Echoes of October
Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Why can’t we just get along?
That question is asked around the world in many ways and many languages. Yet it has taken on a particular vibrancy within the Middle East and especially regarding the Gaza conflict. This is the focal point of Echoes in October, which builds to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The story is told through the eyes of four children. All of them are 11 years old, but all of them were born of drastically different circumstances. Jannah is a Muslim girl from Gaza City. Amir is a Druze boy from Daliyat-al-Karmel. Lily is a Canadian Evangelical Christian, born in Toronto but recently relocated to Kibbut Kfar Aza. Eli is a Jewish boy from Tel Aviv. The children do not meet as a group over the course of the novel, though Eli and Amir are cousins. Lily and Jannah also meet briefly, as Lily’s father works as a volunteer driver who escorts Jannah into Israel for medical treatment.
However, despite its setting, Echoes of October plays out as a slice-of-life comic rather than a political thriller. The story remains firmly focused upon the children and their individual issues. This drives home their common ground and makes them more relatable to the young readers for who Echoes of October was written.
Eli, for instance, is worried about his parents talk of moving away from Israel. Their only concern is the safety of their family and what the threat of war may do to Eli. Yet Eli’s biggest fear is moving away from his friends, his school, and everything he knows. This is counterbalanced by the story of Lily, who has already undergone this trauma. She misses her friends in Canada and worries that her dream of being the next Taylor Swift may be short-circuited by moving halfway around the world.
Amir, an aspiring comic creator, has similarly big dreams of creating the first Druze superhero – a Captain America figure modeled on his soldier father. Unfortunately, most of his family have no use for his art and intend to put him to work in their restaurant instead of letting him continue school. Jannah also has issues with her family, for she has dreams of becoming a politician and bringing peace to the region so the people around her can be happy. Unfortunately, the people calling for violence on both sides are so much louder and so many refuse to listen to women, let alone girls.
Echoes of October does not pretend there are any easy answers. It does, however, offer one of the most heartfelt and well-structured introductions to the conflict in Gaza and how there is more than one side involved in the conflict. While the artwork and language used by Ami Adan are simple, they deliver a powerful idea that ultimately boils down to that one big question.
Why can’t we just get along?
Echoes of October is recommended by the author for readers 10 and up. This is a fair rating, as there is no objectionable content to be found here. Doubtless some will object to the idea of a children’s graphic novel that discusses the conflict in Gaza sight unseen. Yet this book is not entirely about that conflict. It is about four young people struggling to cling to some sense of normalcy in an increasingly angry world. That is something that all too many of us can related to in modern times and why I would recommend this graphic novel to readers of all ages rather than just children.
Echoes of October
By Ami Adan
Self-Published, 2025
Company Age Rating:Â 10+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Creator Representation: Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim,
Character Representation: Canadian, Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant ,
