Though most of the students I currently teach were just little munchkins when 9/11 and the ensuing Iraq War broke out, it seems like they don't quite understand all that this war has meant for the Iraqi people. (Not that I do either.) I would love to know more about the ways in which this war has affected Iraqi teens who, like my students, were little kids when this war started. Basically, many teens in today's Iraq have grown up in a war zone.
When I find books like IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq, I am excited by the possibility of opening my live of vision and my students' to a world that (for me at least) is hard to imagine. I think it's one thing to watch the nightly news and read Time magazine, but it's another to listen to the words of a teenager who's grown up with the destruction and uncertainty of war. I know that when I read books, I am able to create a movie in my head much more so than with a magazine article or a news clip. I look forward to reading this book and learning more from this brave young woman.
