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Child Soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army: A Review of
War Brothers
By lynmiller-lachmann on 2013-12-15 12:34:39
The experiences of child soldiers in various parts of Africa have been the subject of novels, memoirs, and even picture books
in recent years. For adult and older teen readers, outstanding titles include Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone, Dave
Eggers’ fictionalization of Valentino Achak Deng’s testimony in What Is the What, and Ahmadou Kourouma’s novel Allah Is
Not Obliged. Brothers in Hope, by Mary Williams and R. Gregory Christie, presents the experience of the Lost Boys in
SHARON E, McKAY - DANIEL LAFRANCE
Sudan for readers at the elementary school level. Sharon E. McKay and Daniel Lafrance’s
War Brothers: The Graphic Novel portrays the experiences of four Ugandan boys kidnapped into the Lord’s Resistance
Army. Jacob and his friends Tony, Paul, and Norman are young teenagers in many ways not much different from the middle
schoolers who are the principal audience for this book. Jacob and Tony are from the same well-to-do neighborhood in Gulu,
a city in eastern Uganda where the Acholi people live. Their friend Paul from boarding school has spent his summer visiting
family in New York City and arrives at the beginning of the new semester with swag from his trip. They are joined by
Norman, a younger (and very homesick) boy who has skipped grades because of his academic ability. Jacob pledges to help
Norman make his way through school. Almost immediately, guerrillas with the Lord’s Resistance Army overpower the new
guards the students’ families have hired and kidnap the young students. The LRA, led by international war criminal Joseph
Kony, claim to be Christians and Acholi nationalists, but they have violated the principles of Christianity and massacred
thousands of Acholi people. At first, Jacob and his friends are treated relatively well because the guerrillas hope to ransom
them for a large sum of money. When that falls through, they give the boys a choice: to become killers, or to work as slaves
for whatever food and water they can forage after the soldiers have been fed. Tony becomes a child soldier, while the other
three slowly starve and endure regular beatings. A former child soldier assigned to guard them is moved by Jacob’s loyalty
to the younger Norman, and he gives them tips on how to escape, but new challenges greet them when they find themselves
on the run in a wildlife refuge and later, when they return to Gulu but are shunned as war criminals by their neighbors. No
matter how they ended up in the Lord’s Resistance Army, child soldiers who escape never shed the label of “killers,” nor can
they forget the atrocities they witnessed or were forced to commit. However, both in their own country and elsewhere, non-
organizations have established rehabilitation centers for former child soldiers., and some of the characters in War Brothers
find a place there. The characters are composites of boys the authors met on a research trip to Uganda, where they visited
former child soldiers who had undergone therapy. The story is gripping, and McKay does a superb job of connecting young
readers to her characters and helping them to think about what they would have done in similar circumstances. Lafrance’s
artwork establishes the setting and complements the text with familiar images—an “I Love NY” t-shirt, for instance—
juxtaposed against the unimaginable horror that the boys endure. The format also allows the author and illustrator to cut
away from the boys’ story to offer context, such as the U.N. indictment of Kony and the futile efforts of the boys’ fathers to
raise the money to free them. Readers see that these are children of privilege, but in the end, none of their advantages can
help them; ultimately, it is up to them to save themselves.
