"SILENT MUSIC: A STORY OF BAGHDAD" by James Rumford, Roaring Brook Press; ages 6-12

There is a lot going on in James Rumford's new book, "Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad." The book offers a rare perspective on the war in Iraq, through the eyes of a boy named Ali, who lives there.

"I started as though I was going to explain what life was like for him in Baghdad," the Manoa artist and author said. But what makes "Silent Music" compelling is that Rumford does not try to explain. Instead, he shows us, Ali is the universal child all kids can relate to.

We meet his family, see that he loves to play soccer and dance, but his deepest passion is for calligraphy. Ali says, "I love to make the ink flow — from my pen stopping and starting, gliding and sweeping, leaping, dancing to the silent music in my head."

Rumford himself learned calligraphy in Afghanistan while working for the Peace Corps.

"In the Middle East, calligraphy is an art form that is still practiced and still admired," Rumford said. The author recalled a national fair in Kabul, where, amid the typical fairground displays, "there was a whole table of little sheets of calligraphy done by these guys who probably traveled two or three days to come to the capitol, and they still had dust on them, and they were sitting there showing off their calligraphy. To them, it was a beautiful thing."

In creating the book's illustrations, Rumford wove ancient techniques with modern technology. The artwork was inspired by photos on the Web taken by American military people in Iraq. The illustrations were first done in pencil and charcoal, then enhanced on Rumford's computer. He used glistening gold tones and shiny silvers, elaborate detail and intricate patterns. The calligraphy, including Arabic proverbs and pre-Islamic poems, is Rumford's.

"I wanted to make a kid feel that he or she was experiencing looking at an illuminated manuscript, or the intricacies of a book done that has beautiful calligraphy in it," Rumford said.

"If you take a look at Arabic illuminated manuscripts, especially the ones done in India or Persia, you see this kind of thing," Rumford said. "There are pages of whole manuscripts in which they have these intricate hand-painted designs."

Here, Rumford's intricate images subtly incorporate Hum-vees and helicopters.

While the setting is modern-day, Rumford likes to sprinkle in history. Through Ali's story, we learn about Yakut, one of the greatest calligraphers of the Arabic language, who lived in the 1200s and died in Baghdad. Little is known about Yakut, except that he fled to a tower to write when Mongols attacked Baghdad in 1258.

When bombs rain down on Baghdad in 2003, Ali, like Yakut, hovers in his room and writes.

"Everybody has something that they find solace in. So for (Ali) it was this, the same as the story of Yakut," Rumford said. "He created beauty. He shut out the horror. In this world, something has to trump war. Something has to be bigger than war."

Jolie Jean Cotton is a Honolulu freelance writer. Her reviews of children's books appear here on the first Sunday of the month.