This book shines a light on the disturbing practice of recruiting children into conflicts. Around 250,000 child soldiers are participating in conflicts around the world today. Many are physically abducted or threatened into joining by armed groups or forces who desensitize them to violence. If they survive, the only way they can be reintegrated into their communities is through physical and emotional rehabilitation. Free downloadable Teacher's Notes....

In the mid-1980s, Emmanuel Jal was a seven-year-old Sudanese boy, living in a small village with his parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. But, as Sudan's civil war moved closer-with the Islamic government seizing tribal lands for water, oil, and other resources-Jal's family moved again and again, seeking peace. Then, on one terrible day, Jal was separated from his mother, and later learned she had been killed; his father Simon rose to become a powerful...

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, which he fled just before witnessing, 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...

The Patriot Jihadi: A Child Soldier's Transformation to A Patriot Guardian is a compelling memoir that traces the remarkable journey of Shawn Pardazi from a child soldier to a dedicated guardian of peace and security. Born into a tumultuous world, Shawn's early years were marked by the brutal realities of war and violence. As a child soldier, he experienced firsthand the horrors and complexities of armed conflict. But in the midst of chaos, Shawn...

"Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will; she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods. But under the brutal rule of the Lucis, her identity means her death. Her mother knew as much. She disappeared trying to hide Sloane's truth. Sloane, too, has hidden her abilities, but on her fifteenth birthday, she is conscripted into the Lucis army. Once taken, Sloane must not only conceal her power but overcome the bloody challenges...

Reveals the world of Peter Pan through the eyes of Nick, a fatherless teen whose dreams of wonderland are replaced by the gritty reality of life and death, as Peter's recruits are forced into a lethal battle where the line between good and evil is blurred.

Based on incredible true events faced by the author's family, this emotional and gripping story about the unwavering strength of hope begins in 1940s war-torn Ukraine. Ukraine, 1941. War has ripped Katya's country and heart in two. When two soldiers knock down her door and force her into a truck, she knows deep down that this might be the last time she ever sees home. As she is driven away to a labor camp, she looks out the tiny window at the barren...