I’ll take a class set of this book!

I recently finished reading A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah, and this is a book that I definitely plan to read with my students.  Ishmael was recruited as a soldier in Sierra Leone at the age of thirteen, after losing his entire family and his home during a raid by rebel soldiers.  At first he wandered the jungles aimlessly with a group of boys, searching for food and some sort of comfort.  His anger with the rebels who killed his family, combined with hunger and exhaustion, ultimately led him to join the army that was fighting against the rebels.  He quickly became addicted to the drugs they were fed regularly and became an unscrupulous killing machine.  After two years of this life he was rescued by UNICEF and slowly rehabilitated.  His eloquence and insight led to an opportunity to speak against the atrocities of war at the U.N. in New York City, and eventually a permanent home in New York.

Even though the violence described in this book is sometimes disturbing, I think it is a very important story to share with my students.  To teenagers who often glorify violence and drug use, this story could be a wake-up call.  I would also hope that by learning about the challenges that young people face growing up in other parts of the world would instill a greater appreciation for the comfortable lives teenagers in America lead and a sense of empathy for those who are not so fortunate.  That is why I chose to create a webquest based on this book for my literature enrichment project.  This book invites investigation into many important topics, especially the ways that children are impacted by war and violence in other parts of the world.