Child Labor Around the World
A child picks coffee beans on the Kirimiri Coffee Farm in Kenya, Africa. (Photo: Robin Romano)
Today, more than 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 work. Of those, more than 80 million kids labor in extremely hazardous conditions. They weave carpets in dimly lit factories—at times, shackled to their looms. They crawl through cramped tunnels deep below the earth's surface hunting for gems and coal. And they struggle not to buckle under the crushing weight of bricks balanced on their heads.
This cycle of unending labor is robbing young people of their childhoods—even in America. Officials estimate that more than 150,000 children work illegally on U.S. farms.
In response to these alarming stories and statistics, Scholastic News Online has put together this special report on child labor. In addition to country reports and stories of hope, Child Labor Around the World will also run a series of articles profiling young laborers from different countries. New profiles will be posted regularly.
The report will also supplement an ongoing series of articles on child labor to be published in Scholastic News and Junior Scholastic.
For more information on child labor around the world log onto the Stolen Childhoods Web site.
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Sunrise Over Fallujah
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Sunrise Over Fallujah
by Walter Dean Myers
Scholastic Summer Challenge Book Pick.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR.In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, "Fallen Angels". He creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole unit of other young men and women and drops them incountry in Iraq, where they are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair. "
Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times.
$17.99
Learn more about Walter Dean Myers.
books;hardcover books;hardcovers | Ages 12 and Up
Ages 12 and Up $17.99
