1. Write down the five best things
you want to do (or be) in my life.
Write down the five things you
don’t want to do (or be).
2. The ten best things I want to do (or be) in my life.
By Karim Aboudi, 15 Jaffa Apartments, Ramallah, Palestine.
9. Alive. Plus, if I get shot, only in the places that heal
up. Not the head or spine, inshallah.
10.To live an ordinary life, in an ordinary country. Free
Palestine.
3.
4.
5. A Little Piece of Ground tells the story of a young boy living in an
extraordinary situation. It treats Palestinian children just like other
children. It relays the everyday story, experiences and emotions of
a young Palestinian child who wants "a little piece of ground" to
play soccer on, and how that is thwarted living under Israeli
military occupation on the West Bank.
6. “No one but Elizabeth Laird could have written
this book. She has lived in the Middle East. She
knows it, feels it, loves it, grieves for it and hopes
for it. Read A Little Piece of Ground, and we know
what it is to feel oppressed, to feel fear every day.
And we should know it, for this is how much of the
world lives. We are apt to see events in Palestine
and Israel as television drama; violent and
repetitive. But in this book we are taken into
Ramallah, we live there, no longer mere
observers, but involved as we should be."
Michael Morpurgo - award-winning children's
writer
7. • To challenge students perception of “Other”
• Breakdown harmful stereotypes
• Teaching diversity is teaching humanity
9. "I am left with a profound sense of shock and
disgust at the irresponsible decision to publish
what I feel is a racist, inflammatory and totally
one-sided piece of propaganda at a time when
efforts are being made to resolve this conflict."
Phyllis Simon, co-owner of Kidsbooks, in her
campaign to suppress publication of the
novel.
10. "If anybody would like to write a book about the
effects of suicide bombing on Israeli children, or
what it's like for an Israeli child, I would very much
welcome that. I think that would be an excellent
thing to do. Because I think that all aspects of this
truth should be understood."
Elizabeth Laird, in response to Simon's campaign
11. Like ordinary boys everywhere, they have their own
personal obsessions. And the main obsession that
they have is playing soccer, and they want to find a
place to play soccer.
I was profoundly shocked by what I found, by the real
dreadfulness of people's everyday life, the increasing
poverty, the harassment, the curfews. And it
occurred to me then that it would be a proper
subject for a novel to see how children are managing
under these circumstances.
12. The task of the novelist is to be true to the story. And
what I've tried to do in my book is to be as true as
possible to what it is like to be a Palestinian child today.
Author's of children's books have a particular
responsibility to portray multiple sides of a sensitive
political situation because children don't have the same
critical faculties as adults.
I would very much have liked to have put in that story a
sympathetic Israeli character and, indeed, I tried to see
how that could be done. But there's no point in making a
sentimental attempt to show a half-truth when the
whole truth is there in front of me.
