Books about Middle East/Terrorism for middle school age

[MSWR0319]

DS is learning about Bin Laden, Sadam Hussein, ISIS, al Qaeda, Sunnis, Shiites, etc in social studies. He has asked for books so he can learn more, as he finds it fascinating. Does anyone know of some 12.5 year old appropriate books that would tell him more about these groups or anything related?

[hbridge]

Has he looked into the Persepolis series of graphic novels? It delves into the life of a child in Iran. This is the first book that DC's read when they started at a brand new middle school. It has been a few years, but I remember reading it and realizing how little I knew.

[mommy111]

That is a heavy ask.....most books that are targeted to his age will simplify issues. I agree with Hbridge, I think the books that work best for kids that age are Childrens books by authors from those areas. Newsprint’s are also great and they generally have a length that kids can pay attention to. I would make sure the news sources are diverse enough and from US as well as middle eastern sources. We’ve been lucky in that my kids read news from Chinese newspapers so they get a different world view which is quite interesting