The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have impacted the children of soldiers–men and women who have been called away from their families to fight in a faraway war. In their own words, some of these children describe how their experience has marked and shaped them.
Teenagers from Guatemala describe why they left that country and how they have adjusted to life in their new homeland.
Through nine intimate first-person narratives, Out of War tells the story of the Children’s Movement for Peace, a network of organizations struggling against the forty-year civil war in Colombia. Readers will meet young people like Juan Elias, who decided he could best avenge his father’s murder by fighting to end the war; Maritza, who found refuge in the peace movement after her family and friends abandoned her in the communas of Medellin; and Beto, who works for the peace he never had in his abusive home. The voices of these children are raw and real, and their stories are nothing short of inspirational. In 1996, the Children’s Movement for Peace helped organize the Children’s Mandate, a referendum on children’s rights in Colombia. Two million children turned out to vote for their right to peace, sending the Colombian government a powerful message about its inability to control the violence within its borders. Since then, the Movement has worked to help children cope with loss, displacement, poverty, and other effects of the war. It has also taught children how to resolve conflict without fighting. The movement’s work is impressive, yet Out of War is really about the individual children who lead the group. Through them, readers will learn not only about the tenuous life of children in Colombia, but about what it means to give back to your community and face adversity with true courage and hope.
A boy and his elephant escape into the jungle when the Viet Cong attack his village immediately after the Vietnam war. Includes a special note from the author.
On February 17, 1864, the H.L. Hunley made history as the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Soldiers on the shore waited patiently after seeing the submarine’s return signal. But after several days, the ship had failed to return. What had gone wrong? In 1995, after over 130 years of searching, the H.L. Hunley was finally found buried off the coast of South Carolina.
“Every war has turning points and every person too.”
Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.
As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.
A riveting and astonishing story.
This story takes place in Mexico in the summer of 1830, during the fight for independence. Neto and his family seek refuge in the countryside, away from the bloody conflict. During this time of anxiety and confusion, Neto finds a friend in a goat named Black Boots. (Spanish version.)
After her father is killed in the Korean War, young Blanca Estela and her mother leave California to spend the summer in Revilla, an old town in Northern Mexico with Blanca’s grandmother. At first, Blanca is unhappy in their holiday retreat, but gradually makes friends and becomes part of the community.
“Provides comprehensive information on the history of Spanish exploration in the United States, focusing on the Texas Revolt and the Mexican War”–Provided by publisher.
For the peaceful highlanders of Guatemala, life has become a nightmare. Helicopters slash like machetes through the once-quiet air. Soldiers patrol the streets, hunting down suspected guerillas. Villagers mysteriously disappear and children are recruited as soldiers. Tomasa’s family is growing increasingly desperate, especially after Mama goes into hiding with Tomasa’s oldest brother. Finally, after their house is razed to the ground and the villagers massacred, Tomasa, Manuelito, and baby Maria set off with Papa on a perilous journey to find Mama and Carlos, only to discover that where one journey ends, another begins. This gripping novel tells the story of how Tomasa’s family survives the Guatemalan army’s brutal regime and how, in the midst of tragedy, their love and loyalty — and Papa’s storytelling — keeps them going on their harrowing journey as refugees to the United States. Mirrored in the tapestries of Tomasa’s dreams, the dramatic events of the Guatemalan army’s “scorched earth” campaign of the 1980s are tempered with hope and the generosity of the human spirit.