CHILD SOLDIERS

There are a number of books about child soldiers in Africa.  We have read two that dealt with boys forcibly participating in and escaping violence:  What is the What; the Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers and Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder.  Here are a few additional titles about child soldiers.

Young soldiers : why they choose to fight by Rachel Brett & Irma Specht. (2004)

Based on interviews with 53 young soldiers and ex-soldiers from nine countries around the world who identify themselves as having "volunteered" for national armies, paramilitaries, rebel groups, or other armed groups, the authors bring together the under-18s' own views about why they are combatants.

Son of a gun by Anne de Graaf. (2012)  [Juvenile novel]

Siblings Lucky and Nopi, eight and ten, are kidnapped from school, and forced to serve as child soldiers in Liberia's civil war

Child, victim, soldier : the loss of innocence in Uganda  by Donald H. Dunson. (2008)

Dunson (a missionary priest who worked in Africa) tells the stories of children abducted and forced to serve as soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group in Northern Uganda.

First kill your family : child soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's  Resistance Army by Peter Eichstaedt. (c2009)

Describes the experiences of children kidnapped into service for the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, in which boys are required to complete brutal initiations--murdering their parents, friends, and relatives--and girls are forced into sexual slavery and labor

Children are diamonds : an African apocalypse, a novel / by Edward Hoagland. (2013)

A vision of contemporary Africa almost as horrifying as Conrad's in Heart of Darkness, with violence flaring in all directions--toward children, toward Africans and toward NGO workers engaged in humanitarian works.

Beasts of no nation : a novel  by  Uzodinma Iweala. (2005)

In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he had known before the conflict started—a life of school friends, church services, and time with his family still intact.

In a powerful, strikingly original voice that vividly captures Agu's youth and confusion, Uzodinma Iweala has produced a harrowing, inventive, and deeply affecting novel.

War child : a child soldier's story by  Emmanuel Jal ; with Megan Lloyd Davies.(2009)

His mother killed and his father a commander in the Christian Sudanese Liberation Army, Jal became a child soldier. Now he is a musician and Oxfam and Amnesty International spokesman, and a documentary of his life won the Cadillac Award at the Tribeca Film Festival

War child [videorecording] / 18th Street Films ;  in association with Interface Media Group and The Global Fund for Children ; a C. Karim Chrobug film ; directed by C. Karim Chrobug ; produced by C. Karim Chrobug, Afshin Molavi.

Washington, D.C. : Reel U Films, 2008. 1 videodisc (92 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.

And still peace did not come : a memoir of reconciliation by Agnes Kamara-Umunna and Emily Holland. (2011)

A Liberian journalist sifts through agonizing stories of the victims and perpetrators of 14 years of civil war in her country.

War brothers : the graphic novel / Sharon E. McKay, Daniel Lafrance ; art by Daniel Lafrance. (2013)

[Adaptation of: War brothers / Sharon McKay.]

Gr 9 Up—In this devastatingly realistic graphic novel, 14-year-old Jacob and his friends are just starting school at George Jones Seminary for Boys. The story tells of their subsequent kidnapping and near induction into the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

After Kony : staging hope  [videorecording]/ a Voices in Harmony production ; written and edited by Paul Freedman directed bBil Yoelin ; produced by Melissa Fitzgerald, Katy S. Fox ;

[New York] : First Run Features, c2012. 1 videodisc (approx. 99 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.

English and Luo dialogue; English subtitles. Narrator, Melissa Fitzgerald. Originally released as a motion picture in 2011.

Follows a team of actors, playwrights, and activists who use  theater to help Ugandan teens share their story of resilience through a childhood filled with terror caused by Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army. Many of the teens were former child soldiers or sex slaves that escaped from their Lord's Resistance Army abductors. By dramatizing their stories, the teens are able to explore their traumatic past, as well as share their voices with the community and the world.

Child warriors [videorecording] / A&E Television Networks ;  [presented by] The History Channel. (c2010)

1 videodisc (47 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.  Narrated by Craig Sechler.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of children are being used as active combatants in conflicts across the globe, some as young as seven years old. This deeply moving program brings the tragic issue of child soldiers to light through the lens of a comprehensive investigation.

War witch [videorecording] = [Rebelle] / Tribeca Film presents an  Item 7 and Shen Studio production; [New York] : Cinedigm Entertainment Corp., [2013]

1 videodisc (approximately 90 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. Originally released as a motion picture in 2012. Director, Kim Nguyen. with Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien, Serge Kanyinda.

A brutal yet poetic snapshot of life as one of Africa's child soldiers, following a young girl who is kidnapped from her  village by a group of rebel fighters. Forced to gun down  members of her family and enemy soldiers, she takes solace in  fellow soldier Magician, a young albino with whom she escapes and starts a new life.

13+ for violence  Dialog in French and Lingala; optional subtitles in English.