John Bul Dau

This is the amazing journey of John Bul Dau, one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan. He, along with tens of thousands of other children (mostly boys) was dispossessed during the civil war of the mid-1980s and became a "wanderer in the desert" for the better part of 15 years -- hungry, thirsty, often fearing for his life, living each day as if it would be his last. I cannot imagine being able to survive such a life -- let alone survive it with integrity and joy. It's the "joy" of it that truly has show more me in awe. A story not to be missed -- it is written with the simplicity of a child's heart, and with the wisdom of an old man's soul. show less

Imagine losing your entire family, your home, and everything you own, as you are forced to walk for hundreds of miles in search of safe haven. This is the experience of the Lost Boys and Lost Girls of the Sudan told in the voices of John Bul Dau and Martha Arual Akech. In 1983, both of them lived in southern Sudan: 13-year-old John in the country, and 6-year-old Martha in the city. Though they came from different clans, their large families were all part of the Dinka tribe. The nation of show more Sudan erupted into civil war, splitting north and south. The northern troops invaded, killing people, burning buildings and crops, and destroying everything in their way. John's village was burned one night, and he thought his family was dead. He escaped into the darkness with a neighbor, and they joined a ragtag group headed for the Ethiopian border... five hundred miles away. They were walking, and most were barefoot. Meanwhile, Martha and her three-year-old sister Tabitha escaped a similar attack, saved by their father's cousin. They also thought the rest of their family had been killed. The girls faced the same walk to the refugee camp at the Ethiopian border, without much food or clean water, and with constant fear of being attacked by soldiers, lions, or crocodiles when they got water from the rivers. When they arrived at Pinyudu, the refugee camp, there were thousands of homeless Sudanese, all dependent upon deliveries of food from the United Nations twice a month to survive. The groups were evacuated to a second camp in Kenya, where schools were organized, and John met Martha. They were among the Lost Boys and Lost Girls who were allowed to emigrate to America, and John's story was the focus of the award-winning documentary film, God Grew Tired of Us. Told in both voices, they share the courage, strength, and tribal loyalty they experienced through unimaginable horrors. Less violent and graphic than Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, Lost Boy, Lost Girl makes the devastating effects of war abundantly clear, without losing the hope of the human spirit. 7th grade and up. show less

"Lost Boy" John Bul Dau’s harrowing experience surviving the brutal horrors of Sudanese civil war and his adjustment to life in modern America is chronicled in this inspiring memoir and featured in an award-winning documentary film of the same name. Movingly written, the book traces Dau’s journey through hunger, exhaustion, terror, and violence as he fled his homeland, dodging ambushes, massacres and attacks by wild animals.

Hard to say this, but several of the other Lost Boys memoirs were much more enjoyable. All tough to read and they've survived unimaginable horrors so who am I to judge, but this one managed to be overpoweringly righteous and made him unlikable.