Logo
Prev
search
Print
addthis
Rotate
Help
Next
Contents
All Pages
Browse Issues
Home
'
Good Reading : December January 2015
Contents
GOOD READING DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015 59 GENERAL NON-FICTION WOM word of mouth The Terrorist’s Son: A story of choice Zak Ebrahim with Jeff Giles On 5 November 1990, in New Jersey, Zak Ebrahim’s mother wakes her son late at night. Her face knotted with worry, she tells him to pack up his belongings as they are leaving their home and not coming back. He’s a chubby little boy of seven, dressed in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pyjamas. What his mother doesn’t tell him is that Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League, has been shot and killed. The Arab gunman seen running away from the scene has also been shot and not expected to live. The gunman is his father. The events of this night devastated the family and ruined the life of a seven-year-old boy. He and his family had to shift from place to place, always hiding their true identity. He suffered bullying from his schoolmates and from his vicious stepfather. His father, El-Sayyid Nosair, recovered from his wounds and later helped to plan the first bombing of the World Trade Center from his prison cell. His father had hoped to pass on to him the murderous hatred that he felt, but as Zak Ebrahim says, he believes that even though he was brought up with hate, he had the choice to follow in his father’s footsteps or not. He has now dedicated his life to speaking against terrorism and violence and is a powerful advocate for peace. The inspiration for this book comes from his TED talk at the main TED conference in 2014. It’s an extraordinary story. ★★★★★ Simon & Schuster $16.99 Reviewed by Merle Morcom Book John Agard Illustrated by Neil Packer My name is Book and I’ll tell you the story of my life. Book’s fascinating life story starts well before writing was born. It was a time when people sat around fires, telling stories, dancing and chanting songs. It seems that wr iting began on clay tablets with the Sumerians, more than 5000 years ago. As Book says, these tablets were his ancestors. It would have been such a hard way to write, with ‘squishy lumps of clay’ that have to be sun-dried or baked in a fire. And what did they write with? Book tells us that they used a reed. Book has certainly done his research with this story of his life. He lets us in on so many secrets: how the alphabet was born and how it changed, how the Egyptians used the papyrus plant to wr ite on (apart from drinking it, eating it and wearing it) and how sheepskin became the new papyrus, which then became known as parchment. Book feels sorry for the sheep though, as it took at least 200 of them to make one Bible. So what if you wanted a whole library? He gives thanks to the Chinese scholar who invented ‘real’ paper like we use now and to a Ger man goldsmith with the famous name of Johannes Gutenberg. Now letters could be printed instead of being wr itten by hand. He also says that when politicians talk about closing a library to save money, he feels like knocking them over the head. ‘And my hardback spine can give a jolly hard knock,’ he tells us. The anthropomorphic style of the tale makes it really engaging. Book tells his story – right up to the digital age – in such a chatty and humorous way and fills the pages with wonderful quotes from great minds. ★★★★★ Walker Books $16.95 Reviewed by Merle Morcom Book John Agard Illustrated by Neil Packer Mmy life. story starts well before writing was born. It was a time when people sat around fires, telling pack up his belongings as they are leaving their to place, always hiding their true identity. He suffered bullying from his schoolmates and from his vicious stepfather. His father, El-Sayyid Nosair, recovered from his wounds and later helped to plan the first bombing of the World Trade Center from his prison cell. His father had hoped to pass on to him
Links
Archive
November 2014
February 2015
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page
