These reviews of the book that Haviva Donin Peters asks about will appear in
the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of the AJL Newsletter:
Hampton, Wilborn. War in the Middle East: A Reporter's Story: Black
September and the Yom Kippur War. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2007.
112pp. $19.99. ISBN -10: 0763624934; 13: 9780763624934.
There are some factual subjects that, in the hands of a skillful writer,
read like suspense stories. Eileen Cooper's The Dead Sea Scrolls and Bruce
Feiler's Walking the Bible immediately come to mind. Here is another:
Hampton's first person account about his experiences as a reporter in the
Middle East during two critical events: Black September (1970) and the Yom
Kippur War (1973). In the former, the Jordanian military attacked and
ultimately expelled radical Palestinian groups that had set up a virtually
independent state within Jordan. Hampton was pinned down along with other
reporters and a few guests at Amman's Hotel Intercontinental and his story
of how he got the story will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
During the Yom Kippur War, when Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked and, for
a while, threatened to overcome the Israelis, Hampton was able to drive to
war zones in the north and the south, seeing firsthand what was going on
from the Israeli vantage point. The style in which he recounts these
experiences is reportorial in the best sense of the word: accurate,
objective, cogent, and gripping. He provides historical background and
personal anecdotes, telling readers what he is feeling and providing a
close-up view that most non-fiction for children doesn't achieve. Besides
its value as military history, Hampton's book gives readers a very exciting
taste of the life of a foreign correspondent and an insider's glimpse at how
the news media in war zones works. Highly recommended for grades 6 - 9.
Linda R. Silver, Jewish Valuesfinder, Cleveland, OH
Another Opinion
At the end of the Yom Kippur War in the Sinai, the author reports, Egyptian
soldiers walk toward Israeli soldiers. Unsure what to do, the Israeli
commander asks his superiors how to handle the situation. "Take them
prisoner," he is told. "They don't want to surrender," the Israeli
commander says. "They want to shake hands." This exchange exemplifies the
author's view of Arabs and Israelis throughout his book. By implication,
Israelis are arrogant, intransigent, militaristic, and aggressive.
Arabs/Palestinians are peaceful, human, and reasonable. The photographs
convey the same message. Photos of Israelis mainly involve tanks, guns, and
military aircraft. Palestinians are mostly shown in refugee camps on in the
rubble of war. Even though he prefaces his book with the admonition, "no
one side is right or wrong," the author clearly favors the Arab side of the
story. Arafat is referred to, but with no links to terrorism. If not for
this bias, the book might be of interest to high school journalism students
or those writing a paper on Black September or the Yom Kippur War.
Susan Berson, Denver, CO
Linda R. Silver
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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