Gulf

Rating:
Summary: Essential!
Review: This book made me cry. All three times I read it. It succeeds completely in its goal of making you see the Gulf War from the other side, the side of the "enemy" Iraqis. "Gulf" is about a British boy, Andy, who has a strange emphatic gift. He can identify with anyone or anything, from an injured baby squirrel to an African witch-doctor he reads about in the paper. He seems to be a bit psychic. His family is used to his strangeness, so when he starts dreaming about the desert, they think nothing of it. His older brother, the narrator, is only entertained by Andy's half-asleep retelling of these dreams, which coincide with the first war in Iraq. Soon enough though, Andy can't be fully awakened. He will only speak in a gutteral language that is unfamiliar to them and stalks around as if he is under attack. He has traded bodies with a young Iraqi soldier, under attack by the Americans and fiercyly loyal to Sadam Hussein. This book is really short and gripping. You will be thinking about it for much longer than it takes you to read it. Why did we go to war? Why are we at war again?

Rating:
Summary: A bit wierd
Review: This book was a bit weird and it made it very hard to believe, but in it's own way it pulled me in.

Rating:
Summary: This could change your point of view, too!
Review: This story talks of a young boy's (Andy)life. He goes from having unusual tendencies to be able to see through other people's eyes, being able to tell his family specific facts about these people in the photos. Andy then begins to have dreams that he is an Iraqi soldier named Latiff. He acts out the life this soldier is living, and even speaks his language. Westall not only shows readers about the Gulf War through the Iraqi's eyes, but also shows readers how people from other countries viewed americans. He really is able to make you understand what people went through.