Adam is an autistic fourteen-year-old living in Aleppo in 2011. A talented artist, he creates paintings that document the effects of the Syrian Civil War on his family and his life.
The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War contains examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: After a soldier smashes Adam's bedroom window with a gun, he steps on a large shard of glass. His brother Khalid bandages his foot, despite Adam's complaints that it hurts more with the bandage.
- Cower Power: Adam hides behind his sister Yasmine when he sees some hulking, scary-looking soldiers.
- Dramatic Drop: Adam's parents send him to deliver rice to the neighbors. When he reaches their house, he finds that they have all been shot by the army, except for their son, who hid under the bed. When Adam sees the bodies, he drops the plate in shock.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Played for Drama. Adam is so malnourished that he bites his nails for the salty flavour of the dirt.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Adam's father has had eye bags ever since Adam's mama died three years ago. The bags become more pronounced after the protests begin.
- Finger in the Mail: After Khalid is taken by soldiers, his family receives a parcel containing his chopped-off hands. A few minutes later, he's thrown from a car onto the street, in poor condition but alive.
- Fingore: A soldier shoots off two of Adam's fingers for disrespecting him. Adam is grateful that at least it wasn't his drawing hand.
- Hates Being Touched: Adam. He and his family show affection by blowing kisses instead.
- Happy Rain: Due to the water shortage, Adam can no longer take showers and can only drink a limited amount of water each day, leaving him chronically dehydrated. When it finally rains, everyone runs outside to fill their buckets. Adam drinks rain and dances around in it, feeling normal for the first time in months.
- I Have a Family: While Adam and his surviving family members are traveling by bus to Damascus, soldiers come aboard to ask for everyone's ID, and find that one man doesn't have one. The man pleads, "Please don't take me, I have a family, please," but the soldiers drag him outside the bus and shoot him.
- Interrupted Suicide: Not long after the war begins, Yasmine tries to overdose on pills. Adam finds her half-conscious and vomiting. Their father takes her to the hospital, which hasn't yet become severely overcrowded.
- Only Friend: Nabil is the only boy in school who is friendly to Adam instead of mocking him. He sometimes invites Adam over to his house to play Guild Wars.
- Picky Eater: Adam will only eat his food if it's arranged in a very specific way. He associates colours with emotions, so the wrong balance of colours makes the food seem upsetting.
- Potty Failure: In her prison cell, Yasmine isn't given access to the bathroom, so she pees on the floor.
- Ransacked Room: Adam's family comes home from vacation to find that the front room has been trashed, with all the furniture broken and thrown around.
- Say My Name: After soldiers take Khalid, Adam runs to the door and screams his name.
- Sensory Overload: Adam's first awareness of the unrest is when the noise of the protestors outside overwhelms him so much that he has trouble painting.
- Sleepy Depressive: The family takes in Ali, a teenager whose family was killed by soldiers. At first he's fairly active, but as time passes, he becomes more and more depressed, until he's spending almost all day in bed. Adam himself is always tired, even though he rarely leaves the house, and is afraid of ending up like Ali.
- Spiteful Spit: When soldiers kidnap Yasmine, Adam tries to hold onto her skirt, but one of the soldiers shoves him to the ground and spits on him.
- Stress Vomit: Adam passes a box that he realises is a coffin, with a dead body inside. He's seen dead bodies before, but didn't understand what they were, and the realisation makes him vomit.
- Zipping Up the Bodybag: Adam and Yasmine go to the hospital to visit their brother Isa, who has been shot. Not long after they arrive, a nurse pulls a white cloth over him. Adam, not realizing he's dead and thinking he must be uncomfortable with his face covered, tries to pull the cloth away, but Yasmine yells at him not to touch the body.
