Destroying the World in 46 Seconds

Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature – 2023

Chapter Book Category Winner

Shubaib and Safi, the twelve-year-old boys notice that injustice and evilness dominate the world.
They keep trying to find effective solutions to stop injustice from spreading, but all their attempts tend to fail.
Therefore, they decide to destroy the world that is full of evil, because there’s no hope of fixing it and it’s worth destroying.
The two friends begin to search the internet for ways to destroy the world, and suddenly they discover a book entitled “Destroying the World in 46 Seconds – Beginner’s Guide”.
Will they find the perfect way to destroy the world in this book? Will they handle all the hard work?
An interesting and lighthearted novel, it addresses an issue that might be a big deal in every young adult’s mind.

Shabib and Safi the twelve-year-old boys, once both of them began to open up to the things happening around them, which led them to conclude that injustice and evil dominate the world.
They keep trying to find effective solutions to stop injustice from spreading, but when all their attempts tend to fail they decide to destroy this world because there’s no hope of fixing it and it’s worth destroying.
The two friends begin to search the internet for ways to destroy the world, and suddenly they discover a book entitled “Destroying the World in 46 Seconds – Beginner’s Guide” but it turns out that this book is only available in public libraries, including the library in their neighborhood, so Shabib and Safi gives the library a visit so they can borrow the book.

An interesting and lighthearted novel, it addresses an issue that might be a big deal in every young adult’s mind.

For Discussion:

• Why did Safi and Shabib want to destroy the world?

• What does injustice mean? What are its forms?

• How did Safi and Shabib try to face injustice?

• Why did all their attempts fail?

• Can we fight injustice against poor people? How is that?

• Have you ever experienced a situation where you felt oppressed? Explain the situation.

• In your opinion, how can justice rule the world?

• Do the conditions that were set by the author of the book “Destroying the World in 46 Seconds” sound logical?

• What was the role of Ghazalah and Fatooh in ruining the plan to destroy the world?

• In your opinion, did the “Destroying the World” team want to destroy the world for real?

• When did you realize that the idea of destroying the world is not going to work?

• What was the feeling among the team members that made the mission of destroying the world just a fantasy?