posted on 26 Oct 2020

Boy, Everywhere by A.M.Dassu

Sami is a likeable 13 year old boy who is crazy about football, Playstation, ice skating, going to the cinema and hanging out having fun with his best friend. He lives a materially comfortable life in Damascus with a dad who is a Doctor in the local hospital and a Head teacher mum. So far, the fighting in Syria has been a longstanding background noise which hasn’t had much impact on his life. It has been simmering on the edge of his consciousness with overheard tales about friends and family needing to escape to safety. But children live in the moment, and he has been far too busy getting on with his life to take much notice because surely he will be ok in the big city? All this changes dramatically when a local shopping centre where his mother and little sister are visiting is badly bombed.

The charm of this book is the way in which the author manages to help the reader to get inside Sami’s head from page one. This is so important to establish because he is going to reveal himself as a complex and sensitive character with many anxieties. We need to be on his side as he goes through his many frightening experiences.  Normal life quickly unravels and the family is soon forced to make the dangerous journey across Lebanon, Turkey and Greece. At every stage of this dreadful long journey, Sami’s distinctive voice veers between incomprehension, grief, panic, guilt and hope. He feels partly responsible for their desperate situation because, if he hadn’t nagged his mother to pick up his new football boots, she wouldn’t have been in the shopping centre.  

His parents have the unenviable task of shielding Sami from too much information as well as needing to reassure him that their careful plans to eventually escape to England will be worth all the hardship. As well as skilfully helping us to empathise with the main character, the author includes important information about the background to the war and the dependence of so many people who are victims of unscrupulous criminals determined to make money out of people’s misery. I liked the way in which she does not flinch from describing many of these horrors because it is so important not to patronise serious young readers.

There are so many examples of excellent writing that paints palpable fear. One of the most memorable parts is when the exhausted family arrives in Turkey in the middle of the night and they are locked in a dirty overcrowded room with thirty other people. Sami gradually realises that they are going to make a journey to Greece on a boat and he has a longstanding fear of water. Before this can happen, they need to be moved to another locked room in another house, where more money is exchanged and here he meets a sad fifteen year old young man who has lost even more than he has, and is travelling all alone. Another firm friendship is forged in a very short time.

Many other stories about children in this situation make much of the relief at reaching a final happy destination. This one however explains that the experience of detention centres and hostels  that people have on arrival in the UK can be pretty grim and frightening too. And when they eventually arrive to stay, temporarily, with Manchester relatives in their small house, Sami assumed that they would be warmly welcomed with open arms – not so at all. His new school obviously lacks much awareness of the needs of newly arrived pupils which is also disappointing (although probably reflecting reality). He soon becomes aware that there is an anti- immigrant narrative that is flourishing in the local community. His teacher at least pairs him with a buddy who proves to be a good friend and shares many of his interests, but he is still very homesick and convinced that he has let his family down.     

 A. M. Dassu is the Director of Inclusive Minds, an organisation for people who are passionate about inclusion, diversity, equality and accessibility in children’s literature. She is a long time passionate activist for refugee campaigns and wanted to write something that challenged stereotypes:

‘My main aim for this book was to convey the true lives of Damascenes - to show the colour and the richness of their lives before the civil war, in contrast to the grey rubble and dust that dominates TV footage’.

I have always had a personal and professional interest in fiction books that relate to the experiences of Refugees and Asylum Seekers and The Letterpress Project publishes an updated list of recommendations every year. This one will definitely be added as a captivating story aimed at 10 years olds and above, including their parents, carers, teachers and anyone else who is interested in gaining further insight about the extraordinary life and resilience of an ordinary young boy from Syria.

I read it very quickly because I was intrigued and needed to be reassured that Sami and his family would begin to make a new successful life, despite everything. There is so much for readers of all ages to reflect on and discuss at length as a way of understanding how a community might offer better support and opportunities to people. I can envisage a whole scheme of work to include role play, creative writing, art, history and geography.

Strongly recommended as a very well researched, thoughtful yet action packed story that needs to be widely read.

 

Karen Argent

October 2020