Siad of Somalia

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Siad is a young Somali lad who lives in a refugee camp near Mogadishu
because his family’s village was destroyed by a gang of mercenaries.
Two of his siblings have already died of disease and malnutrition. His
family hasn’t seen Siad’s father since he was conscripted into a
guerrilla army by a local warlord. Every day, Siad and the other
refugees endure terrible heat, dust, flies, and brutal beatings for a
single meal of gruel.

Private Merrick Flynn is a Canadian soldier on his way to serve as a UN
Peacekeeper in Somalia. All he knows about Somalia is that it is a place
in Africa where spiders and snakes are poisonous. Siad and Private Flynn
meet and form a friendship despite their language and cultural
differences.

This first novel is the remarkable result of Kids Netword, a writing
program that identifies and nurtures promising Canadian writers between
the ages of 7 and 14. Kids Netword began working with the author Harvey
Smith when he was a Grade 6 student. At the time of publication, Smith
was 16 years old and finishing Grade 12.

Though readable, the story would benefit from further character
development. Smith concentrates the bulk of his descriptive prose on
Siad, while giving only sketchy details of Flynn and his peacekeeping
duties. Recommended.