I Dream of Peace: Images of War by Children of Former Yugoslavia

Piercing through the often numbing effects of conventional news coverage, this extraordinary collection of drawings, poems and other writings by children traumatized by war puts an achingly human face on the tragedies of Bosnians, Serbs, Croats and other former Yugoslavians. The entries, gathered from UNICEF-sponsored art therapy programs in 1992 and 1993, are disturbing, powerful and deeply moving. Five-year-old refugee Nedim poignantly queries: ``I had a new tricycle, red and yellow and with a bell. . . . Do you think they have destroyed my tricycle too?'' More complicated fears trouble Alik, a 13-year-old refugee who saw his home burned to the ground by soldiers, saw his uncle and a neighbor machine-gunned to death and saw the people of his village deported by train to detention camps: ``I saw it all! Now I can't sleep. I try to forget, but it doesn't work. I have such difficulty feeling anything anymore.'' Another 13-year-old, Mario from Dubrovnik, confides, ``This is the worst memory in my heart. . . . I wouldn't want anyone to experience it. The women and children are being taken away by force to the detention camp. I can't get the picture out of my head. . . . '' Like their words, these young artists' drawings reveal childhoods shattered by violence--10-year-old Belma from Sarajevo, for example, draws a trio of children hideously wounded by shrapnel; her picture bears the plaintive title, ``We were only waiting for candies.'' The final pages record a remarkably resilient hope that blossoms despite the devastation, and, wrenchingly, a plea for peace. A small but well-chosen selection of black-and-white photographs of ordinary, innocent children serves as an added reminder of the absurdity of war. The book is being published by other houses in 13 countries and in nine languages; all proceeds will go to the UNICEF ``I Dream of Peace Fund,'' which supports worldwide programs for children caught in war. The American edition also contains a preface by Maurice Sendak. All ages. (May)