From the back cover: "Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pays tribute to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances.

A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees - a microcosm of today's Africa - a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends, the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear."

Okay, I'll admit that I have not read the entire book. I gave it a "1" rating based on the first story and part of the second. I decided a while back that I'm not going to waste another minute of my time forcing myself to read books I don't find either enjoyable or worth my time because I'm learning something from them. This one did not meet either of those requirements.

The first story, billed on the back as "A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya (that much is true) scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday" could not be much farther from the truth. Yes, they mention "Ex-mas", but no-one was scurrying to find gifts for anyone else. The entire story was about the parents sniffing glue and giving it to their children to sniff in order to kill their hunger pains for a while, plus arguing about their prostitute daughter and how they hoped she met rich white men so she could give them things.

The second story started off using an unfathomable dialect so much so that I couldn't make any sense out of it so I just quite reading.

This may be an Oprah pick book but it's a gigantic loser book to me. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.