That Mad Game

When writing their end of quarter reflections, the students in my freshmen Humanities class wrote of the impactThat Mad Gamehad on their learning. Comments such as "the instructor's choice ofThat Mad Gamewas excellent, it opened my eyes and my heart to people and situations I had never thought of before," and "My sense of myself as a global citizen grew in leaps and bounds; I have a new awareness of how others suffer from injustice far beyond my own safety; it made me want to become more active in the world." I will continue to useThat Mad Gameas the central text for my freshmen students. It is a deeply humane way for young people to begin to grapple with the consequences of war.

"Uplifting tales of survival. . . War's most vulnerable victims have their say."

[R]readers will be rewarded by [this] compelling and often uplifting anthology . . .That Mad Gamesurprises with its variety. From Taliban-controlled Kabul to a Japanese internment camp in northern California, from a teen girl's "soundtrack of war" in Beirut to a young man's long walk across much of Africa, the startling stories make for rough going at times. But the humor, beauty, and humanity shining through the darkness are what make this collection a must-have for all libraries serving high school students. --Sam Bloom

"Truly a unique title. If we are lucky, we will never know what the contributors to Powers's collection have revealed. We will only have their record to better know what it was like; we will only have their sorrow to help us understand. Highly recommended. --Coleen Mondor"

"THAT MAD GAME is a collection of personal essays that can move glaciers. At least they will move the human heart to consider the suffering of those who experience the violence and terror of war . . . Each essay presents a unique perspective, and each one shares pain but also hope. Even humor. --Nancy Bo Flood"

"There is heartache in the stories J.L. Powers has assembled here, as well as loss and pain and death. They are about war, after all. But there is humor too, and also love and faith and hope, because they are human stories too, and as each one testifies in its own way, humans are able to heal."

"I was sent to the war in Afghanistan with a lot of slogans in my head about freedom and fighting terrorism. What I found instead was a tremendous respect for the good Afghan people, a deep sympathy for the Afghan children struggling for better lives, and a profound hatred of the Taliban for the way they brutalized their own people. That Mad Game is a reminder that such hatred is the same mistake from which all the world's wars are born. The fact that That Mad Game can steer my hard heart toward sympathy for a young Talib is a sure sign of this book's tremendous potential to foster a spirit of peace and understanding in readers everywhere."

"These essays give readers a front-row seat to the hunger, the hardship, and, ultimately, the resilience of people whose childhoods were forever marked by life on the front lines."

"In reading these documents of the inhumanities of war, we open our eyes to the ways brutality is perpetuated upon people and perhaps we become a little more compassionate from this understanding."