My Childhood Under Fire
Nadja Halilbegovich
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2006 Kids Can Press
ISBN: 1553377974

A Sarajevo Diary -- a personal account of becoming a teenager during wartime.

Nadja Halilbegovich was twelve years old when the Bosnian War broke out in 1992. She enjoyed school, singing & life with her friends in her beautiful mountain-ringed city in Yugoslavia where, once upon a time, the 1984 Winter Olympics had been held.

Trying to live normal lives while electricity, water, food & medicines became rare, Nadja & her friends are forced to scrounge for the most basic needs, & the 100 member youth choir in which she had been a soloist dwindled down to six. With the director's help they began “rehearsing new songs as a way for children to fight evil with beauty.” New members soon joined & during the next three years they gave hundreds of performances in schools, orphanages, hospitals & refugee camps, bringing “food for people's souls.”

That was until the spring of 1995 when school was canceled because armed men were setting up barricades & sniper fire & explosions drove Nadja, her family & neighbors into their basements. The siege of Sarajevo had begun.

“Bombs are exploding all over the city. I hide my feelings from everyone, but I am drowning in despair. When will this war end? For how long will my life consist of the dead space between two explosions?” -- June 6, 1995

To steady her nerves, Nadja began a diary which grew into this edition, complete with black & white photos from her life. On the back cover is a reprint of actual pages plus one of her drawings. If you've ever doubted the value of keeping a diary, read My Childhood Under Fire & allow Nadja to change your mind. & if you think “nothing” ever happens to you, think again!

Nadja Halilbegovich, now 20, escaped to America in September of that year, & wants to talk & write about her experience because “[i]t would be sinful if I survived such a thing and did not share it after.” She has been an active performer & public speaker on behalf of the millions of children around the world who live & die under fire. She holds an undergraduate degree in music & theater from Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana.

While Kids Can Press says this is for ages 9-12, it's really for everyone!
(03/26/06)

Rebecca