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I Dream of Peace: Images of War by Children of Former Yugoslavia
Drawings and writings by children in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia reflect their feelings about the war
79 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 15, 2021
Beautiful book that expresses the feelings/views of children going through something that children within the UK may have no knowledge about.
A lovely book to use for history, art or English lessons.
- English lesson, write a descriptive paragraph based upon the feelings that are being emitted by the picture/art
- looking at war in history and linking art to have children create their own piece of art to show how they think they would feel (putting themselves in others shoes)
A lovely book to use for history, art or English lessons.
- English lesson, write a descriptive paragraph based upon the feelings that are being emitted by the picture/art
- looking at war in history and linking art to have children create their own piece of art to show how they think they would feel (putting themselves in others shoes)
April 22, 2023
Pensée attendrissante aux enfants de la guerre, mais aussi à l'enfant qui m'a offert cette beauté.
October 30, 2017
Viewing the world through the eyes of innocent children is always sobering and humbling.
I feel no joy when viewing this book only sadness, yet it is still beautiful and compelling in equal measures.
We often forget so caught up in politics that we forget compassion, we are too wrapped up in our own misery, that we forget the suffering of others.
I really recommend this collection of drawings as a must view.
I feel no joy when viewing this book only sadness, yet it is still beautiful and compelling in equal measures.
We often forget so caught up in politics that we forget compassion, we are too wrapped up in our own misery, that we forget the suffering of others.
I really recommend this collection of drawings as a must view.
October 4, 2013
Dreams of Peace Amid the Nightmares of War and Genocide
In 1991, the airwaves were ringing with President George H. W. Bush's call to arms to stop an act of war... in Kuwait. At the time, we heard hardly a word of the genocide in the former Yugoslavia. Would the president only have had the opportunity to have heard the poignant voices in "I Dream of Peace." The title of this touching book comes from Aleksandar, a boy in Sarajevo, who was severely burned in an explosion. The saddest fact of twentieth-century warfare is the trend of taking the fighting from the battlefield to civilian areas, where children become the targets of the atrocities committed. A trend, yes; the adults who the children count on as our role models had evidently not learned the lesson from another famous testament of children's cries, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of poetry and artwork by children at Terezin. The only thing that had changed in a half century is that "The Holocaust" became "Ethnic Cleansing."
These pictures and poems are cries of pain; yet, like so much of the spontaneity of children's creativity, they ring with hope. This book is divided into four chapters. The first three, Cruel War, The Day They Killed My House, and My Nightmare show the war from the eyes of its most innocent and vulnerable victims. With brutal honesty, the children paint burning villages, planes dropping bombs, and soldiers and tanks shooting every which way. "You flee the misery, but misery follows," says Zana. Dunja wonders why, after living in a community that celebrated its diversity, "it's so important, everyone asking who you are, what you do, where you come from." In a scene that could have come from the pages of Anne Frank or Zlata Filipovic, she remarks, "The weather is growing very cold now. No longer can you hear the singing of the birds, only the sound of the children crying for a lost mother or father, a brother or a sister." Betraying here mere 12 years of age, Maida, from Skopje, remarks, "War is the saddest word that flows from my quivering lips.... It is a deady bird that destroys our home, and deprives us of our childhood. War is the evilest of birds, turning the streets, and the world into an inferno."
The final chapter, "When I Close My Eyes I Dream of Peace," portrays the hope for peace. In stark contrast to the dark images of the first three chapters, these pictures are rendered in bright colors. Students from a fifth-grade class in Zenica mention Anne Frank's diary, which they read. "Like Anne Frank fifty years ago, we wait for peace. She didn't live to see it. Will we?" they ask. The book ends with a plea from Edina, a 12-year-old girl from Sarajevo, to all the children throughout the world, that they keep the children of Bosnia in their thoughts and hearts and to never allow what happened to them to happen again. Are the adults listening?
In 1991, the airwaves were ringing with President George H. W. Bush's call to arms to stop an act of war... in Kuwait. At the time, we heard hardly a word of the genocide in the former Yugoslavia. Would the president only have had the opportunity to have heard the poignant voices in "I Dream of Peace." The title of this touching book comes from Aleksandar, a boy in Sarajevo, who was severely burned in an explosion. The saddest fact of twentieth-century warfare is the trend of taking the fighting from the battlefield to civilian areas, where children become the targets of the atrocities committed. A trend, yes; the adults who the children count on as our role models had evidently not learned the lesson from another famous testament of children's cries, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of poetry and artwork by children at Terezin. The only thing that had changed in a half century is that "The Holocaust" became "Ethnic Cleansing."
These pictures and poems are cries of pain; yet, like so much of the spontaneity of children's creativity, they ring with hope. This book is divided into four chapters. The first three, Cruel War, The Day They Killed My House, and My Nightmare show the war from the eyes of its most innocent and vulnerable victims. With brutal honesty, the children paint burning villages, planes dropping bombs, and soldiers and tanks shooting every which way. "You flee the misery, but misery follows," says Zana. Dunja wonders why, after living in a community that celebrated its diversity, "it's so important, everyone asking who you are, what you do, where you come from." In a scene that could have come from the pages of Anne Frank or Zlata Filipovic, she remarks, "The weather is growing very cold now. No longer can you hear the singing of the birds, only the sound of the children crying for a lost mother or father, a brother or a sister." Betraying here mere 12 years of age, Maida, from Skopje, remarks, "War is the saddest word that flows from my quivering lips.... It is a deady bird that destroys our home, and deprives us of our childhood. War is the evilest of birds, turning the streets, and the world into an inferno."
The final chapter, "When I Close My Eyes I Dream of Peace," portrays the hope for peace. In stark contrast to the dark images of the first three chapters, these pictures are rendered in bright colors. Students from a fifth-grade class in Zenica mention Anne Frank's diary, which they read. "Like Anne Frank fifty years ago, we wait for peace. She didn't live to see it. Will we?" they ask. The book ends with a plea from Edina, a 12-year-old girl from Sarajevo, to all the children throughout the world, that they keep the children of Bosnia in their thoughts and hearts and to never allow what happened to them to happen again. Are the adults listening?
April 23, 2015
We can try and hide the horrible things that happen in the world from our children but they always know more than we wish. This book is filled with writing and drawing from young children who have experience war in their own backyards, where parents were unable to keep them from seeing the terrible things happening around them. The only negative I can say about this book was its lack of an explanation for why these things happened, how were they allowed to continue and for so long? Even a watered down simplified reason would have been appreciated and possibly a map showing some of the areas these children were from.
April 3, 2013
The pictures are eery. Our children know more than we think. The world has been at war so long it is easy to forget these children still need our help. I also think we are desensitized to an extent and we should discuss other country's in need.
February 11, 2017
Amazing. Children's drawings speak volumes.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews