Shattered: Stories of Children and War
by Jennifer Armstrong
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jennifer ArmstrongEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-11-11
ISBN: 0440237653
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Book Reviews of Shattered: Stories of Children and War
Book Review: Stories that span time and geography
Summary: 5 Stars
"Shattered: Stories of Children and War," edited by Jennifer Armstrong, is an anthology of 12 stories that deal with a common theme. To give a sense of the book, here are some brief introductions to some of the stories. "Shattered," by Marilyn Singer, shows how a brother and sister deal with the legacy of their father's Vietnam War service. "Bad Day for Baseball," by Graham Salisbury, looks at the experiences of a Japanese-American boy on the day Pearl Harbor is attacked. "I'll See You When This War is Over," by M.E. Kerr, is about a Quaker family during World War II. "Faizabad Harvest, 1980," by Suzanne Fisher Staples, follows the experiences of an Afghan family during the conflict between the mujahideen and invading Soviet forces; this is a particularly horrific portrait of war's impact upon a family and a community.
Also noteworthy: "Sounds of Thunder," by Joseph Bruchac, looks at the relationship between two Indian boy soldiers serving in the U.S. Civil War. "Golpe de Estado," by Dian Curtis Regan, is about an American family in Venezuela during that country's 1992 civil conflict. This is a particularly vivid account of being an outsider caught in the middle of another country's strife. Regan makes good use of her first-person narrator, and brings irony and a darkly satiric edge to the story.
The entire anthology is only 166 pages long. This makes for compact stories, but overall the authors have compressed some real power into these pages. Each story is accompanied by a crawling footnote that that contains supplemental information that is relevant to the story. It's an interesting and unusual feature that I appreciated. The book also includes brief notes on each contributor; all but one is identified as a U.S. resident. "Shattered" is a good example of fiction anthology with a tight focus. Editor Armstrong (who contributes a tale herself) has succeeded in crafting a rich and rewarding anthology that offers some compelling perspectives on a tragically perennial human activity.
Summary of Shattered: Stories of Children and War
As bullets ring and bombs are dropped, children watch?mostly from the sidelines, but occasionally in the direct line of fire. Unaware of the political issues or power struggles behind the battle, all they know are the human, emotional consequences of this thing called war. This collection examines all of war?s implications for young people?from those caught in the line of fire to the children of the veterans of wars long past.Critically acclaimed author Jennifer Armstrong brings together 12 powerful voices in young people's literature to explore the realities of war from a child's perspective. The settings vary widely?the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, an attempted coup in Venezuela, the American Civil War, crisis in the Middle East?but the effects are largely the same. In war, no life is ever left untouched. In war, lives are shattered.
From the Hardcover edition.
For children who live in war times, whether they understand the issues or not, the future is precarious. According to the United Nations, armed conflicts now kill and maim more children than soldiers. In Shattered, editor Jennifer Armstrong gathers 12 stories that explore the ways young people are affected by war. From Afghanistan to Hawaii, Civil War times to the present, Joseph Bruchac, Ibtisam Barakat, Lois Metger, Marilyn Singer, and others describe, in painful, sometimes wry, detail small slices of their war-splintered world. M.E. Kerr depicts the mixed feelings of the family of a conscientious objector. Graham Salisbury writes about a high-school boy woken out of a complacent existence to discover his island is under attack and he must don his wrinkled high-school ROTC shirt to defend his home. A single line of text runs along the bottom of each story, providing cold, dismaying background information about each war portrayed. Authors' notes at the end of the book allow contributors to give a little more of the personal history behind the stories. (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter
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