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Bana Alabed, whose tweets from Aleppo shocked the world, will publish her memoir later this year
"I hope my book will make the world do something for the children and people of Syria," she wrote on Twitter
Bana Alabed, the 7-year-old girl whose tweets from besieged Aleppo drew the world’s attention to the human toll of the Syria conflict, will publish her memoir this fall.
In “Dear World,” to be published by Simon & Schuster, Bana will describe her experiences in Syria and how she and her family are adapting to their new life in Turkey.
She took to Twitter this week to announce the news to her 369,000 followers: “I am happy to announce my book will be published by Simon & Schuster. The world must end all the wars now in every part of the world.”
“I hope my book will make the world do something for the children and people of Syria and bring peace to children all over the world who are living in war,” Bana said in a statement issued through her publisher.
Her mother Fatemah, an English teacher who helps to write Bana’s tweets, told CNN that her daughter started writing the book this week. “By telling her story, I hope people will understand kids are the ones most affected by wars,” she said.
Bana began tweeting from her war-torn city in September 2016 and soon gathered a global following. Fatemah, who started the account, wanted the world to hear her children’s voices in order to galvanize global support for those in Aleppo.
“People are dying like flies here I don’t know what is next,” she wrote in an early message. “The bombs are just like falling rain.”
Tweeting several times a day, Bana told the world about the frequent air raids, the death of her friends and her dreams for the future, and shared photos of bombed buildings and graphic images of those killed.
“We could not go out,” Fatemah later told CNN. “Because of the bombs, I could not send [my children] to schools because it was so dangerous. So they lived their whole lives at home. They don’t know anyone, just me and their dad.”
Other tweets were reminders that Bana was an ordinary girl caught up in a terrifying conflict. “I watched Harry Potter movie,” Fatemah wrote in November. “Bana would like to read the book.”
J.K. Rowling, the British author of the Harry Potter series, responded by sending Bana eBooks of the entire series.
Just a few days later, Bana shared a photo of herself and her two younger brothers, Mohammed, 5, and Noor, 3, reading one of the books.
Bana’s upcoming memoir will be available as an audiobook, and a young reader’s edition will be published by Salaam Reads.
“Like so many others, I was completely captivated by Bana’s tweets from Syria, which were harrowing and heartbreaking and put a human face to this terrible quagmire,” said Christine Pride, Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster, in a statement.
“Bana’s experiences and message transcend the headlines and pierce through the political noise and debates to remind us of the human cost of war and displacement,” she said.
The Alabed family home was reduced to rubble on November 27 as the rebel-held parts of Aleppo were recaptured by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. They went into hiding, but Bana continued to tweet. More than three weeks later, she tweeted that they had “escaped” from eastern Aleppo.
The family was brought to Turkey soon after, where they now live. “I am very happy, so much safe and peace and play, there is no bombings,” Bana told CNN in February.
She continues to use the social media platform that made her famous to call for an end to all wars and to urge US President Donald Trump to take action to save the children of Syria.
“The only day God will be happy is when we end all the wars in this world,” she wrote on April 12. “No more wars. PEACE.”
CNN’s Eliza Mackintosh contributed to this story