Innocent Women and Children: Gender, Norms and the Protection of Civilians. By R. Charli Carpenter. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006. 230p. $89.95 cloth.

On the occasion of Remembrance Day in grade six and as my classmates and I cut small poppies out of red construction paper, we learned about the brave young Canadian men who died fighting for our freedom and were laid to rest in Flanders Field. A striking memory of this history lesson was that I secretly congratulated myself for being a girl. If I ever found myself in the midst of a war, it was the boys who would have to fight. A narrow escape from a dreadful fate!