Boy Overboard

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child death, racism, and gender discrimination.

In Boy Overboard, when the family’s house is blown up by the Taliban, Jamal tells his sister, “Whatever happens, this family will always be together. We may not be in Manchester, but we will always be united” (51). With this, 11-year-old Jamal hints that family unity and loyalty are the driving forces of his story, far more than his dreams of soccer stardom in a team like Manchester United. In a country teetering on the brink of chaos, where children are killed by landmines and stray bullets and parents can vanish overnight, losing a family member is a constant fear: As Bibi hurls a rock at a passing truck, she shouts, “Trucks took Anisa’s dad away and she’s never seen him again!” (23). When Bibi accidentally steps on a mine, Jamal, grimly aware that his friend Yusuf lost his leg in a similar accident, risks life and limb to ease his own weight onto the mine’s trigger so that his sister can run away. However, Bibi then says, crying, “I don’t want to leave you” (21).