Books

“Lights!” Jessie announced loudly. Suddenly everyone was awake. Karachi appeared beneath them on the left hand side. At first they saw only a narrow strip of tiny lights, but soon it broadened. The plane swung sideways as it turned, gliding above the sea of city lights. The children hadn’t paid much attention to the other landings during the trip, but this one became very exciting! Pakistan! Every year a part of Western Pakistan underwent a drastic flood, washing away all the gardens and homes of the inhabitants. Father Falois, agriculturist, was asked by the government to try to control the floods. But life in Pakistan was so different for Bobby and his siblings. The worst part was understanding the people, that breach between the rich Muslims and the poor Christians. How would Bobby find friends? Would the screaming, proud, millionaire’s son, Sadiq, be a friend, or would Jahja, the very poorest of all? Who would be faithful when danger came?

It was hunger that drove 12-year-old Boris and his friend, Nadia, to forage for potatoes in the forbidden No-man’s-land that lay between the Russian and German lines outside the besieged city of Leningrad. But the long walk in the bitter cold, through miles of ice and snow, was too difficult for Nadia. As she lay on the ice, collapsed from exhaustion, Boris was at his wits’ end. When German patrol rescued the children and delivered them safely to the Russian lines, Boris learned that the hated enemy were not monsters — just ordinary men like any others — and that in war, everyone is the victim. Set in Leningrad during the dreadful 500 days in 1942-43 when it lay under siege by the German army, Boris is the story of a courageous boy who faces the bitter life-and-death realities of war and human survival, and, with a growing sense of compassion for all mankind, looks hopefully toward the future when all men can lay down their arms and embrace one another as brothers.