Grace Akallo and the Pursuit of Justice for Child Soldiers - Hardcover

Kem Knapp Sawyer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159935456X ISBN 13: 9781599354569

Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

An exploration of the lives of children forced to be soldiers, and the efforts to help them.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Grace Akallo dreamed of being the first person from her village to go to college, and loved attending school in her home country of Uganda. But her life was thrown into chaos when soldiers from the Lord's Resistance Army--led by the notorious Joseph Kony--invaded her boarding school, abducting her and her classmates. Forced into the night and given a gun, Grace and the others were expected to fight, or die.

Thousands of children around th world, like Grace, are violently abducted and forced to become child soldiers. They are made to participate in ongoing conflicts, often having to fight and kill. Some are given drugs and alcohol, and many are grievously abused, sometimes sexually. Many are killed in conflict or by their captors, and the ones who do survive often face new challenges, as they grapple with post-traumatic stress disorder, sexually transmitted diseases, poverty, and drug addiction. This book tells the story of Grace and other children like her, forced into violence and irreparably scarred, and the efforts, sometimes led by by Grace herself, to create a better future for these children.

Kem Knapp Sawyer is the author of several biographies for young readers, including books about Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela for Morgan Reynolds Publishing.

Review:

As a 15-year-old living in Uganda in 1996, Grace Akallo was one of many girls abducted from her Catholic boarding school... Sawyer, who evidently interviewed Akallo as well as researching other sources, tells her story clearly, while broadening the discussion at times to include other child soldiers in a worldwide, historical context. Good color photos illustrate the text. While the subject matter may be troubling to some readers, Sawyer's matter-of-fact approach makes this book a worthwhile addition to the Out in Front series...
-- Carolyn Phelan--Booklist

This series takes a look at young women who have undergone unimaginable suffering but who used their experiences to help others. Grace Akallo focuses on a young Ugandan teen who was kidnapped and conscripted into Kony's Lord's Resistance Army...Though the books center on well-known cases, they use these examples to explore the larger issues of child soldiers and child marriage in more depth. Both volumes feature an eye-catching layout, with many large color photos... these authors don't gloss over difficult subjects... Solid selections to spark discussion.
Esther Keller School Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 159935456X
• ISBN 13: 9781599354569
• Binding: Hardcover