CitizenKid, an imprint of Kids Can Press, offers a collection of books that inform

children about real issues in the world to inspire them to be better global citizens.

This graphic novel, Child Soldier, tells the harrowing true story of Michel

Chikwanine, a 5-year- old boy abducted from his village and his intellectual, activist

father and loving family, forced to join a filthy army of rebel terrorists and other

victimized children. Dehumanized, trained to commit unspeakable brutalities, the

children kill, maim, torture (often each other) in an endless hell of civil war. Threatened

with death if they try to flee, tanked up on drugs, abused and used, they also are told

they cannot return home because of the terrible stigma their societies attach to the

crimes and killings they have committed. Hope dies.

Already haunted by his ‘initiation’ in which, blindfolded, he kills his best friend,

after many months Michel does flee and finds his way home to a loving and forgiving

family which in turn suffers through the persecution and ultimate murder of Michel’s

father. The survivors finally make a new life in Canada, but the scars Michel carries give

rise to this book that tells the similar story of hundreds of thousands of boys and girls

forced to abandon their humanity, enslaved to thugs perpetrating hideous acts of war.

Beautifully, carefully illustrated, this book ends with information about the plight

of child soldiers in many parts of the world, making a case for abolition of this practice

to every level of government and the law, giving young readers avenues for activism. As

Michel’s father said: “If you ever think you are too small to make a difference, try

sleeping in a room with a mosquito.”

Highly recommended.