A Long Way Gone (Morgan Desjardins)

A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, Farrar Publishing, 240 pp.

I found this book in the library in October and started reading it when I found out it was a summer reading book.

Summary: This book is a biography of Ishmael Beah. He grew up in a small village in Sierra Leone, Africa. At eleven years old, a group called the rebels came and took out his village killing everyone in sight. He had to leave his family as everyone ran through the forest for their lives. He was on his own escaping the rebels time after time for three years. With the help of nice people along the way, he was able to find small portions of food. Eventually he joined the army. There he was given an AK-47 that was practically bigger than him. In order to get the young children to be killers, the army used drugs and brainwashed them. He became a good soldier, brutally killing many of the rebels. An organization named NGO’s came and released him from the army camp. He was brought to a rehabilitation center in a free city. It took a long time for him to get back to normal because he was completely changed. He went to the United Nations meeting in NYC. When he returned he found an uncle of his in the city to stay with. The so-called “Freetown” was attacked by the war. He was able to escape on his own into other countries and eventually to America where he currently lives.

The audience is those who are entering 12th grade accel english and enjoy reading happy ending stories. People who like to read biographies and are interested in third world country.

Beah uses his own life experiences to create a descriptive style with his memories from the war. There are a lot of deep descriptions of the killings of soldiers as well as Ishmael’s condition.


Passages:

"How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?"
This passage made me feel awful knowing that there are kids younger than me fighting daily to stay alive and I have a completely different life in the United States. I also picked this passage because Beah mentions several times that the soldiers barely spoke. This is a quote from another soldier.

“My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed.”
I chose this passage because it was another thing that was shocking to realize was reality for a young child.
“Mambu went back to the front lines because his family refused to take him in.”
This quote stunned me. I didn’t understand why someone would refuse a child who is family after all that he had been through. It seemed that people viewed kid soldiers as animals, but with some help they can become a child again. There was also times that Ishmael would reach a village and they would offer him food but send him on his way. I didn’t understand why they didn’t allow him to stay with them. I don’t know how someone could push away a child who is malnurished and in bad physical condition.

My Relationship:
I enjoyed this book. It was shocking at first and hard to read knowing that the situations with Ishmael at eleven years old were real. I read it in two days because I could not put it down. Every chapter left you wanting to know what happens to him next. It was also a good book because it included a lot of history and current events from Africa. The ending wasn’t great because I wanted him to end up with him family. After looking back on the reading that would have been impossible.