Wild Poppies

May 8, 2023
Until war came to Syria, 15-year-old Omar lived happily with his 12-year-old brother Sufyan, six-year-old sister Thoraya, and their parents in the Syrian city of Raqqun, attending school, playing soccer, and helping his father tend the family farm. But when bombing begins and their father is killed by shrapnel, the boys move with Thoraya and their diabetic mother to a relative’s packed country home in village Al-Nuaman—“the poppy flower.” There, each family worries about food, water, and medicine, and the brothers clash over how to care for their loved ones. Clever, moody Sufyan, who sees Omar as a weakling and a coward, starts disappearing on increasingly risky missions to meet their needs. Often-unsure-of-himself Omar, meanwhile, steadfastly queues in hope of buying rationed supplies, and tries unsuccessfully to rein in Sufyan’s potentially dangerous activities. When Sufyan’s unwitting connection to a religious extremist group leads to his kidnapping, Omar and two friends set out to find him, taking a treacherous journey through the wilderness. In Qualey’s smooth translation, Omar and Sufyan’s alternating first-person sections thoughtfully explore myriad devastations around an ongoing crisis, including chilling details regarding Sufyan’s abduction, while the novel’s lean format provides just the right amount of tension and suspense. Ages 10–14.