MOHAMMED’S JOURNEY

Without much introduction, Mohammed, a young Kurd, tells his frightening family story. His uncle was killed in 1991, both his mother and father were imprisoned in 1994 and his father was beaten and then taken away again in 2000 by Saddam Hussein’s soldiers. The focus of the book is on his struggle as a six-year-old, when he fled overland with his mother and then hid in a truck placed on a boat bound from Turkey to England. Now a teenager with a new stepfather and a little sister and in spite of therapy, school, friends and his remaining family, his personal horrors stay with him, even as he enjoys his current life. The authors use Mohammed’s words from interviews, and the text is set in a childlike typeface to imitate a diary; a few photos of his life in England are interspersed among Allan’s monotonous pencil-and-wash illustrations. Incongruous folk-style borders decorate the early part of the story. Most disappointing is the sparse informational material, which only sketchily summarizes the modern history of Iraq and the Kurds and lacks any references. (authors’ notes, map) (Informational picture book. 9-12)