War Child

A Child Soldier's Story

Emmanuel Jal, read by Megan Lloyd Davies

St. Martin's Griffin

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In the mid-1980s, Emmanuel Jal was a seven year old Sudanese boy living in a small village. But after his mother was killed and his father Simon rose to become a powerful commander in the Christian Sudanese Liberation Army, fighting for the freedom of Sudan.  Soon, Jal was conscripted into that army, one of 10,000 child soldiers, and fought through two separate civil wars over nearly a decade.
Orphaned and adrift, Jal lived through horror: marching through miles of desert toward Ethiopia, past the bones of adults and children who had fallen on the trek; witnessing the deaths of friends and family members; killing soldiers and civilians with a gun he could barely lift; starving to the point of near-cannibalism, and coming to the edge of suicide. Remarkably, Jal survived, and his life began to change when he was adopted by a British aid worker. He slowly began the journey that would lead him to music: recording and releasing his own album, which produced the number one hip-hop single in Kenya, and from there went on to perform with Moby, Bono, Peter Gabriel, and other international music stars.
Shocking, inspiring, and finally hopeful, War Child is a memoir by a unique young man determined to tell his story and in so doing bring peace to his homeland.

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Book Excerpts

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THE VILLAGERS’ VOICES rose louder and louder as they sang. Drums
thudded to greet us: the family of Simon Jok, the SPLA commander
who protected this village and the ones around it. Everyone
seemed so happy and I was too as I stood next to Babba—taller than I remembered,
with a bigger belly now. He’d been treated like a king after arriving
earlier in the day, and he had shown us to the tukul we’d been given
as a home. We even had cows now, just as Mamma had said we would.

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War Child - Trailer

18th Street Films presents War Child, a feature documentary film on Emmanuel Jal, former South Sudanese child soldier turned international hiphop sensation (ER, Blood Diamond, Live8).

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Reviews

Praise for War Child

"Disturbing and visceral...Jal tells his story in spare, direct, and searing prose that leaves nothing to the imagination and offers a close-up view of the damage done to the psyches of children turned into warriors." --Library Journal
 
"Frank, unsparing...[A] searing portrait of a war-torn youth turned community advocate and role model."--Kirkus Reviews
 
"Powerful...[an] intense personal story." --Booklist
 
"There's no glamour here, no pitched battles, only unimaginable misery... Utterly grounded, specific and real... You'll come away from this book loving Emmanuel Jal."--Washington Post
 
"Fast-paced...stark...a provocative challenge." --The New York Times
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About the Author

Emmanuel Jal, read by Megan Lloyd Davies

EMMANUEL JAL lives in London. His music has been featured in the movie Blood Diamond, the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and in three episodes of ER. He is a spokesman for Amnesty International and Oxfam, and has done work for Save the Children, UNICEF, World Food Programme, Christian Aid, and other charities, and has established his own charitable foundation, Gua Africa, to help former Sudanese child soldiers. He has been featured in Time Magazine, USA Today, the Washington Post, Newsweek.com, and on NPR, CNN, Fox, MTV, and the BBC. A documentary about Jal’s life, also called War Child, premiered to acclaim at the February 2008 Berlin Film Festival and the April 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. His first U.S. album War Child was released in May 2008.

Emmanuel Jal
Megan Lloyd Davies

© Nigel James, junofieldimages.com
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Available Formats and Book Details

War Child
A Child Soldier's Story
Emmanuel Jal, read by Megan Lloyd Davies

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Griffin
February 2010
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780312602970
ISBN10: 0312602979
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 272 pages, Includes one 8-page black-and-white photograph section
$14.99
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Unabridged Compact Disc

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Unabridged Compact Disc
Macmillan Audio
February 2009
Unabridged Compact Disc
ISBN: 9781427206343
ISBN10: 1427206341
5 3/8 x 5 7/8 inches, Audio Run Time: 9:00
$39.95

Unabridged Digital Audio

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Unabridged Digital Audio
Macmillan Audio
February 2009
Unabridged Digital Audio
ISBN: 9781427206367
ISBN10: 1427206368
Audio Run Time: 9:00
$19.99

Hardcover

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Hardcover
St. Martin's Press
February 2009
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780312383220
ISBN10: 0312383223
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 272 pages
$24.95
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e-Book Agency

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e-Book Agency
St. Martin's Press
February 2009
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429918756
ISBN10: 1429918756
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 272 pages
$9.99
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