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Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein Jennifer Roy

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein By Jennifer Roy

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy

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Summary

Video game villains and real-life dictators dominate daily life for eleven-year-old Ali

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein Summary

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein: Based on a True Story by Jennifer Roy

Video game villains and real-life dictators dominate daily life for eleven-year-old Ali

Ali Fadhil has very simple likes and dislikes. It is 1991 in Iraq and all Ali wants to do is read his comics and play football and video games. But President Saddam Hussein has other plans. After he invades neighbouring Kuwait, the U.S. and their allies launch Operation Desert Storm to force him out. Over the next forty-three days, Ali and his family would survive bombings, food shortages and constant fear.

Cinematic and timely, this is the story of how war changed one boy's destiny forever and would one day bring him face to face with Saddam himself at the UN trial.

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein Reviews

'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.' -- Publishers Weekly
'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.' * School Library Journal *
'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.' * Booklist *
'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.' * Jane Yolen, author of The Devil's Arithmetic and Mapping the Bones *
'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.' * Just So Stories *

About Jennifer Roy

Jennifer Roy is the author of 40 books, including the highly acclaimed Yellow Star, which won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Excellence in Children's Literature and a School Library Journal Best Book. She is also the author of Cordially Uninvited and Mindblind. Ali Fadhil grew up in Basra, Iraq, and became an interpreter during the trial of Saddam Hussein. He now lives in Dublin, Ohio.

Additional information

GOR012078999
9781786074669
1786074664
Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein: Based on a True Story by Jennifer Roy
Jennifer Roy
Used - Good
Paperback
Oneworld Publications
2018-09-06
176
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein