African Reading Challenge Part IV

A LONG WAY GONE, MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER by Ishmael Beah

This was this month's book club selection, since it was my pick. This is a true story about a young man in Sierra Leone who became a child soldier. It is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers in more than fifty violent conflicts worldwide. This tells the story of how Ismael loses his family and is then picked up by the governmental army and forced to fight the rebels for them. It is questionable as to who is in the right in this conflict in Sierra Leone and made us realize how little we know about many of these civil wars. Ishmael is lucky that he eventually is found by UNICEF and eventually makes his way to New York City.