Children’s Book Review

Sian Greenwood & Callum Harwood, Year 12, Gryphon School

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh (Bloomsbury Young Adult, 2022) £8.99 (paperback)

Sherborne Times reader offer price of £6.99 from Winstone’s Books

War is an event experienced all over the world, yet written about by so few. Katouh’s As Long as The Lemon Tree Grows uses meaningful and conscientious depictions of the terrifying reality of war, by contrasting it with hope. One can only hope to achieve the extensive plot work employed in this novel, which explains to readers, young and old, how it feels to be a victim of war, and how it can make you suffer. The protagonist, Salama, encounters circumstances of which one can only imagine from the comfort of their homes and exemplifies the true nature of conflict. Her strength and heartbreak combined make her the perfect heroine, capable of revolution and escape, and embodies the fight of refugees everywhere.

In Katouh’s presentation of love in war, readers can understand and appreciate that there is indeed hope and light at the end of the tunnel. People will always be capable of loving and that is a fact not always explored in modern literature – for that I applaud Katouh and the journey she takes readers on throughout the novel, which follows Salama and her found family attempting to escape the atrocities of civil war in their country, in their home, in Syria. This novel’s hauntingly accurate descriptions of the effects of war are profound and compelling and serve as a reminder to readers that war is often inevitable but through strength and guidance new generations can persist and evolve, leaving this harrowing conflict behind them.