Description

Book Synopsis

The moving story of a Kashmiri boy soldier, from a prize-winning Irish author.

It's an ordinary morning at nine-year-old Rafiq's school in rural Kashmir when the silence of dawn prayers is ripped apart by gunfire. Soldiers of the Kashmir Freedom Fighters have raided the village in search of new recruits they scrawl a line in chalk across the schoolroom wall, and any boy whose height reaches the line will be taken to fight. Rafiq is tall for his age the first boy to cross the chalkline into a life of brutality and terrorism. This is the story of Rafiq's transformation from child to boy soldier, as he is indoctrinated into the cause of fanatical belief. But his family have not forgotten him; when he can no longer recognize himself, they remember the boy he was, and reach out a hand of redemption as he spirals towards a final act of atrocity.

Chalkline

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    A Paperback / softback by Jane Mitchell

    3 in stock

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      Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 01/06/2009
      ISBN13: 9781406315172, 978-1406315172
      ISBN10: 1406315176
      Also in:
      Children & Teen Fiction

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      The moving story of a Kashmiri boy soldier, from a prize-winning Irish author.

      It's an ordinary morning at nine-year-old Rafiq's school in rural Kashmir when the silence of dawn prayers is ripped apart by gunfire. Soldiers of the Kashmir Freedom Fighters have raided the village in search of new recruits they scrawl a line in chalk across the schoolroom wall, and any boy whose height reaches the line will be taken to fight. Rafiq is tall for his age the first boy to cross the chalkline into a life of brutality and terrorism. This is the story of Rafiq's transformation from child to boy soldier, as he is indoctrinated into the cause of fanatical belief. But his family have not forgotten him; when he can no longer recognize himself, they remember the boy he was, and reach out a hand of redemption as he spirals towards a final act of atrocity.

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