The true story of one boy's beginnings in a refuge camp in Africa, and later ending up in America with his family. An account of starting with very grim circumstances and little hope, and years later, graduating from Harvard. The message is about working hard, getting the support you need, and giving support to others. An inspirational story that speaks volumes about not giving up.

Recommended Ages: Gr. 5-12

Plot Summary: Half Eritrean and half Ethiopian, Mawi Asgedom shares his family's experience as they settled into the United States after leaving a refugee camp in Sudan.

Setting: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Wheaton, IL

Characters: Mawi - main character
Tewolde - Mawi's older brother (killed by drunk driver senior year of high school)
Tsege - Mawi's mother
Haileab - Mawi's father (doctor in homeland, janitor in US until lost eyesight, killed by drunk driver)
Mehret - Mawi's younger sister

Recurring Themes: family, bullies, refugees, violence, value of education, "angels" - being kind to others

Controversial Issues: As Mawi explains in the Author's Note, he tried to leave politics out of his story. Instead, he focused on his experiences and the facts. After reading this story, I didn't learn much about the political turmoil besides the fact that it happened but I did learn how it affected one family. Violence is minor.

Mawi shares the advice given to him by his father: Don't have sex. You'll get AIDS, get a girl pregnant, lose your future. No supporting details are provided at the end of the book about the AIDS epidemic or sexual health education.

Personal Thoughts: Mawi and his siblings definitely became successful because of their parents. Tsege and Haileab offered valuable advice which their children dutifully followed. Sometimes they were clear and direct with their expectations (stop fighting) and other times they taught a lesson by telling a story (probably a traditional folktale). Their passion, hard work, perseverance, and intelligence definitely helped Mawi to become a Harvard graduate.

I really like the ideas expressed in this book and I think it is well-written for the most part. However, I disliked the organization and the use of different fonts to express different voices. The book did not have a narrative arc. Instead, each chapter covered a different part of Mawi's life, for example, there was a chapter on his fighting and stealing as a child, and later a chapter explaining the details of his mother and father's experiences as a refugee.

When his father was talking, he talked in CAPITAL letters. When his mother talked, the font was italicized. It took me a while to realize this. When his father talked, it was written in broken English.

I used this book in Summer School because the author is coming to speak at my school. I was appalled by how poorly it was written. I have a lot of respect for what the author has gone through, but as a Harvard graduate and graduation speaker I would have expected either a better written memoir, or the intelligence enough to know that he wasn't a fantastic writer and that he needed to hire a ghost writer. ( )

This tale is inspirational in that it tells of one family's travails in coming to America. It is also the reexamination of a boy's relationship to his father. ( )