Book-Reviews

Nothing Here But Stones, by Nancy Oswald; Henry Holt and Company: New York, 2004; $16.95 “Bookworm” may be one of the best words you could use to describe me. Ever since I was little I could be found curled up in the oddest places, deep in a story, obviously oblivious to the real world. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, but lately I have been disappointed to find that not many of the newer books have the same quality of writing as the classics. That is why I was thrilled when I read Nothing Here But Stones. When I read the jacket cover I knew right away that this was going to be a great book with writing that I’d love. When I read the first sentence I was immediately pulled into Emma’s body where I watched through the eyes of a Jewish immigrant girl as she started her life over in a new land. It would be hard on any eleven-year-old girl to leave the country she had been born in to live in a country where she didn’t even speak the language, but to make it worse Emma’s mother had died not long before they moved. This left Emma in a new country with no friends, almost no belongings, and a big hole of emptiness in her heart. Through the whole book I could feel the heavy sadness Emma had and could understand it. I had felt the same kind of loneliness once when I lost many good friends. I went from having a big group of best friends (about eight) and over-night they wouldn’t speak to me and would turn their back to me when they saw me. They were dead to me in a sense and left me lonely and friendless for a while. Emma was worse off than I was though. I had a loving family who supported me and Emma really didn’t have anyone to go to. I was glad in the end, when she finally felt loved. I felt happy all over and felt like it was me who finally felt accepted. I loved this book because not only was the story line great, but the author had a way of writing that made me feel like I was Emma. This and the beautiful descriptions she used made the story seem real, like it was happening the moment I read it. Even though all the characters in this story and the story itself were fiction I could visualize everything the author described. I also enjoyed reading this book because the author, Nancy Oswald, accomplished something while writing it, which I have always wanted to do. The mountain she described in the story (where Emma lived) is actually a real mountain in Colorado. From 1882 to 1884 (around the same time the story took place), Jewish immigrants like Emma and her family really did settle there. Today the author and her family own the land the mountain stands on. I have always wanted to write about something in my family’s history or something old, but I have not been able to come up with anything—yet. I enjoyed this book very much and am glad I was able to read it. It has even made it to My Top Ten Favorite Books (a poster I make every year). Nancy Oswald definitely has created a must-read book which I will strongly encourage my friends to read. Hannah Ritter, 11La Crosse, Wisconsin

Thura’s Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq, by Thura al-Windawi; Viking Children’s Books: New York, 2oo4; $15.99 “In the middle of the night we were thrown out of our beds by some massive explosions,” described Thura in her diary. Thura al-Windawi was nineteen years old when the war in Iraq began. That was also the time when she started a diary, which was later published into a book. In the process it was translated into English by Robin Bray. As I read her diary, I was surprised by how similar Thura’s life in Iraq is to my life in America. We both watch television and use the computer, we both are in school, and we both have a passion for writing. At nineteen, Thura is the eldest of three girls. Although I only have one sibling, at thirteen I’m also the oldest child in my family. Our parents are similar in many ways too. Like my parents, Thura’s mother and father are well educated and value education for their children. Although we have commonalities, we have differences, too. When Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, Thura didn’t have access to a large range of media, while I have an abundance to choose from: television, the Internet, books, magazines, and newspapers. As an American, I am allowed more freedom than Thura was allowed in Iraq. Thura states in her diary that “men are in charge of everything,” whereas in the United States women have much more freedom of choice and movement. A personal difference between Thura and me is that she has experienced war, even though she is not a soldier, whereas I have never stepped on a battlefield, not even as a spectator. Since the start of the war with Iraq, my life has changed in some ways. My parents’ obsession with following wartime events drove, and still drives, me crazy. I could never get away from it, not even during a meal, but since the war, Thura’s life has changed so much more drastically that my disruptions pale in comparison. After the war began, she wasn’t able to go to college. Her father couldn’t work anymore. It was difficult to get food for her and her family and insulin for her diabetic sister, Aula. It even became hard to breathe due to oil fires and smog. The chaos of the war also allowed religious men to force their beliefs on the women of Baghdad, requiring them to wear the headscarf or fear being kidnapped. Under Saddam Hussein’s regime, women could choose to wear a headscarf or not. It was unbelievably tough to live in the wartime conditions. As I read, I wondered how Thura, as an Iraqi teenager, felt about the American invasion. Thura doesn’t care for either side of the war. Like me, she dislikes the fact that the Americans and the Iraqis won’t talk about their problems peacefully. She hates it that men have to go to war and leave their wives and children. She also expresses her distress about men dying in the war and her concern that the women left behind won’t know how to take care of themselves. She does not call Baghdad “liberated,” as President Bush has said time after time. Rather, she calls Baghdad an “American colony.” What I believed to be ironic is that Thura described the Iraqi people’s vision of Saddam as a lion, but in my view Thura has the courage and the heart of a lion for being strong for her family and not hating all Americans for what has happened to her country. Rose Brazeale, 13Auburn, Georgia