Review: We Can Be Heroes

Title: We Can Be Heroes
Author: Catherine Bruton
Publisher: Egmont
Publication date: 1 August 2011
Format: Paperback - 486 pages
YA
Source: UK Book Tours
My Rating: 9/10

Summary:

My Dad was killed in the 9/11 attacks in New York. But the stuff in this book isn't about that. It's about the summer me and Jed and Priti tried to catch a suicide bomber and start a riot.

There's stuff about how we built a tree house and joined the bomb squad; how I found my dad and Jed lost his; and how we both lost our mums then found them again.

So it's not really about 9/11 but then again none of those things would have happened if it hadn't been for that day. So I guess it's all back to front, sort of...

My thoughts:

This is a book I instantly fell in love with from the first page.

The narrative is so different and I was sucked straight into the story which really surprised me.

We Can Be Heroes deals with a lot of issues that are normally quite hard to read about. Racism, mental health, bereavements, separations and gangs; they are all a big part of the story from the eyes of a 12 year old boy.

Reading the story from the person of a 12 year old boy named Ben was pretty amazing and really clever. It had this innocence to it that was funny and adorable at times. Parts of the book would take me back to when I was that age and parts made me laugh because of the situations the young characters would get themselves into.

It was really great that the book was about serious topics but at the same time made me laugh. That's really rare in a book I think because it doesn't always work. We Can Be Heroes deals with stereotypes such as Muslims being terrorists because of 9/11 and although it was such a tragic day, tackling the subject by having a little Muslim girl trying to get evidence of her brother being a terrorist was pure genius in my opinion. Being a Muslim myself these stereotypes are quite hard to deal with but this book looked at it in such a new light that it couldn't do anything but open my mind to different ways of thinking about all sorts of stereotypes not just in relation to 9/11. It really makes you think hard.

In my opinion, this book is seriously underrated and I would love to see what other people think about it. I strongly urge you to have a go at it because you won't be disappointed!

Catherine Bruton:
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