Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War and Plea for Peace

By Bana Alabed

'A story of love and courage amid brutality and terror, this is the testimony of a child who has endured the unthinkable.' J. K. ROWLING 

'I’m very afraid I will die tonight' - Bana Alabed, Twitter, 2 October 2016
'Stop killing us.' - Bana Alabed, Twitter, 6 October 2016
'I just want to live without fear.'  - Bana Alabed, Twitter, 12 October 2016

When eight-year-old Bana Alabed took to Twitter to describe the horrors she and her family were experiencing in war-torn Syria, her heartrending messages touched the world and gave a voice to millions of innocent children.

Bana’s happy childhood was abruptly upended by civil war when she was only three years old.

Over the next four years, she knew nothing but bombing, destruction and fear. Her harrowing ordeal culminated in a brutal siege where she, her parents, and two younger brothers were trapped in Aleppo, with little access to food, water, medicine, or other necessities.

Facing death as bombs relentlessly fell around them, one of which completely destroyed their home, Bana and her family embarked on a perilous escape to Turkey.

In Bana’s own words, and featuring short, affecting chapters by her mother, Fatemah, Dear World is not just a gripping account of a family endangered by war; it offers a uniquely intimate, child’s perspective on one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history.

Bana has lost her best friend, her school, her home and her homeland. But she has not lost her hope - for herself and for other children around the world who are victims and refugees of war and deserve better lives.

Dear World is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, the unconquerable courage of a child, and the abiding power of hope. It is a story that will leave you changed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Oct 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781471169564

Bana Alabed

Bana Alabed, born in 2009 in Aleppo, Syria, is known worldwide for her tweets during the siege of the city in 2016 and for her subsequent calls for peace and an end to all global conflict. Her tweets have earned her legions of admirers around the world by giving a remarkable insight into the daily horrors of life in the city, including airstrikes, hunger, and the prospect of her family’s death. In December 2016, Bana and her family were safely evacuated from Aleppo to Turkey. When she grows up, Bana would like to become a teacher, like her mother. Her father is a lawyer, and she has two younger brothers, Noor and Mohamed. She wrote Dear World and My Name Is Bana.

Reviews for Dear World

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dear World: A Syrian Girl’s Story of War and Plea for Peace, Bana Alabed, author, Lameece Issaq, narratorThis is a very brief account of Syria’s Assad’s war against his own people. it is unusual because it is written by a seven year old at the time it begins, who turns eight years old by the time it concludes. Bana Alabed’s courageous message will resonate in the hearts and minds of every one who absorbs it. Who else but a child could so clearly see the pain and waste of war? Who else but a child could simplistically describe the brutality and violence, the fear, the danger, the cruelty, the loss, and the implicit stupidity of war, as succinctly?Bana Alabed was born to parents of the Muslim faith. Their marriage was arranged, but they came to love each other. Their life in Aleppo, Syria, was one they loved. Their first child, Bana, was happy and also loved Aleppo and the friends she made. Precocious, she learned to read at 3 and this gift of intelligence gave her a maturity beyond her youth. As the war broke out, and she spent many years living under the threat of death and destruction, she always questioned the reason and never fully understood why their own country was constantly attacking its own people.The book alternates between messages from Bana and her mother. The terror they faced, the kidnappings, the ransom, the deaths, the destruction, and their eventual desperate escape, are all vividly expressed in their words, but in the words of Bana, they are like arrows which enter directly into the reader’s soul. At seven, this child has more common sense and a greater ability to analyze the futility of conflict, than any adult around her. She grows obsessed with the desire to tell the world about the tragedy of what the Syrian regime was and still is doing, the crimes it is committing against its own citizens, and her voice, asking the world to help, asking the people everywhere to pray for peace, to help the victims, rings out loud and clear. Her effort has placed her in danger. It is hard to imagine that a vicious regime and leader would target the voice of a child, but this child has become an enemy because she is a voice for freedom and not the yoke of the tyrannical rule of the Syrian dictator. Her mother is aware of the danger her child is in, but she believes she has a greater purpose she must serve and will not stop her voice from ringing out and reaching others with her message of hope and peace.In her innocence she is eloquent as she describes the waste of life and limb, the unspeakable pain of loss, of the death of relatives and friends, the destruction of buildings whose inhabitants have no chance of surviving and no place to run, of schools blown up that could have been filled with innocent children, of people being hunted as they simply try to hide to escape from the violence. There was no way out; there was no place to go, however, Bana, a mere child, is trying to do what others have failed to accomplish. She is trying to give them an escape route. It is very heartbreaking to hear this plain truth as it is expressed in the voice of a young child. It is heartbreaking in its innocence, and horrifying to think of her as a potential target because she does not really have freedom of speech. Her message speaks volumes more than that of any scholar. Hope and peace are the simplest of requests, and she implores everyone to work toward those goals.

[dubaireader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“I’m very afraid I will die tonight.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 2, 2016At the time that Yugoslavia collapsed, and Sarajevo was under siege, we were dependent on journalists to inform the world of the atrocities being carried out. These days, with Facebook, Twitter and the gamut of social media, we really have no excuse to claim that we are ignorant. It leaves me shamed and speechless to realise that it took a seven year old girl to alert the world to the recent situation in Aleppo.Bana Alabed has written a revealing account of life in Aleppo, starting before the siege and then detailing the awful situation her family found themselves in. Inserts from her mother (an English teacher), provide another view-point and some background to supplement Bana's narrative.Her family was reasonably well off, so they had the luxury of solar panels to power Ipads and telephones and Bana was able to send out Tweets, alerting her followers, of the building tensions and destruction surrounding her and her family. Eventually the authorities became wise to her activities and she, herself, became a target for the regime.In spite of defamatory trolls and on-line rebuttals, denying the source of the Tweets, it has been proven that she was in the places she claims and in a position to send out the messages. A seven year old was truly keeping the world informed.