Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees

In her previous volume, Off to War: Voices of Soldiers’ Children (2008), Ellis interviewed Canadian and American children whose parents were off at war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Here, she has interviewed Iraqi children whose lives have been shattered by war. Depending on the estimates, 90,000 to

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1.2 million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the Second Gulf War, and almost five million have become refugees. Many of the children in this volume are older than those in the previous work and have seen the war firsthand, so they have much to say about their experiences. Most are now in Jordan, so this report is a bit limited by not including those who stayed behind, but the voices are poignant, insightful, angry and hopeful. Their stories are given a solid context by a fine introduction that provides a brief history of the war, a two-page map and prefaces to each person’s story. Photographs of the interviewees and a glossary round out an important chronicle of war and the world’s most vulnerable—the children. (Internet resources) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)

-Kirkus Review

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