Reviews

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria by Nora Neus, Muhammad Najem, Julie Robine

emilymyhren's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense

5.0

chitownjr's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

Graphic novel

akelley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

lelliereads's review against another edition

4.0

This graphic memoir follows Muhammad from ~2017-8 when he was a teenager and decided to start video-documenting the airstrikes on his home outside of Damascus, Syria. His older brother was turning in articles to news outlets and so Muhammad decides he wanted to document the journey of children affected by the war (since he himself was a child too). His twitter posts start to gain some traction and then go viral after an article about his documentation goes live on CNN. His town is eventually destroyed in the airstrikes and after many deaths, his family moves to another city in Syria and then eventually to Turkey.

This memoir is very raw and I recommend going in with caution as it's very triggering. There is on page death and destruction from war. At a very young age, Muhammad deals with grief for his family and his country and also deals with a lot of survivor's guilt. There is a follow up in the back about what the family is doing now and even a grape leaf recipe that was a staple of the family while they were in air raid shelters. This is a great book that not only brings light on a very serious war in Syria but also can inspire young tweens and teens on how to help their communities, no matter where they're from.

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.