- Hardcover: 110 pages
- Publisher: Groundwood (Jun 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 088899608X
- ISBN-13: 978-0888996084
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Product Details |
Product Description
From School Library Journal
Grade 7-9–This collection of accounts from young people between the ages of 8 and 18 portrays the sapping toll of war on their lives. Instead of looking toward their futures, these kids are watching their backs. Instead of playing games of pick-up ball in the street, they're lobbing rocks at soldier's and dodging tear gas and bullets. Israeli students are pressed into military service. In Palestine, the scanty settlements are overcrowded and unsafe. Each narrative is prefaced with a short historical or personal background description providing a point of reference for the sentiments expressed. Ellis effectively remains absent, serving as chronicler for these ordinary kids in traumatic circumstances who are tinged by varying degrees of anger and despair. One Palestinian student, 11, states: "I don't know any Israeli children. I don't want to know any. They hate me, and I hate them." Another child comments: "If I had three wishes I would become a doctor and I would be famous, maybe as a writer. And I would be able to walk." And another individual says that she has just one wish: "I want the war to end, so I can keep living in Israel and raise my children here." Average-quality, black-and-white photos of the narrators and of scenes in Ramallah and elsewhere are included. It's a wonder these children have any wishes at all. An excellent presentation of a confusing historic struggle, told within a palpable, perceptive and empathetic format.–Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 5-12. "They murdered my friend." Growing up separate and apart in a world of bombs, bullets, removals, checkpoints, and curfews, 20 Israeli and Palestinian young people talk about how the war has affected them. The author of Parvana's Journey (2002) and other novels about children in Afghanistan moves to nonfiction with 20 stirring first-person narratives by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim young people she interviewed in 2002. An accessible historical overview that is fair to all sides leads off, followed by brief individual profiles of the kids, which include a small photo, and the words of kids, who are traumatized, angry, hopeful, hateful, despairing, brave. The wide range of voices shows the connections between warring neighbors despite the distances that separate them, and the personal details reveal the universals ("I just want to ride horses") in a moving way. Even the grimmest stories have a glimmer of hope, as in the account of a Palestinian girl whose Israeli and Palestinian friends return again and again to help rebuild her house, which is repeatedly bulldozed by soldiers. The specifics and the passionate immediacy of the voices will spark discussion on the Middle East and on civilians in war. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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First Sentence
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, long before the state of Israel was created, many Jewish immigrants came to Palestine from Russia and Eastern Europe. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, long before the state of Israel was created, many Jewish immigrants came to Palestine from Russia and Eastern Europe. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Kids Speak, April 15 2010
By Busy Mom - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak (Paperback)
I would have never heard of this book if I hadn't read a blog about the Middle Eastern wars. When I found out that this book was banned in a school district in Canada (which surprised me for some reason), I knew that I had to borrow a copy of it. Something about books being banned just bring the rebel in me out. I also thought it would be a good idea to read to my seven year old twins, but after reading it, I think they're not quite ready for that yet. But I am.This is a very quick read but also a powerful read. These are 20 different perspectives of kids who are living in Israel and Palestine. The differences between both countries are stark. The voices of the children are similar and yet dissimilar. Their experiences reflect the mood of their country people and their voices are clear and honest, even if they are confused as to why their countries are at war or on how to solve the issues at hand. They all share a common fear of being attacked unsuspectingly and all of them share grief at its most powerful when loved ones and friends, neighbors have died in attacks. I cannot imagine how to live in such situations with grace as these kids do. Surprisingly, there is not a lot of anger coming from the kids but there are several questions as to how to resolve this conflict without any more deaths.
After reading my library copy, I decided to buy a copy of this book simply because I want my kids to read this in a year when they're a bit older and need to know more about the world. Each of the 20 voices that are in this book are very important in this world because they are the voices of the children trying to survive a war that began long before their birth. It is essential to keep their hopes and dreams alive for a better world.
4/15/10
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
FEAR! Fear of soldiers, fear of bombs, fear of guns, fear of dying, but most of all, there is fear of each other., Sep 2 2007
By tee jay - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Three Wishes (Paperback)
"I know there is a war going on, but I don't know why.... I hear about bombs on the television, about bombs going off in shops and on buses and it makes me afraid."FEAR! Fear of soldiers, fear of bombs, fear of guns, fear of dying, but most of all, there is fear of each other.
Author Deborah Ellis visits this war torn region to see how children live their everyday life in the middle of a terrifying war.
Read this book to find out how peoples' choices of war are affecting Palestinian and Israeli children's lives.
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