions and feelings are authentic. Omar is loyal, brave and compassionate. He helps his brother Musa when he repeatedly gets himself in a tight spot, despite feeling frustrated and angry at him. When Baba abandons the family after learning of Musa's involvement with the Syrian rebels, Omar becomes responsible for many of his family's needs, demonstrating a maturity beyond his years. As expected, Omar feels overwhelmed by this responsibility. He sympathizes with Eman over her being forced to marry a much older man whom Omar knows is of poor character. He courageously, but unsuccessfully, attempts to convince his Ma that Bilal is an evil man. Eventually Omar does convince Musa to defend their older sister. Instead of attacking Riad, a poor boy who is running wild in the camp, Omar takes him under his wing, turning him from the path of a thief into a boy focused on trying to do the right thing.

Welcome To Nowhere is highly recommended for readers aged 9 to 13 but will also appeal to older readers. Laird has included a map showing the location of Syria in the Middle East but there is no map showing Omar's journey to Jordan nor the location of the refugee camp.  There is an informative "Letter From The Author" at the back of the book which provides more details about the Syrian situation. Welcome To Nowhere is a good book to acquaint younger readers with the Syrian refugee situation and to help them better understand the plight of refugees.

Image credits:

Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan: https://www.samsamwater.com/projectdata.php?projectid=85

Book Details:

Welcome To Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
London: Macmillan Children's Books     2017
329 pp.