Top Ten ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults
Junior Library Guild Selection
Starred Reviews in Publishers Weekly and School Libraryย Journal
BookPageโs โTop Ten Middle Grade Novelsโ
A refugee and child soldier challenge the rules of war in this coming-of-age novel set against the political and military backdrop of modern-day Burma
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Bang! A side door bursts open.
Soldiers pour into the room. Theyโre shouting and waving rifles.
I shield my head with my arms. It was a lie! I think, my mind racing.
Girls and boys alike are screaming. The soldiers prod and herd some of us together and push the rest apart as if we're cows or goats.
Their leader, though, is a middle-aged man. Heโs moving slowly, intently, not dashing around like the others. โTake the boys only, Win Min,โ I overhear him telling a tall, gangly soldier. โMake them obey.โ
Chiko isnโt a fighter by nature. Heโs a book-loving Burmese boy whose father, a doctor, is in prison for resisting the government. Tu Reh, on the other hand, wants to fight for freedom after watching Burmese soldiers destroy his Karenni familyโs home and bamboo fields.
When Chiko is forced into the Burmese army and subsequently injured on a mission, the boysโ lives intersect. Timidity becomes courage and anger becomes compassion as both boys discover that everything is not as it seems. Mitali Perkins delivers a touching story about hopes, dreams, and the choices that define who we are.