War Brothers by Sharon McKay
I recently had the opportunity to hear L. Gen Romeo Dallaire speak at the Ontario Library Association (OLA) Super Conference and it was one of the most powerful and thought-provoking speeches that I have ever heard. The plight of the over 300,000 child soldiers in the world today is heart-wrenching and profoundly evil. One of the books in the OLA’s Red Maple Reading program deals with this subject in a way that middle school students can understand. Teachers have been telling me that they have been using this book as a read aloud in their classrooms and the students are listening intently. The students are incredulous that this situation is happening today and the doors to discussion are opened.
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I thought this was one of the most powerful books I have read.
Presently, I am reading it to a grade 7-8 class. During the first few chapters of the book they were a bit fidgety but once I started on the chapter where the school was attacked and the boys were kidnapped, you could have heard a pin drop! They are really “into” the book now. I will be interested in hearing their views at the end of the book.