Rwanda: Fierce Clashes in Central Africa by Keith Greenberg, John Isaac, Bruce Glassman (Editor), Bruce Glassman (Editor), John Isaac (Photographer)

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4A chilling narrative. Interspersed within Greenberg's general text about the country are Isaac's eyewitness observations and photographs taken while he worked for the United Nations in war-torn Rwanda and the surrounding refugee camps in 1994. The photographer's account focuses on children who were affected by the senseless wars perpetuated by adults blinded by narrow ethnic hatred. This title will introduce young readers to the grim realities of what hatred and war do to civilian populations. Vivid, full-color photographs show refugee camps, people trekking to safety with their meager belongings on their heads, lonely children without parents, food distribution centers, etc. At the beginning of his story, Isaac introduces a nine-year-old boy called Innocent who hid while his family was murdered. Although background information about Rwanda and the reasons behind this tragedy are provided, there is no mention of the colonial legacy that nurtured and cultivated the ethnic hatred. Despite this shortcoming, this book deserves a place in most libraries.Gebregeorgis Yohannes, San Francisco Public Library, CA

Kirkus Reviews

In a work subtitled "Fierce Clashes in Central Africa," Greenberg (Magic Johnson, 1992, etc.) offers a context for the tragic story of the children of Rwanda, who have been caught in the middle of a modern-day holocaust: the civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in their country. Readers see the story through the eyes of Isaac, a United Nations photographer who was sent to document the human cost of the fighting that forced hundreds of thousands of Rwandans to flee to refugee camps in Zaire and Tanzania and left three-eighths of the Rwandan population dead. In the first-person narration that is the focus of the book and in black-and-white and full-color photographs, Isaac poignantly chronicles the devastated lives of the "unaccompanied children" (orphans) such as young Innocent, who begs Isaac to adopt him because his parents were killed in the war. This entry in the Children in Crisis series is a heartrending account of the youngest victims of yet another senseless war. It will make readers angry, it will make them weep; and it should serve not only as a basis for discussion, but for some sort of humanitarian action.

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