Wow! What an eye opening book. This is a well told story about a boy that endured a war and survived being a child solider. The author leads the reader through his story telling it in a way that makes you wonder how such things could happen in this world, especially to children. A strength of the book was the view-point it was told from. The first person point of view really made an impact. Another strengthen was the appropriate use of flashbacks. They occurred at the right time throughout the book and really added to the impact of the story. One thing I would say was a weak point of the book is that I wished there was more background information on the war itself. I really enjoyed the story of Ishmael, but I wish that I knew more about the war itself. ( )

I'm not finished yet but this story is heartwrenching. You can see he was regular, innocent young boy who was forced to change into something altogether diffferent. His story of the war before becoming a soldier is horrific enough, but it continues to become more gruesome as a youth fighter. FOR MORE MATURE READERS, IT IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK ABOUT WAR, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND IMMIGRANT STORIES.

A Long Way Gone is a heart wrenching story of a boy soldier from Sierra Leone. While I can't say I loved reading this story it was very interesting and a topic that needs to be discussed in today's society.
A strength of this book was getting the reader to think. The amount of violence was hard to handle but necessary to the story. ( )

Fiction or non-fiction? Non-fiction.

What led you to pick up this book? It was the book club choice for October

Plot summary: The story of Ishmael, a young boy, is Sierra Leone, who witnesses first hand the war in the early 1990s and eventually goes on to become a soldier to fight in the war against the rebels in order to survive and avenge the death of his family.

What did you like most about the book? I like how the entire bookcomes full circle. You start with a happy boy, then into war, then recovery, happiness, war, and finally freedom.

What did you think of the ending? I wasn’t sure how it was going to end, but having finished it I wish that I could hear more about his journey to New York and finding his new family, did he have contact anymore with the family he left behind. I feel like I’m still missing a crutial part of the story. The only reason I know he survived is because he wrote the book.

Do you recommend this book? If you use a rating system, what’s your rating? Most definitely. I’d give it 4.5/5.

A memoir of a young man that was forced to fight as a child soldier in the Seirra Leone Civil War during the late 90's. The story goes from the boys first experience with the war, when the rebels invaded his village, through his years being forced to fight as a soldier, and eventually to how he escaped and made his way to America. The book is a commentary on social conditions in parts of the world far from our home.