Brothers in Hope

Review
By Publishers Weekly

Williams, who founded the Lost Boys Foundation, debuts with a picture book that depicts the struggles of thousands of orphaned Sudanese boys, torn from their families in the mid-1980s. Her story centers on narrator Garang, a boy who herds cattle with his parents. One day he returns to find the village had been attacked and was now empty, though he soon encounters other wandering boys. ‘At first there was just me–one. Soon one became many. Too many to count.’ The boys nominate him to lead their group of 35… [T]he events will keep readers turning the pages, as the youngsters make their dangerous journey by night, sleeping in the forest by day… Garang never loses faith or hope–something that Williams, in her introduction, says she witness firsthand when she met several of the Lost Boys. Christie’s (The Palm of My Heart) acrylics, in bold strokes and brilliant colors, with their childlike renderings of figures and scenes, correlate nicely to the young narrator’s unflagging determination, and help to balance the darkness of the events.