Write down the five best things you want to do (or be) in my life. Write down the five things you don’t want to do (or be).

The ten best things I want to do (or be) in my life. By Karim Aboudi, 15 Jaffa Apartments, Ramallah, Palestine.

9. Alive. Plus, if I get shot, only in the places that heal up. Not the head or spine, inshallah. 10.To live an ordinary life, in an ordinary country. Free Palestine.

A Little Piece of Ground tells the story of a young boy living in an extraordinary situation. It treats Palestinian children just like other children. It relays the everyday story, experiences and emotions of a young Palestinian child who wants "a little piece of ground" to play soccer on, and how that is thwarted living under Israeli military occupation on the West Bank.

“No one but Elizabeth Laird could have written this book. She has lived in the Middle East. She knows it, feels it, loves it, grieves for it and hopes for it. Read A Little Piece of Ground, and we know what it is to feel oppressed, to feel fear every day. And we should know it, for this is how much of the world lives. We are apt to see events in Palestine and Israel as television drama; violent and repetitive. But in this book we are taken into Ramallah, we live there, no longer mere observers, but involved as we should be."

Michael Morpurgo - award-winning children's writer

Why Teach World Literature?

• To challenge students perception of “Other”

• Breakdown harmful stereotypes

• Teaching diversity is teaching humanity

Issues

- Avoiding Bias- Violence and grim realities- Censorship

"I am left with a profound sense of shock and disgust at the irresponsible decision to publish what I feel is a racist, inflammatory and totally one-sided piece of propaganda at a time when efforts are being made to resolve this conflict."

Phyllis Simon, co-owner of Kidsbooks, in her campaign to suppress publication of the novel.

"If anybody would like to write a book about the effects of suicide bombing on Israeli children, or what it's like for an Israeli child, I would very much welcome that. I think that would be an excellent thing to do. Because I think that all aspects of this truth should be understood."

Elizabeth Laird, in response to Simon's campaign

Like ordinary boys everywhere, they have their own personal obsessions. And the main obsession that they have is playing soccer, and they want to find a place to play soccer.

I was profoundly shocked by what I found, by the real dreadfulness of people's everyday life, the increasing poverty, the harassment, the curfews. And it occurred to me then that it would be a proper subject for a novel to see how children are managing under these circumstances.

The task of the novelist is to be true to the story. And what I've tried to do in my book is to be as true as possible to what it is like to be a Palestinian child today.

Author's of children's books have a particular responsibility to portray multiple sides of a sensitive political situation because children don't have the same critical faculties as adults.

I would very much have liked to have put in that story a sympathetic Israeli character and, indeed, I tried to see how that could be done. But there's no point in making a sentimental attempt to show a half-truth when the whole truth is there in front of me.