Pretty Birds
by Scott Simon


Have you ever known what it is like to live in the body of another? Just knowing how they live and what they do could change the way we look at people. Also, being able to tell what life is like from their prospective would be something completely out of the ordinary. Or how about wondering what it felt like to be a Jew when the Nazi soldiers were attacking. If so, your in for some ride because Scott Simon knows how to get all the way up into your head and set you right in the feet of the main character.

Irena Zaric, a high school student, just living her life as a normal teenage girl. She is an all star basketball player, she lives in a well rounded family, is best friends with Amela Divacs, is in a secret relationship with her coach, but what tops it all, is that she was Muslim. There was one problem with that situation. Being Muslim in 1992 meant that you had to be in hiding. Serbian soldiers were taking over Bosnia and they were doing everything they had to do to give the Serbians a better lifestyle. Led by Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbs were all over the place, clearing out all the civilians that were not pure Serbs. Sarajevo, the capitol of Bosnia, was under attack, snipers were firing at all of the innocent people and all the Zaric family could do was run and hide. Only God could control what would happen to them, but the way things were going, Serbia was bigger, stronger, and faster than God.

The story suddenly starts to change as Mr. Tedic comes in. He was the assistant principal at the school Irena went and he made Irena a life changing offer. She was offered a dangerous job at the Sarajevo brewery where Irena was trained to be a professional sniper. She’s good at hitting targets, but would it be the same with shooting the Serbs? Will she have the guts to pull it off and will she, along with her family, survive this war?

While reading along in this novel, the pictures that you imagine in your head will start to turn into a clip. It puts you in the setting Irena Zaric is when she is leaving her home to go to her grandmothers house, or when she is hanging out with Amela, who is a Serbian girl. This book pulls you in like a tornado, and I am not sure if being Bosnian and Muslim have anything to do with it, or the fact that it is action packed and the immaturity level may be amusing to some, this book is definitely something I would strongly recommend to anyone.