ABSTRACT
This chapter grew out of the concerns and questions about "outsiderness" in adolescent literature, especially in regards to fiction about African child soldiers and African American teen gang members. The two groups, Africa and the United States, are not related each other in terms of sociopolitical contexts, but perhaps they deal with similar concerns, such as worrying about the reinforcement of stereotypes and prejudices against African American teens who bear a superficial racial resemblance to African child soldiers. African child soldiers and African American teen gangsters are consequential products of their societies. The chapter examines realistic fiction novels to bridge the global literature of African child soldiers and the multicultural literature of African American teen gang members. It discusses the importance of the distinction between child soldiers and child combatants in the international law and approaches both concepts within a broader armed-conflict context while recognizing the rudimentary step of victimization for armed conflict among child soldiers.
