Off to War

By Deborah Ellis

Book Overview

Society of School Librarians International Honor Book Deborah Ellis has been widely praised for her gripping books portraying the plight of children in war-torn countries. Now she turns her attention closer to home, to the children whose parents are soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. In frank and revealing interviews, they talk about how this experience has marked and shaped their lives.The children, who range in age from 7 to 17, come from all over North America. They were interviewed on military bases, in the streets, in their homes and over the phone. The strength of Off to War is that the children are left to speak for themselves, with little editorial interference beyond a brief introduction. Includes a glossary, a list of organizations and websites and suggestions for further reading.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0888998953
• ISBN13: 9780888998958
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 4

Customer Reviews

Over there

It probably happens less in New York than in other parts of the country, but as a children's librarian I occasionally get a request for children's books discussing the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. And frankly, there's not a whole lot to choose from. On the fictional side of the spectrum you can probably grab a copy of Alan Madison's 100 Days and 99 Nights, though I don't believe it actually names the war the dad's gone off to. The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman was one of the first books I'd read where a character's dad is in Iraq (and not Desert Storm), but it's fairly peripheral to the action. And then of course there was Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers, but by that point you're squarely in YA territory. Things were even bleaker in the non-fiction area of things until the appearance of Deborah Ellis's Off to War: Voices of Soldiers' Children. Known primarily for gritty YA novels that discuss children's lives in other countries, Ellis takes a back seat in this book and let's the kids take center stage. Interviewing some forty-odd children between the ages of six and seventeen, Ellis's military children talk about what it really feels like to have a member of your family going off to war. If you've ever wondered, now you can know. What does it feel like to be left behind? To watch someone you love put themselves into danger on a regular basis? To find that the person who left is not always the same person who comes back? Author Deborah Ellis systematically speaks to a wide swath of soldiers' children, always coming back to the same questions. What does your parent do? How long have they been gone? How much do you miss them? The reader never reads Ellis's questions, only the responses of the kids. The result is that the children have the book almost entirely to themselves. Through their eyes we hear stories like those of Matt, Allison, and Lewis who love their dad and want to follow in his footsteps. Or Mikyla and Marina who sense changes in their father after he's returned from overseas. We hear the voice of an anonymous 17-year-old girl whose already violent father was pushed over the edge when he came back from war, or the kid who had to deal with an abusive mother when the stress of his father's departure became too much. Each section begins with an explanation of some aspect of what the children will be discussing, whether it's where they're stationed, the role of US Special Forces, or simply what post-traumatic stress disorder is like. The book ends with a Glossary of terms and a bibliography for further reading As a human rights activist, Ellis isn't interested in launching into some kind of self-righteous political statement with this book. In fact, the book appears to have been put together with great care in terms of politics and points of view. There is a wide range of kids, opinions, political views, and personal accounts here. Some kids, most I would say, repeat the party line. That we're fighting them over there so that