A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

by Ishmael Beah
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Ishmael Beah grew up in Sierra Leone during its civil war. He and some of his friends have their own rap and dance group, and one day, they all go to another town to take part in a talent show. While they are out, their home town is attacked and destroyed. Ishmael is twelve years old at this point. He and his friends think about going back to find their families, but instead they end up on the run and try to make their way to some safe part of the country. Ishmael is eventually separated and forced to join the army. They brainwash him, give him drugs and an assault rifle, and let him and other children loose on the rebel army and anyone else in the way. Eventually he is released and take care of by UNICEF, but he has seen and done a lot of really bad stuff, and he doesn’t know how to be a normal person anymore. One volunteer finally reaches him through his love of rap music, and he finally begins to recover.

This book has a lot of violence, but it is more about the author’s recovery. It is also written to draw attention to the tragedy of child soldiers – Sierra Leone is not the only country where children have been used this way.

There has been some controversy about this book. Some reporters say that Beah’s dates are wrong, that certain events probably didn’t happen, and that it is unlikely that any one person could have experienced everything that happens in this book. I don’t know the whole story, but you can read about all of this on Wikipedia. Even if this book isn’t the literal truth of what happened to Ishmael Beah, it’s still a moving description of the kinds of awful things that children face in many civil wars.

You can read some of it online at Google Books.

You can watch Ishmael Beah on the Daily Show.

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Where to Find It

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