My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary

by Nadja Halilbegovich

Book Overview

?Bombs are exploding all over the city. I hide my feelings from everyone, but I am drowning in despair. When will this war end? For how long will my life consist of the dead space between two explosions --- June 6, 1995 On the first day of the siege of Sarajevo, 12-year-old Nadja Halilbegovich's life changed forever. In the face of constant tank and sniper fire, daily life in this beautiful, mountain-ringed city was suddenly full of fear. Without...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1554532671
• ISBN13: 9781554532674
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Kids Can Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.3" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

My Childhood Under Fire >> Monica R.

You are walking back from school one day with your mom when a shell suddenly explodes a few hundred feet in front of you and kills several people. The smoke from the shell is suffocating, and you aren't able to see anything. You have no protection and cannot get yourself to a safer place to dodge the flying shells coming from behind the buildings. As you quickly hurry through the empty streets, anxiously hoping to reach home alive, you see stray body parts of people who had been killed and mutated by exploding shells. How would you feel, if everyday you had to constantly worry that any second, a shell could explode or a sniper would shoot at you and you would be killed instantaneously? Nadja Halilbegovich has written a biography called My Childhood Under Fire, which beautifully portrays the way her family lived in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War with great emotion and description. In this biography, My Childhood Under Fire, Nadja Halilbegovich writes about her painful childhood, and how growing up during the Bosnian War affected her as a person. The setting takes place in Nadja's hometown, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia in 1922, when the Bosnian War had just begun. Worried about the dangers outside of their front doorstep, Nadja and her family move to the basement of their apartment for better protection and discover that the life they once knew would be gone forever. Many of Nadja's friends and neighbors were killed throughout the war, but she kept a positive outlook on the future and never lost hope that there would be peace once again. She wrote "Why can't we all live together in peace instead of fighting wars? No country is worth a child's tear, let alone a child's life. Just when peace lures people outside, some monstrous atrocity happens, and I hear a warning voice: Nadja, the war is still here!" Nadja always had a passion for music and performing, and she never let the war stop her from risking her life to go to hospitals and performing for the sickly patients and trying to lift the spirits of her fellow civilians. The war had such an impact on Nadja that she wrote poems and songs in her diary that were broadcast over the radio several times a day. When Nadja turned 16, she was offered the opportunity to leave Saravejo and flee to America where she would live with another family and start a new life, despite the deep scars that would always be embedded in her soul from the war. By writing the book in diary format, Nadja Halilbegovich has given the story a more personal touch because of all the vivid details and real life situations that she experienced. You can see how Nadja matured throughout the book in her writing as she grew older which evolved into very expressive and powerful writing. Although it is a short book, readers of all ages can read about the impact of war on a child, and the persistence and strength Nadja had to overcome the obstacles of war, which I hope they find as inspiring as I did.

My Childhood Under Fire!!! ~Char H.

Bombs are sounding down the street, the ground is shaking, and glass is shattering in the apartment below you. A very intriguing and interesting book, My Childhood Under Fire was a diary written by Nadja Halilbegovich from 1992 to 1995. She started the diary when she was twelve years old and lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia- Herzegovina. In her diary she wrote that she had three lives: the first, before the war; her second, during the war; and her third, after the war. The diary mostly took place while her country was in the war and when she was affected by the surroundings. Nadja had to live in her apartment building for many years. She barely could go outside because it was too dangerous. Everyday when her mom and dad went to work, she would wait and pray that nothing happened to them. Nadja and the kids in her apartment building would play games and bake food with the few ingredients they had. One day Nadja begged her mom to go outside for fresh air and the warm sun, and when her mom finally gave in, Nadja ran down fourteen flights of stairs. "Outside I just stood still, mesmerized by the beauty of the world." While she was standing on the street, a bomb suddenly exploded and she was injured badly. Nadja luckily survived. Through the story Nadja explains how she learned, socialized and helped her city get through the war. She wrote poems, sang songs, and spoke on radio shows about peace and love. However, her life was very gloomy. She describes, "At night, black and gloomy thoughts invade me instead of sleep. In the darkness, images of bloody, dead children revolve in front of my eyes. One image after another forces upon my eyes. I feel such pain and humiliation that I cry and cry." Although her life was heartbreaking during the war, at the end of the book, Nadja receives a special opportunity that leads her out of war and into her third life. I chose this book because I wanted to read about a place that I had never heard of. Every page of the book was like discovering a new world. It took me to when I was born, 1993, but to a different part of the globe. I had never known that children were suffering like that when I had just been brought into existence. All I could think about when I was reading was how a girl my age made a difference and survived when everybody around her was dying. I recommend this book because of the truth and pain behind each page. Nadja's descriptions were so vivid that you could feel her sorrow. "Two years have flown by since the day I was wounded. The scars and shrapnel in my legs do not allow me to forget. Still, if I knew that tomorrow the war would end, my wounds would hurt less." The diary was written straight from her heart and lets the reader discover a new life. This book was very serious and sometimes depressing, but I loved the diary and highly recommend this book.

A Window into What War is Like for Children

This is a non-fiction book aimed at children ages 10 and up. It's the real-life diary of a young girl who lived in Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995, while the city was under siege. Actual diary entries are interspersed with additional descriptive passages that the author wrote later, after the war. I found My Childhood Under Fire to be utterly compelling. The writing starts out a bit simplistic (the author is a 12-year-old at that point), but matures throughout the course of the book. Nadja's diary provides a window into what life is like for ordinary citizens during a war. Nadja's mood shifts between fear, frustration, humiliation, and boredom, with periods of optimism and determination. She repeatedly rails against the aggressors who are shelling her city, and against the international community that is doing nothing to stop them. She is most disturbed by violence against children, memorializing and mourning the innocent children who have been killed in the war. This is evident even before she herself is seriously wounded. Through all the privations and suffering of war, Nadja maintains her spirit. Even when her family can't leave the house to buy gifts, and make do with scraps of food, they celebrate every birthday. Nadja demonstrates remarkably little self-pity for her own injury, focusing more on the suffering of others. Even as she criticizes the international political community, she notes every parcel that her family receives from aid groups, and the small kindnesses of her neighbors and her family members. Nadja and the people around her do whatever they can to maintain a semblance of normal life, even as they struggle without electricity or water or food or fuel. Nadja continues to strive artistically and academically, and to reach out to provide encouragement to others in her community. She and the children in her building make up a newspaper called Kids of Sarajevo. She writes poems, and reads them aloud over the radio. She sings in a singing group called Palcici, despite the danger of going outside to attend practices and concerts. She writes letters to Bill Clinton, asking him to take action. Although she clearly loves music and culture, the seeds of her later adult work as a peace advocate are readily visible before her 13th birthday. Nadja does have periods of depression and hopelessness, particularly later in the book, in the period before her ultimate escape from Sarajevo. And she experiences terrible things. The recounting of her escape from Sarajevo is almost unbelievable, yet somehow matter-of-fact. Nadja's diary shows how anything can become normal to people. It also shows how people, especially children, can maintain their humanity under dire circumstances. I think that children (and adults) can learn a lot from this book. I read it in one sitting, but will remember it long into the future. I highly recommend it, for children and adults. This review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on April 1

heartwrenching and Heartwarming

I love this book. If you want to read a book that touches your heart read this book. The author's story is so real. I liked the way she used her own dairy from the Bosnian war to tell her story. She also gives updates on what happened to her after some of the entries. She also included some of her artwork and photographs from the war. This book is amazing. You must read it. I hope she writes another one.

A Real Life Pheonix Story

Reality can weave a more amazing tale than any fiction writer. This is one of those books. The mountains around Sarajevo were once the famous ski slopes of the Olympics. During the Bosnian war they were occupied by tanks and snipers that strangled the city and picked off the stranded one by one. After six months indoors, mostly in a damp basement Nadja went outside to see the sun on a day when the shooting and shelling almost gave way to quiet. The joy of a few minutes of play suddenly ended for her. I won't give away any other details. A young Nadja tells it much better than I could. The book is the real dairy of a young girl with comments from the author looking back as a young woman. It's bound to become a elementary school standard, but is a heart-touching read for adults as well. I highly recommend parents and kids read it together.