On "The Sky of Afghanistan"

Eulate and Wimmer offer a hopeful snippet of girlhood under the oppressive conditions of war in Afghanistan.

The narrator is a cheerful girl who looks up at a sky that is “full of kites, […] but it can also be full of dreams,” to imagine a better country for herself. She is a sweet, nameless character who stands in for every Afghan girl fighting for a better future for herself and her country (think Malala Yousufzai).

While well-intended, the book devolves into a dangerous cliché. The use of kites as a metaphor for hope and joy in Afghanistan—a trope Khaled Hosseini first popularized in The Kite Runner—and the namelessness of characters and places hint at the author’s lack of direct knowledge of Afghanistan and Afghan customs.

The main character has a naive view of peacemaking. She believes peace will come if “we all walk together hand in hand, along the same path.” This quote is paired with an illustration that depicts Afghan civilians standing with an Afghan military leader and a U.S. military officer. The text and illustrations work together to suggest that peacemaking relies on cooperation between the citizens of Afghanistan, the Afghan government, and U.S. military forces, which reads as an argument in support of U.S. military intervention in the Global South.

The political bias towards the foreign influence and against a self-governing Afghanistan is furthered when the narrator points out her country's  “will to learn.” According to Eulate, the onus for change is on Afghans and the Afghan government; peace hinges solely on Afghans’ willingness to “learn,” we assume, from foreign powers. It ignores the structural deterioration that foreign influence and occupation often bring.

Wimmer includes an allusion to Bernie Boston’s 1967 photograph Flower Power in her illustration of a tank that sprouts a lily out of its muzzle. A nod to the Vietnam War, it is an inadvertent reminder of another contentious U.S. military intervention in the Global South.

Overall, this book is a misunderstanding of Afghanistan. At best, it offers naïve hope. At worst, it’s a dangerous piece of military propaganda. The Sky of Afghanistan is especially troubling given that Afghans are rarely represented in children’s book publishing internationally.

Rating: ★★

THE SKY OF AFGHANISTAN By Ana A. de Eulate. Translated by Jon Brokenbow. Illustrated by Sonja Wimmer | 24 pp. | Cuento de Luz| $15.95