AK — Peter Dickinson

A war behind him, a child soldier tries to learn the ways of peace Paul remembers nothing from before the conflict. Twelve years old, he is not a child. He is a warrior one of a handful of elite commandos who live only to fight the corrupt government of Nagala. He has no family but the boys who fight beside him, and he owns nothing but his AK-47 rifle. This is the only life he has ever known, and it is one he understands right until the day the standoff ends and his life changes forever. Paul buries his AK and heads north to join a school and attempt to live life as just another child. But at night, the battlefield consumes his dreams. When a rogue faction stages a coup in the capital and Paul's adoptive father is put in prison, the boy turns into a warrior once more. It is too late for him to have a childhood, but Paul will do whatever it takes to guarantee himself a future...