The Diary of Ali Ismail / Alan Sunderland

Summary - The Diary of Ali Ismail, Woomera, 2001-2002. Ali Ismail is a refugee. Fleeing persecution in Afghanistan, Ali is smuggled away from his family. He eventually finds himself on a ramshackle boat bound for Australia. But instead of winning freedom, Ali and his companions are taken to a detention centre in the South Australian outback. For twelve long months, as he waits to find out whether he will be allowed to stay, Ali must endure the hardship and despair of mandatory detention. He briefly experiences life outside the razor-wire fences of Woomera, but all too soon he must return, to await his fate.

Review - This book was made in the beginning of the 21st century, and followed the story of Afghani teenager, Ali Ismail. There are not many books that can give you a real insight to becoming a refugee or travelling by yourself from country to country. Most people take for granted all the advantages they have from third-world countries, like Kenya or in this case Afghanistan. While a decreasing number of people think about these under-aided countries.

This book would have to be one of the best books that I have ever read. When I started reading the book, it seemed to be very boring and not many things would happen. Not true. Later in the book, many things started to happen and I thought to myself, this book actually sounds really cool. And it also has a little bit of humour in it as well. You could say that the author, Alan Sunderland, has put every type of theme into one small book. From my point of view, absolutely excellent. If there were more books like this one, I would have all of them. The only problem is a lot of the authors these days are writing about action and comedy. What happened to thinking about other people?!?! World Peace!

When you think about it, the book could have had many endings. But the author chose one ending which really I did not like. Ali ended up living in Melbourne. I would have like it if he stayed in Adelaide. I would give this book what I say a fair 9.5 out of 10. But when I really give it a long hard think, I will just round it off and give it 10 out of 10. The best book that I have ever read.

Published: 2006
Format: Hardback, 215 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Origin: Australia

One of my grade eight students, Moose, wrote this review so please leave him a comment :)