PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Out of sight may leave things out of mind, but a new book focuses on a problem that’s out of control for that very reason.

A book called Little Princes lays out author Conor Grennan’s transformation from a guy backpacking through Nepal just because it was cool, to a crusader for the lost children of that mountainous remote land.

Nepal’s civil war ended five years ago, but its legacy is an estimated 15-30 thousand children disconnected from family.

Grennan says, “Parents were desperate to save their children from being abducted by the Maoist rebels and being put into the army against the king, so what they would do is give their children up to a guy who promised to take them to Kathmandu Valley into safety.”

But it was a racket. Some children were warehoused, and others sold into slavery. Grennan says reuniting the children with their parents is very difficult.

“Parents are all spread out in very, very remote areas, villages that have no roads leading in or out.  They have no phones, no electricity, so the first time I tried to do it, I flew as deep into the mountains as I could.  I put on a backpack and I just had photographs essentially of 24 young children and I walked from village to village.”

The title “Little Princes” refers to an orphanage.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060