“Children In The Line Of Fire” – Author Reading & Signing @ Bookophilia, May 24, 2011

Appropriately during Childs Month, Bookophilia is hosting author Claudette Crawford-Brown, PhD, 6pm-8pm, on Tuesday, May 24, as she reads and does book signings of her novel: “Children in the Line of Fire”.

The title, “CHILDREN IN THE LINE OF FIRE”, underlines the fact that children in Jamaica, and the Caribbean,  are not just caught up in the literal cross hairs of guns and other forms of violence, but are figuratively “in the line of fire” from all of the major systems that make up the fabric of the society.
The novel sets out in a detailed and systematic yet non-sensational manner, the effects of violence and trauma in all its forms on children, adolescents and their families. It also includes a blueprint for what different sectors of society must do in order to stem the scourge of violence sweeping across the islands of the Caribbean, consuming the most vulnerable sectors of our societies and the region’s future – our children.

Crawford-Brown argues that children, who are often described as soft targets in the ongoing crossfire involving various warring factions and systems, are some of the most serious casualties of ongoing violence, and that if one assumes that an important criterion for measuring a country’s development is its ability to protect its most vulnerable, the country and indeed, the region on a whole, are in danger of being in a state of persistent underdevelopment, a condition which can be  avoided with sound prevention and intervention policies.
She opines that a nation that cannot protect its children is not only a nation in trouble, but is one that can never truly be said to have developed, regardless of the economic indicators that may say otherwise.

‘CHILDREN IN THE LINE OF FIRE” is currently available at Amazon.com and Bookophilia.