Best known to U.S. audiences as the author of Il Postino, Chilean author Antonia Sk < rmeta has written a chilling short story about a nine-year-old boy growing up under a military dictatorship in an unnamed country. Pedro is an ordinary kid who likes ot play soccer and wishes his parents would buy him a real soccer ball. He doesn’t understand why his parents spend so much time huddled around the radio listening to news until his best friend’s father is take away by soldiers. For the first time, Pedro begins to understand the political implications of his parents’ actions, even though they try to shield him from such things. “Am I against dictatorship?” he asks his mother. “Children are just children.” When an army captain shows up at Pedro’s school and demands that the students write a composition entitled “What My Family Does at Night,” Pedro does his best, hoping he will win a prize that will allow him to buy the soccer ball he wants so badly. A note at the end of the book helps to put the story into a broader context by describing some of the challenges faced by people living under a dictatorship where children are rewarded for turning on their parents. (Ages 11-16)

When can a child begin to understand the secrecy needed to survive in a dictatorship? Chilean author Skarmeta poses this question with a schoolboy who may inadvertently reveal his parents' political resistance. The child's composition about "What My Family Does at Night" may win him a soccer ballâ€"and expose his parents to harsh retaliation. He finds a way out when first he learns the lesson of repression.

In a village in Chile, Pedro and Daniel are two typical nine-year-old boys. Up until Daniel's father gets arrested, their biggest worry had been how to improve their soccer skills. Now, they are thrust into a situation where they must grapple with the incomprehensible: dictatorship and its inherent abuses. This sensitively realized story touches a nerve and brings home the uncomfortable fact that some children do encounter issues of this magnitude. Here, deft realism is brought to the page by Antonia Skarmeta's story and the edgy drawings of Alfonso Ruano, portraying a child's view of a repressive society. The Composition is a winner of the Americas Award for Children's Literature and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award.