African Stories

African Stories is a compilation of real life adolescents living and struggling in Rwanda and Ethiopia. Their tales are told through the eyes of David Meckler after visiting these two countries in the summer of 2008. Each separately demonstrates the lives, characters and experiences of the individuals within each story. At the middle school age of 11 and 12, many students' knowledge of Africa is Africa as a whole; they don't really grasp or understand the differences of the regions and cultures within this huge continent. Many middle school age children know of the poverty of Africa, have heard of Darfur, and hear about the famine and displacement of people in many of its countries; however, they have trouble distinguishing where each of these have or are occurring. These short stories show young readers that African children are kids just like themselves, and each has their own unique story to tell.