Ahmad Akbarpour, illustrated by Morteza Zahedi, translated by Shadi Eskandani and Helen Mixter,
Good Night, Commander
Groundwood Books, 2010 (originally published in Farsi, 2005).

Ages: 4-12

In their picture book collaboration, Good Night, Commander, Ahmad Akbarpour, a prominent Iranian novelist as well as an award-winning children’s book author, and Morteza Zahedi, an internationally known Iranian illustrator, introduce the difficult subject of young children’s experience of war. Opening with an author’s note on the Iran-Iraq war, they depict one little boy’s process of grief and healing and thereby also create a means of healing for young readers.

The boy lost his leg and his mother in the war. Admonished not to wear his noisy and easily damaged prosthesis at home, he holes up in his bedroom and acts out with his toys the traumas he experienced, his mother watching from a photo on his wall. As the Commander, he is bent on destroying the enemy and avenging his mother’s death.

Zahedi depicts the boy’s life in child-like pencil drawings on a khaki background, with only a few spots of subdued color. From overhead, we view the bedroom layout with tanks, enemy soldiers, and the boy’s bed all lit by a single uncovered light bulb. The boy sees land mines, grenades, bombs and snipers everywhere but tells himself, “I’m not scared” and looks to his mom for agreement. “When…all the other children were crying and screaming because of the bombs, I just sat next to you and covered my ears with my hands. Remember?”

Then, in a brilliant plot shift, Akbarpour has the boy confront the imaginary soldier he believes killed his mother. The soldier is very young. He denies killing the boy’s mother and says he also wants to avenge his mother’s death. He too has lost a leg, but has no prosthesis. Suddenly the bereaved boy makes a compassionate leap into empathy. He lends the enemy soldier his prosthesis to show his mother, who, the soldier explains, can see him even though she’s dead.

“Cease-fire,” the little boy calls to his toys. He worries that his mother will be disappointed that he didn’t avenge her, but her picture tells him she’s proud. “Good night, Commander. Sleep tight,” she closes the story.

An IBBY Outstanding Book for Young People with Disabilities, Good Night, Commander has helped young Iranian readers deal with both their physical and emotional suffering and loss. In its excellent English translation, it can now help western readers understand the suffering of children who live in war zones or have disabilities. It may also help children of soldiers now in the Middle East to deal with loss and war-caused emotional pain. Good Night, Commander makes peace even from the worst of situations.

Charlotte Richardson
August 2010