Letters to a Girl at War: Dear Blue Sky

With the spread of the internet, an increasing number of young people in war zones have been able to tell their own stories, and to be heard by a wider world. One of the most famous blogs of this kind was written by an Iraqi teen named Hadiya in the mid-2000s, after the U.S. invasion. Under the pseudonym IraqiGirl, Hadiya wrote about her life before and in the midst of war, and in 2009 Haymarket Books published her blog posts in book form under the title IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq. Published primarily for an adult audience, IraqiGirl serves as the inspiration for Mary Sullivan’s novel for readers at the middle school level and up, Dear Blue Sky (Penguin, 2012). Dear Blue Sky is Sullivan’s debut for young readers; she is the author of two novels for adults

Dear Blue Sky focuses on a large family in suburban Boston that is drawn into the war in Iraq when 13-year-old Cassie’s older brother, Sef, enlists in the Marines. Sef is the one who holds the family together—a strong and thoughtful high school graduate who chooses the military over college because of the attacks on September 11, 2001 and because he believes he can make a difference. His family is divided—his mother opposes the war, his father supports it. Cassie’s older sister, Van, has other concerns, and her eight-year-old brother Jack, who has Down syndrome, refuses to change out of his camo outfit or leave Sef’s room until they let him join the military too. The neighborhood is also divided, and on top of that, the bully next door has set his sights on Jack. As Cassie observes, “I didn’t even realize how much Sef held us together until he was gone. He was the only one who could make Van smile. He was Jack’s hero and Dad’s best buddy. He was the only one Mom listened to when she’d had too much to drink. And me, I was myself with Sef.”

When a school assignment requires Cassie to read a blog about the war in Iraq, she comes upon an Iraqi girl her age who goes by the name Blue Sky. (Blue Sky’s blog is very much modeled on that of IraqiGirl.) Cassie feels that her life is falling apart, but it’s nothing compared to Blue Sky’s life. Blue Sky’s house has been damaged by bombs. Most days she cannot go to school or even leave her house. She sees neighbors shot or blown up before her eyes. She pleads, “I want my life back.” As Cassie reads Blue Sky’s blog and initiates a correspondence with her, Sef also writes his family, and readers see that he, too, is learning that things are not as black and white as he believed. Cassie in turn worries about him, for his faith that he can make a difference because his motives are pure is being sorely tested on a battlefield where one never knows who is friend and who is foe.

Sullivan’s novel is complex and compelling, with appeal to young readers and much for their elders to ponder. It is a must-read for all ages and a book I expect to show up soon on school reading lists.