Beni's War

Beni's moshav is located just three miles from the Syrian border. When a surprise attack occurs on Yom Kippur, his agricultural cooperative is lucky enough to receive word to evacuate, but sadly, that warning does not come quickly enough.

Tammar Stein's novel chronicles twelve-year-old Beni's experiences during the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel. This rich tale's themes of community, family, and hope offer a glimpse into the interdependent communities that made it possible for Jewish people to live in the Golan Heights. Stein uses her knowledge of Israel's people to create rich characters and touching moments to inspire young readers to define strength as service to others.

Through Beni's eyes, readers experience the trauma of losing a loved one, the hope necessary to save another, and the understanding that all sides suffer in war. Stein works to humanize both Israeli and Arab soldiers as she navigates the fine line between insight and oversimplification for her young readers. While the protagonist's understanding of the region grows during this story, he remains innocent and relatively unchanged.

Stein's story is not a coming-of-age story; it is a coming-together story. Enemies, friends, family, and strangers cooperate to protect human life. Beni learns that love and hope are stronger than fear and grief. I highly recommend this novel for middle-grade readers or anyone who longs for a deep sense of community. -- EDITOR'S CHOICE Melissa Warren, Historical Novel Society

A sequel to The Six-Day Hero, this historical novel set during Israel's Yom Kippur War is a coming-of-age story about the importance of love, courage, and acceptance. Twelve-year-old Beni and his family have just moved to a new community, and Beni hates it. Worst of all are the bullies. Beni wishes he could be brave like his brother Motti, who is in the army. He knows how to be a hero. But Yom Kippur is not even half over when Motti must leave. Suddenly, the country is at war. As everyone tries to evacuate, bombs begin to fall. Relocating to safety, all they can do is wait. Yet life must go on. Beni makes friends with an unlikely trio, and together they dream of helping the war effort. When they learn that Motti is a prisoner of war in Egypt, Beni knows he must act--but will he succeed? Utilizing the perspective of one boy caught between confidence and fear, Stein masterfully weaves together the country's rich cultural heritage and tenacity with the anxieties and sorrows of war. Using strong characters, striking landscapes, and accurate historic details, she provides a gripping glimpse of Israel in the 1970s. Readers will be motivated by Beni's perceptiveness and inspired by the strength he demonstrates through acceptance--even towards the enemy. -- Rebecca Redinger, Lincoln Park Branch, Chicago P.L, School Library Journal Starred Review

Infotainment is a term usually restricted to journalism and news. This is the term though that came to my mind as I was reading Beni's War, because it was entertaining while informative. It is an excellent book to teach about the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to the targeted age group of 9-13 year olds. If you make the protagonist the same age as the intended readers and write a book from that child's perspective it surely will resonate more with the readers. I am way over that age and still worked on me. I recalled my own mental and emotional state at that age. Making real history relatable for today's tweens is a challenge and if done successfully, like here, is a rare feat.

The book is educational on a personal level too. Besides teaching about history through a fictional story it has quite a few life lessons rather explicitly embedded in it. E.g.

• Compassion is a skill that can be developed: 'It's hard not to hate someone who hates you. It's hard not to hurt someone who's hurt you.' (Page 145)
• We are all related, so follow the golden rule: 'In such a small country, we look out for one another. And sometimes we find what we're looking for.' (Page 162)
• Grieving is a process that requires energy and time: 'That's what living with grief is like. At first, almost too heavy to bear. Awkward and painful to see. Then slowly, slowly, it begins to be possible to live. Possible to feel happiness. But it's hard work to get there, and I'm tired.' (Page 177)
• Don't dehumanize the enemy: 'I suddenly realize that to him, we're the enemy.' (Page 244)

What I enjoyed most in this book is the personified experience of a tween; how accurately the author described such everyday inner stories as magical thinking ('get better'), the angst of being bullied, the elevating feeling of forgiving someone, the excitement of learning something new....

For an adult the book is a quick read as it set in large font and each of the 265 or so actual pages has only 15 lines. While you are at it also read the two-pages long afterword for a quick account of the war.

For a summary of what actually happens in the book I recommend reading this review.
Publisher's description:
It's Yom Kippur Eve in 1973, and twelve-year-old Beni thinks his biggest problem is settling in at his new school in the Golan, where his family moved at the end of the Six-Day War. But on Yom Kippur, shocking news comes over the radio: a stunning strike on Israel has begun, led by a coalition of Arab states. In the blink of an eye, Beni's older brother Motti is off to war, leaving Beni behind with his mother and father. As bombs drop around Beni and his family, they flee to safety, every day hoping for news of Motti and the developments of the war. Beni must find a way to aid the war effort in his own way, proving that he too can be a hero, even as he learns along the way that there is dignity in every person, including the people he considers the enemy. -- Jewish Book World

Tammar Stein's Six-Day Hero (Kar-Ben, 2017) introduced readers to one Israeli family's tragic experience of the Six-Day War. With Beni's War, she continues their story. The Laor family has just moved to a moshav in the Golan where their youngest son Beni has a hard time fitting in. When he stands up for Sara, a girl whose appearance marks her out as 'different, ' he's bullied by Yoni and Ori. It takes Beni's older brother Motti, on leave from the army, to put the bullies in their place; it will take the common experience of the Yom Kippur War to bind the teens together as friends. Sitting only five kilometers from the Syrian border, the moshav is set to evacuate when Syrian shells rain down. The residents huddle in shelters, emerging to 'a festival of bonfires. All the work, the hours in the hot sun, the new crops ready for harvest--for nothing.' Without reading like propaganda, Beni's War sheds light on the strengths and vulnerabilities of Israeli life. Kibbutz Lavi welcomes the evacuees with clean diapers and baby formula. Watching a troop convoy, Beni muses, 'Every single person in those vehicles is facing danger to protect us. I wish I could do something, ' then gets busy making sandwiches for the troops with Sara.When a truce is signed, Beni's family faces a second ordeal: Motti's capture by the Egyptians. It strains credulity when twelve-year-old Beni just happens to be in the right place at the right time to help repair the bus shuttling the Egyptian POWs to the border (thus ensuring the return of his brother). One also wonders whether Beni's empathy for the Egyptian POWs reflects contemporary Israeli sentiments or is aimed at a American readership: 'One by one, the Egyptians walk by me. They don't look angry or hateful...The next man who passes me smiles and nods in silent greeting. I smile and nod back.'
Still, Beni's War depicts neither an idealized Israel nor a flawed country which needs to be apologized for. Instead, it faithfully paints life as lived in a country where war is never far away. -- Marjorie Gann, retired teacher; author of Five Thousand Years of Slavery, Toronto, Canada, AJL

When a 12-year-old's tiny country is invaded, everyone is touched by war.

Beni doesn't like his new home on the moshav in this Israeli farming community. He misses Jerusalem, and he's bullied by the other boys. But everything changes on the Yom Kippur holiday in 1973 when his country is unexpectedly invaded. Beni lives only a 10-minute drive from the border with Syria, and his home takes heavy fire from mortar shells. After hours in a shelter, Beni emerges to rubble and burning fields. Evacuated to his grandparents' house, he can't stop worrying about his brother, Motti, headed to the Egyptian front in a tank. But life goes on, even in a national crisis. Beni learns about fixing cars, becomes friends with the boys who were once his enemies, and always, always, worries about Motti. When Beni's family receives devastating and terrifying news, he just wants to feel less helpless. And so Beni embarks on a quest to help his brother. His rage at Egypt conflicts with his emerging questions about Egyptian prisoners of war: Do they eat the same food, have the same fears as the Israelis? 1970s Israel is fully realized with loving attention to detail, and subplots about daily human concerns further round out the characters. The Jewish characters are cued as Ashkenazim.

Readers coping with shattered contemporary realities will recognize themselves in a child's fears and growing empathy. -- Kirkus Reviews