Product Description

Compelling and humane, this book reveals the lives of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world, challenging stereotypes of them as predators or a lost generation. Kidnapped or lured by the promise of food, protection, revenge, or a better life, children serve not only as combatants but as porters, spies, human land mine detectors, and sexual slaves. Nearly one-third are girls, and Michael Wessells movingly reveals the particular dangers they face from pregnancy, childbirth complications, and the rejection they and their babies encounter in their local contexts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #553048 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 302 pages

Review
"Provides a thorough introduction to the myriad problems and possibilities associated with an estimated 300,000 children who participate in military units on almost every continent." - P. G. Conway, Choice "In the past few years, the body of literature devoted to the use of child soldiers - political and security analyses, sociological explorations, case studies of specific conflicts - has been growing. But largely unheard in these books are the voices of the child soldiers themselves... [Michael Wessells] now fills that gap in the literature with an admirable work based not just on his own extensive research but on interviews with hundreds of former child soldiers." - J. Peter Pham, Wilson Quarterly"

About the Author
Michael Wessells is an experienced child protection practitioner with Christian Children's Fund and Professor at Columbia University and Randolph-Macon College.