Oranges in No Man's Land

Product Information

Oranges in No Man’s Land went on to win the Hull Children’s Book Award and was shortlisted for the Canadian Surrey Schools Book of the Year Award and the North East Book Award. It brings home the complete pointlessness of war in general, as you see how it affects innocent lives.

Ayesha and her younger siblings find themselves refugees in a bombed out flat in Beirut being cared for by an elderly grandmother. It sparked a conversation between the three of us too, a discussion about civil war and its consequences. Oranges in No Man’s Land tells the story of 10 year old Ayesha who lives in Beirut, Lebanon, with her Granny and two younger brothers. When people lived side by side as friends, yet now they are separated, how can a child even begin to comprehend that? I’ve put together some background notes, photographs and other materials about some of my books that you might like to share with your students.

Ayesha spends time caring for her grandmother but when she becomes seriously ill, Ayesha realises that the responsibility rests solely on her shoulders. My Year 6 son is currently studying Oranges in No Mans Land at school and my Year 8 daughter had chosen it from the library.

Elizabeth Laird shows how life continues in the midst of war and how children are the innocent victims caught up in it. The story is set in Lebanon, during the civil war and told from the point of view of a ten-year-old girl who, although has no idea what the fighting is all about, is caught up in the middle of it all. What you get, instead, is an honest account of what it feels like to live through something that you have no understanding of. The book is read and explored in primary schools across the UK and has been identified as one of the top 50 Children's Books celebrating cultural diversity in the UK by LoveReading4Kids.All Ayesha knows is that the war has had tragic consequences for her family, left them homeless and cut them off from friends on the other side of the city. What separates the city is an invisible line, a no-mans-land armed with soldiers from each side of the fighting.