Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday
Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday By Natalie C. Anderson Published by Penguin Young Readers Group ISBN-13: 9780399547614 Age Range: 12+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “An excellent choice for public and school libraries looking for powerful realistic fiction titles.” —School Library Journal Description When Abdi’s family is kidnapped, he’s forced to do the unthinkable: become a child soldier with the ruthless jihadi group Al Shabaab. In order to save the lives of those he loves, and earn their freedom, Abdi agrees to be embedded as a spy...
Read MoreThe Stars at Oktober Bend
The Stars at Oktober Bend By Glenda Millard Published by Candlewick Press ISBN-13: 9780763692728 Age Range: 12+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “A flawed but beautiful and tragic story of hope.”— Kirkus Reviews Description Alice is fifteen, with hair as red as fire and skin as pale as bone. Something inside Alice is broken: she remembers words, but struggles to speak them. Still, Alice knows that words are for sharing, so she pins them to posters in tucked-away places: railway waiting rooms, fish-and-chips shops, quiet corners. Manny is sixteen, with a...
Read MoreA Long Way Gone
A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN: 9780374531263 Age Range: 14+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “…this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide.” —Publishers Weekly Description My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life. “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” “Because there is a war.” “You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting...
Read MoreChild Soldier
Child Soldier By Jessica Dee Humphreys, Michel Chikwanine Illustrated by Claudia Davila Published by Kids Can Press, Limited Age Range: 10+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “An enlightening, accessible, and, above all, child-friendly introduction to the issue.” —School Library Journal (Starred Review) Description Michel Chikwanine was five years old when he was abducted from his school-yard soccer game in the Democratic Republic of Congo and forced to become a soldier for a brutal rebel militia. Against the odds, Michel managed to escape and find his way...
Read MoreLost Boys
Lost Boys By Darcey Rosenblatt Published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) Age Range: 9+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “A powerful look at a tragic period in history that belongs in most YA collections.” —School Library Journal Description In 1982, twelve-year-old Reza has no interest in joining Iran’s war effort. But in the wake of a tragedy and at his mother’s urging, he decides to enlist, assured by the authorities that he will achieve paradise should he die in service to his country. War does not bring the glory the boys of Iran have been promised, and...
Read MoreA Refugee’s Journey from The Democratic Republic of the Congo
A Refugee’s Journey from The Democratic Republic of the Congo By Ellen Rodger Published by Crabtree Publishing Age Range: 8+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat Readers will learn about the experiences of child soldiers and how they can help refugees in their communities… Description Eight-year-old Etienne and his family live in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kidnapped by a rebel army and forced to be a child soldier, Etienne finally escapes and is sent to a camp for freed child soldiers. He is reunited with his family who then flee the country,...
Read MoreSoldier Boy
Solider Boy By Keely Hutton Published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Age Range: 13+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “Unapologetically searing and catastrophically truthful, a reminder to readers that it demands much to meet harsh realities with impossible courage.” —Kirkus Reviews Description Soldier Boy begins with the story of Ricky Richard Anywar, abducted at age fourteen in 1989 to fight with Joseph Kony’s rebel army in Uganda’s decades-long civil war. Ricky is trained, armed, and forced to fight government soldiers alongside his brutal...
Read MoreAmina: Through My Eyes
Amina: Through My Eyes By J. L. Powers Published by Allen & Unwin Pty. Age Range: 11+ Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N | Worldcat “…a solid counterexample to Islamophobia and negative notions about Somalis.” —Kirkus Reviews Description Amina lives on the edges of Mogadishu. Her family’s house has been damaged in Somalia’s long civil war, but they continue to live there, reluctant to leave their home. Amina’s world is shattered when government forces come to arrest her father because his art has been officially censored, deemed too...
Read MoreDiamonds in the Shadow
Diamonds in the Shadow By Caroline Clooney Published by Random House Children’s Books “Cooney’s Connecticut church has sponsored war refugee families, and her stirring teen novel neither sensationalizes nor minimizes the brutality of their experiences.” –Hazel Rochman, Booklist “Although a work of fiction, it is the kind of story that will give readers pause to consider the world outside their neighborhood comfort zone” –Pat Trattles, Children’s Literature Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N Description Through their love for people, yet...
Read MoreNever Fall Down
Never Fall Down By Patricia McCormick Published by HarperCollins Publishers/Balzer + Blay McCormick has done a remarkable job of creating an authentic first-person voice for Arn and using it to lay bare his almost unimaginable experiences of horror. The resulting book is powerfully, hauntingly unforgettable. —Michael Cart, Booklist Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N Description When soldiers arrive at his hometown in Cambodia, Arn is just a kid, dancing to rock ‘n’ roll, hustling for spare change, and selling ice cream with his brother. But after the soldiers...
Read MoreSon of a Gun
Son of a Gun By Anne de Graaf Published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers “…this is a searing, graphically charged novel, told alternately by Nopi and Lucky, with several historical and pivotal stories incorporated into the narrative.” —Keisha M. Miller, School Library Journal Find a copy at Amazon | IndieBound | B&N Description I was crazy. Crazy mad. That’s how I felt when I turned in my AK-47 rifle. The commanding officer’s growl still haunts me: “This gun is your god. You listen to the voice of your god and go where your gun...
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