Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein: Based on a True Story

My 6th grade son read this book for school. He need to pick a book within the genre of historical fiction. Given this book has video game and soccer references it appeared to be a good choice. He really enjoyed it. I read it after him and I have to say it is very well written. It provides a first hand account from a child's perspective of how war has affected people to some extent. It lightly touches on religious differences, politics, the devastation of war, cultural differences, and more. I highly recommend this book.

This quick read reels you in immediately, holding your attention until the last page. Fascinating, up-close viewpoint from a child’s eyes about a time period the target audience would have no recollection about...because they weren’t born yet. Lots to think about and discuss. The simplistic language, perhaps because it was co-written by a non-native English speaker, sometimes distracted me. Perhaps that is a good thing, though, because it reminded me of the narrator and his backstory.

The story is so good. It’s nice to look at the world from someone else’s view.

I have loved this window view into a young child's life the same age as my students. This has allowed my students to see what life is like for those in Iraq who are the same age as them. Must have in your middle grade classroom!

My 11-year old and I read this story together, and he found it entertaining and captivating. We enjoyed learning more about a small part of Iraq’s history through Ali’s eyes.

A young person myself during the 1991 U.S. war against Iraq, this book really widened my eyes. At that time, I wasn't interested all that much in the news, so while I was aware of the war going on, I didn't understand much about it. I've learned more since, but this book gave me a whole new perspective on the conflict. I will discuss the plot in some detail, which means there are elements of the book I'll be giving away. Given that the U.S. has been embroiled in war for multiple decades now, and given the rise of xenophobia over the last few years, I think a book like this is very timely in many ways. Unless you're a member of a military family, the fact that the U.S. is a country at war is sometimes easy to forget, since it doesn't affect the day to day lives of most Americans. The problem I see with this is it causes a lack of perspective. While I'm grateful my own kids aren't growing up in a war zone, I think it can be disturbingly easy for Americans to forget that this isn't the case for every child. Ali Fadhil's memoir is set more than twenty-five years ago, but it's an invaluable window into what life is like for children who do have to grow up with war on their doorstep. This is an insight that's not only valuable for children, it's also valuable for adults. One of my biggest concerns about our seemingly endless wars is that Americans are oblivious to the cost of those wars to the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan. What Fadhil writes about isn't always easy to read. There isn't anything graphic in the novel, but he does write about witnessing some disturbing events, such as the execution of several man at the hands of Ba'athist soldiers, as well as getting into some detail about Chemical Ali and the chemical warfare he helped Hussein wage against his own people. Since this is such serious and disturbing subject matter, I think this book is more appropriate for the ten and up set, and even then I think it's well worth parents reading it with their children in order to discuss these subjects. It can be far too easy to reduce the people living in a country we're waging war against as the enemy, while forgetting that they're human beings trying to care for their families and keep one another safe. As this book illustrates so vividly, Iraqis suffered a great deal under Hussein's rule, making him more of an enemy to his own people than he was to the U.S. The world could use a lot more empathy for the plight of people in situations like Ali Fadhil's family and a lot less unfounded fear and suspicion of people from other countries. This book contains a great deal with which most kids can identify. Along with the tensions brought about by war, Fadhil writes about his frustrations with feeling as though he's subject to unfair restrictions because of his age, as well as disputes with his siblings. There's also a very poignant section in which Fadhil's mother uses some of his comic books to light a cooking fire for her family, and how his feelings morph from anger to a new understanding of what his mother is going through, trying to care for her family in a time of war and its attendant hardships and shortages. This is a very sensitive, very startling read that touches on a myriad of important topics: war's collateral damage, racial and religious divisions within in Iraq, the oppression of the Iraqi people under Hussein, the stresses of living in a country in which your next-door neighbor might be an informant who can get you jailed or killed, and many others. There is a great deal of food for discussion here, and even if you don't have children, this book will likely teach you a lot.

My daughter read this book for a school assignment and said it was a good book.

I just loved this book because of the perspectives of the children. Being a child, my opinions and perspectives are often overlooked. This book makes me feel like my thoughts are important!

My 10 yr old son, who is fascinated by history, said this book was "brilliant". He whizzed through it, couldn't put it down.