This is a compelling true story. A boy named Ishmael leaves his comfortable life in an African village to attend a rap music event with his brother and a few friends. While he is gone, rebel forces attack his village destroying his home and family life. He, his brother, Junior, and his friends then wander the countryside of Sierra Leone trying to survive and avoid both the rebel and government troops. Identifying the enemy is difficult in a country rich in resources and awash with government corruption. Ishmael is separated from his group and eventually attaches himself to another group of teenage boys all under 16. Eventually, the war catches up with him and he and his little band are conscripted into the government troops. For the next two or more years and armed with an AK 47 and RPG's, he kills, maims, and robs in the name of the government. These boy soldiers take many drugs to dull their feelings and allow themselves to participate in the inhumane slaughter. Finally, aid workers either buy the boys' freedom or settle with their army leader and obtain their release. They are taken into the custody of rehabilitation counselors where they are given an opportunity for redemption. Ishmael clearly a natural leader is selected to travel to New York to attend a U.N. conference on child soldiers. While there he makes many friends. I understand that he was taken in by one of them and that he subsequently attended Oberlin college.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, because it drags a bit during the years of army participation and killing. Further, Ishmael's parents are divorced, but he lives with his father. His family is Muslim and that may be why the father retained custody. Very telling in the book was a description on pg. 77 (hardback) of his formal naming ceremony. A huge feast is prepared. First the elders eat their fill, then the men, then the boys and lastly the women and children. I presume that if there isn't enough to share, the women and children starve. I don't know if the author realized what he revealed about his culture by this telling description. However, we never learn the basis of the divorce or why his father retained custody. Living conditions were somewhat primative. The houses were made of concrete brick or mud and they had tin roofs which were particularly noisy when it rained. Their diet was complete though not luxurious, and they were not hungry. However, they walked for miles to save bus fare and did not have electricity or telephones in their homes. Sierra leone sounds like a terrible place. The film, Blood Diamond, was about a similar subject.

I really don't know if there is a solution when countrymen kill one another over money, resources, and power. However, perhaps, this book and the film, Blood diamond, will be the stimulus for a resolution.

This book was worth reading, and I recommend it.

Incredible memoir...
Easy to read, difficult to believe. Sometimes I wanted to stop because it was so painful, but I am really glad I pushed through those hard time because it is an amazing story and most important a true one. I feel it is vital to be aware of such atrocities to be both educated and balanced as a person. It is a story that really needs to be known. I deeply hope it is put into film so a wider audience knows of it.
Wherever Ishmael is now I hope he is at peace and finding joy in his life. I want to hug him and shake his hand and tell him he is amazing.

I found the book spellbounding and depressing. I could not put it down for the first two third's of the book. I gave it to my daughter who thought it was just as good.

I heard his story as he did an interview on NPR. I raced to the bookstore to pick up my copy. The book took me through every emotion. I sat in my living room wondering how a kid could go through such a life like his.
This book was well writting and I'm proud to know a young man can make positive changes in his life despite the past. Every person need to read this book. I can change your life.

One of the few books that ever gave me nightmares. More politicians should read this book. It gives a harrowing description of just what horrors lie in store for children born into military and other revolutions. A definite worthwhile read for anyone interested in just what really happens when countries go to war and bring the children into it.

Beah's memoir about his time as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone is vividly written. He does a remarkable job of putting the reader with him as he first flees the fighting and violence before he is caught up and participates in it. His accounts are brutal, graphic and especially tragic when one considers he was only 14 when pressed into service.

However, I give it three stars because there was so little about his healing and "de-programming" compared to the specific details he gives of his attempts at escaping and participation in the war. Certainly he talks about his meetings with Esther, his "counselor" (for lack of a better term) but I was left wanting more - given the amount of attention that was given to the making of a boy soldier, I had expected at least as much about his healing. Being given song lyrics and told that "its not your fault" fell flat for me, and frankly didn't seem as genuine as his experiences prior to his being sent to the nuns.

In a smiliar vein, I had expected and hoped that Beah would have written more detail about his public apperacnces and especially about results of his work with the UN and NGOs. For me, this is equally interesting as his recounting being in firefights with the RUF and the violence he visited on civilians.

It is a moving story, relevent and certainly is one that needs to be told - child soldiers are a travesty. Given that, wish a stronger conclusion about how one who was a child soldier is made whole again, and can, is - or is not - being done to prevent this from happening.

Ishmael Beah makes no plea for forgiveness nor does he beg a place in this world. Yet this memoir earns him both. The horrible atrocities that Beah was both victim and perpetrator of are described with a sort of detached sensitivity that makes this readable to those of us living outside of the tragic, war torn reality that was Beah's. I applaud Beah's redemptive work as I wish him peace and happiness for the remainder of his time here.

This book was very interesting and I could not put it down. It is no fantastically written piece of literature, but the story draws you in and will not let you go.

A Long Way Gone, a Sarah Crichton Book published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is a gut wrenching memoir of a child soldier, caught in the violence of Sierra Leone's civil war in 1992. Author Ishmael Beah's personal experiences in this conflict, coupled with his ability to tell his story with great insight and emotion, will capture most readers from the very first paragraph.

Even the book's title has interesting multiple meanings. The child Ishmael is a long way gone from home and all that is familiar; a long way gone from normal civilized behavior as part of the drug and violence induced madness of army life and a long way gone from where he ended as a soldier and penned this book.

Stripped of his family, home and friends by the ever encroaching war, Ishmael struggles to escape and survive the war that eventually draws him into its web spun with threads of fear, violence, death, and destruction. Once trapped, he embraces the insanity of drugs and the unchecked cruelty that stokes the war's fires.

The book is not a detailed chronology, but a dramatic and perceptive retrospective of events through the lens of a child, explaining how that child can be transformed into a blood thirsty soldier intent on killing for killing's sake. Beah is able to weave touching moments and memories throughout the violence that both help and hinder Ishmael's ability to withstand the mental anguish that war inflicts.
Beah relates the dramatically harrowing story of being swept up into the raging civil war with raw emotion, but in an emotionally detached style that evokes the psychological detachment needed to be a child, especially a child soldier, able to survive the experience. Proving himself to be a masterful storyteller, Beah`s book is filled with tales, fables, adventures, insights and dialogue both frightening and tender.

The author's ability to look back at his life reflectively with an understanding sadness of what he was forced to do in order to live and survive makes this book a compelling read. Beah takes great care in painting the picture of innocence lost, day by day and piece by piece to the death, devastation and terror of war. He states, "These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past."

Beah is able to convey that the love of family, the value of friendship and the resilience of human spirit can transcend and survive the unimaginable chaos and fear that war brings in its wake. However, he takes great care to demonstrate that chance plays a large role in determining who and what survives.

This book is highly recommended reading, even for the younger reader, as the story possesses some great lessons of value. Although some might feel that this book is too bloody, vivid and real for the younger reader, those twelve and older should be able to handle the material. At least they aren't facing the dilemma that young boys of twelve faced in Sierra Leone in the Nineteen-Nineties: to run for your life, to fight to stay alive or to die simply because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I loved this book from beginning to end. Its tough to take in..but very worthwhile.

A heartbreaking story but definitely recommended.

Everyone needs to read this book. Beah speaks with an honesty that is rarely seen and a conversational manner that takes readers into his world. I am an English teacher and I would like every single student to read this book.

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is one of the most awesome and moving stories I have ever read. I knew it would be even before I bought the book. I could hardly put it down. I would recommend it to anyone who has compassion for the human race in their heart and soul

This book tells a story that the world has not heard about the life of a child soldier. Some of it is shocking to say the least, but it needs to be read and understood. Get a box of tissues and settle in on a wet day.

We are so sheltered in the US -- it's amazing what this young man had to endure and that he was able to rise above all the horrible things and really make something of his life.

When reading this book, one must keep some distance between oneself and the narrative, to not be overwhelmed by the horrors that are described. Fortunately, the writing style helps the reader maintain this distance. Writing in a very matter of fact style, perhaps even too matter of factly, Beah describes his efforts to avoid getting pulled into the civil war in Sierra Leone and his actions when he is eventually "recruited" to join the army.

The bulk of this book is quite bleak, by necessity. But Beah shows a talent for story-telling throughout, especially in the more hopeful sections of the book, when he describes his life before the civil war struck his village and after his "rehabilitation".

This book was an eye opening dipiction of the life of a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Beah's novel shows the journey that this young man took from being forced to fight in a war that robbed him of his innocence to his ultimate rehabilitation. It is a must read and should be required reading for high school students.

If you don't feel moved to activism at the reading of this book, you must be dead. Beah tells his story with gripping truth that will hold you to the pages and leave you with a terrible sense of sorrow for the lost children. I'm a teacher and THIS ONE goes on my "must read" list for my students.

Great read. We all need to be made aware of the atrocities that war brings, especially in the eyes of children, our most precious assets.

"A Long Way Gone" is an extremely interesting book written by Ishmael Beah a former child solider that fought in the war in Sierra Leone. The book follows Ishmael through his life at the beginning of the war depicting the terrible things that were done to innocent civilians and how he was forced to witness the dreadful things happening around him. During the war Ishmael would lose everything, his family, his friends, his childhood and even his mind. He would fight in the ranks of the Sierra Leone Army as a child solider at the age of 13. He would witness terrible things happening to men and then do the same terrible things himself. He would do things with his own two hands that even seem horrible for grown men to do. "A Long Way Gone" is an extremely important book because it helps remind us that there are other things going out there in the world beyond our safe homes and living rooms with our 52 inch Plasma TVs.

Kacper, a student at Prospect High School

A Long Way Gone is a tragic story about a child who was forced to kill or be killed during the conflict in Sierra Leone. Fortunately, this story does have a happier ending than most.

I don't think this will spoil the ending, but Ishmael Beah, the author and main character of the story survived the war and was able to flee to the United States. It wasn't an easy journey but you will experience it with him and feel his pain and heartache as you travel across the country and world.

In simple prose you can easily follow along the story and at times feel you are with Beah being shot at and killing Rambo style. The human spirit is amazing. Ishmael is my age - but our stories have no similarities, nothing I have experienced compares to his. I could not put down his memoir once I started reading.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
By: Ishmael Beah

The book a long way gone is a historical non-fiction book. It is about the author's childhood and his struggle to survive. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, in 1980. A Long Way Gone is a truly heart wrenching story of a boy who has seen so much hatred and cruelty in his lifetime that it seems unreal. Ishmael Beah lost his family to the war, so he fights along side the countries army against the rebels, those who have been killing civilians and burning villages to the ground. This book is astonishing, thought provoking, disgustingly true, useful, and overall extraordinary.
After Ishmael had been forced to join the army his lieutenant told him these words in a successful attempt to motivate the troops: "the lieutenant went on for almost an hour, describing how rebels had cut off the heads of some people's family members and made them watch. Burned entire villages along with their inhabitants, forced sons to have intercourse with their mothers, hacked newly born babies in half because they cried too much, cut open pregnant women's stomachs, took the babies out, and killed them... "They have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live. That is why we must kill every single one of them." " (Beah pg. 108) As I read this quote the first time I had to stop half way through because I felt as if I was going to throw up. It didn't even seem true as I read it. This quote is just a taste of how disgusting and iniquitous this book is.
At the age of twelve Ishmael ran away from his village and by thirteen was forced to fight for the government army. Before this time he was friendly. The war had made him do horrible things that just seemed second nature after a while as expressed in this quote: "The idea of death didn't cross my mind at all and killing had become as easy as drinking water." (Beah pg. 122) It is disgusting how if you do something enough, even something as terrible as killing, it becomes normal to you. After fighting in the army so long and at a vulnerable age Ishmael started acting differently also. " The prisoner was simply another rebel who was responsible for the death of my family, as I had come to truly believe. The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man's head and slit his throat in one fluid motion.... His eyes rolled u and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightful glance, as if caught by surprise.... I was proclaimed the winner..." (Beah pg. 125) Killing people had now become a competition or a game for the boys of the army.
This book is not only entertaining but it teaches valuable lessons such as: "If you are alive there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die." (Beah pg. 54) This is a good lesson to be learned and an interesting opinion on life. The lesson being that is you are still alive there is a reason and you must continue on and persevere because there is something worthwhile in your future.
I recommend this book to anyone who is naive or just interested in what is going on currently in Africa and how it impacts the children. This book is also a good book for people that want to learn a little bit about writing an interesting story and how to incorporate dialogue seamlessly because Ishmael Beah is able to do it very well. After or even before this book, if you would like any background information on the topic of child soldiers you should visit the Invisible Children website at www.invisiblechildren.com.

Regardless of what people say is true and false, no doubt this story could be true for hundreds of thousands of young children fighting in war. This wasnt written to give you half the story or 3 quarters. Ishmael Beah explains everything in this disturbing but inspiring story of a childs view of war while taking part in it. Whats so inspiring is how a great person can enter war, kill, come out so messed up, yet still find hope for his past feeling of happiness afterwards. A great read, a great person, and a great story.

Worth reading but I am willing to bet this "memoir" turns out to be "exaggerated" if not all together concocted.

This is a great book. It is important story and relates to the worls biggest issues today. After reading the book I read the article The fog of the Memoir. I found valid points but most of it came across as gossip and misunderstanding. I first was dissapointed that the character I felt sorrow for, and fell in love with never existed but then I thought about american culture and how hard it must be for the average american to picture a world unlike the one they live in. Ishmael had built uo the courage to tell a story and the media attacks him. This is a wonderful book and dont let the media ruin it like it did for so many readers.

Ishmael Beah must be extremely bright and clever. I don't think many children could survive and recover from the horrible experience he endured. The book will never be a world classic but I had a hard time putting it down. It is a good read and eye opening to those of us fortunate enough to be born into relative safety where children are protected.

It is important to bear in mind that the author of this book was a young man from a war torn country with little education in writing so I am giving the writing style a break. Other reviewers who have criticized the author's writing are certainly valid. Nevertheless Beah's story is powerful and readers will learn about this war torn region.

There have been a lot of questions whether this story is true. I cannot shed any more light on these rumors. It is clear that the story cannot be entirely true. For example, the specific quotes from conversations and the dreams are way too specific to be credible. How much is the story embellished? I do not know, but I believe it is important for authors to come completely clean when writing non-fiction. Even if only 1% of a non-fiction book is not true, authors need to disclose their readers. If we, as readers, discover the lack of complete truth of a non-fiction book then how can we possibly trust the facts of any part of the book? I would have liked a discussion or some notes about these issues. A similar book, "What is the What", is sold as fiction even though most of it was in fact true. I applaud the publisher and the authors of that book for not misleading readers. However, even if "A Long Way Gone" is partially true only, it is still an educational book. I was happy that it was a relatively short book and at the same time was disappointed that Beah did not tell us how he finally got to NY.

[...]

It is important to bear in mind that the author of this book was a young man from a war torn country with little education in writing so I am giving the writing style a break. Other reviewers who have criticized the author's writing are certainly valid. Nevertheless Beah's story is powerful and readers will learn about this war torn region.

There have been a lot of questions whether this story is true. I cannot shed any more light on these rumors. It is clear that the story cannot be entirely true. For example, the specific quotes from conversations and the dreams are way too specific to be credible. How much is the story embellished? I do not know, but I believe it is important for authors to come completely clean when writing non-fiction. Even if only 1% of a non-fiction book is not true, authors need to disclose their readers. If we, as readers, discover the lack of complete truth of a non-fiction book then how can we possibly trust the facts of any part of the book? I would have liked a discussion or some notes about these issues. A similar book, "What is the What", is sold as fiction even though most of it was in fact true. I applaud the publisher and the authors of that book for not misleading readers. However, even if "A Long Way Gone" is partially true only, it is still an educational book. I was happy that it was a relatively short book and at the same time was disappointed that Beah did not tell us how he finally got to NY.

It is important to bear in mind that the author of this book was a young man from a war torn country with little education in writing so I am giving the writing style a break. Other reviewers who have criticized the author's writing are certainly valid. Nevertheless Beah's story is powerful and readers will learn about this war torn region.

There have been a lot of questions whether this story is true. I cannot shed any more light on these rumors. It is clear that the story cannot be entirely true. For example, the specific quotes from conversations and the dreams are way too specific to be credible. How much is the story embellished? I do not know, but I believe it is important for authors to come completely clean when writing non-fiction. Even if only 1% of a non-fiction book is not true, authors need to disclose their readers. If we, as readers, discover the lack of complete truth of a non-fiction book then how can we possibly trust the facts of any part of the book? I would have liked a discussion or some notes about these issues. A similar book, "What is the What", is sold as fiction even though most of it was in fact true. I applaud the publisher and the authors of that book for not misleading readers. However, even if "A Long Way Gone" is partially true only, it is still an educational book. I was happy that it was a relatively short book and at the same time was disappointed that Beah did not tell us how he finally got to NY.

For those interested in the controversy regarding the truthfulness of the story, see the following links: (Both sides are represented)

[...]

I was listening to Ishmael Beah's book on my car tape. In fact the voice on the tape is of Ishmael Beah that his childhood took a turn at the age 12 when the war came to his village in Eastern Sierra Leone near the diamond mines. Since then it is a story of survival against nature and human. As he quote his father, "If you loose your hope then you have no life", he kept going from one adventure to another find true friendship, hardship, and happy ending. On the way he lost his family, friends, but kept going with hope in his heart.
Great (true) story

I was very moved by Mr. Beah's life story when he appeared on Jon Stewart. I bought the book and I couldn't put down. However, journalists have now cast serious doubt on whether it really happened. (A very fair article over the controversy "The Fog of Memoir" appeared in Slate on March 6, 2008.) Despite international acclaim of the book, no former child soldier has thus far come forward to corroborate Beah's account. Re-read the story in this context and certain details start to sound too fantastical to be true.

Some will say that accuracy doesn't matter because of a 'greater truth' -- the plight of Africa's child soldiers. I don't buy it. According to The Australian publication that broke the story, Mr. Beah has earned around $1 million from this bestseller. I take no pleasure in criticizing it because the real child soldiers deserve the world's attention. But lies do not further their cause -- in fact, they only hurt it.

I was very moved by Mr. Beah's life story when he appeared on Jon Stewart. I bought the book and I couldn't put down. However, journalists have now cast serious doubt on whether it really happened. (A very fair article over the controversy "The Fog of Memoir" appeared in Slate on March 6, 2008.) Despite international acclaim of the book, no former child soldier has thus far come forward to corroborate Beah's account. Re-read the story in this context and certain details start to sound too fantastical to be true.

Some will say that accuracy doesn't matter because of a 'greater truth' -- the plight and suffering of child soldiers in Africa. I don't buy it. According to the Australian article, Mr. Beah has earned around $1 million from this bestseller. I take no pleasure in criticizing it because the issue of child soldiers is so important. But lies do not further their cause -- in fact, they only hurt it.

I was very moved by Mr. Beah's life story when he appeared on Jon Stewart and bought the book which I couldn't put down. In both the interview and the writing he seemed completely credible. However, as with a number of other recent autobiographies about people going through difficult times, journalists have now cast serious doubt on whether it really happened (see The Australian, 2/2/2008 "Beah's credibility a long way gone" by Peter Wilson). It seems Beah was a child soldier for a few months around age 15, not for two years beginning at age 13.

Some will say that's nit-picking. Some will say it doesn't matter whether this particular child soldier story is accurate because of a 'greater truth' -- the plight and suffering of child soldiers in Africa. I don't buy it. If the author is found to have one verified exaggeration on such a big scale (hard to see how it's just an honest mistake) we have to wonder what else has been invented.

According to the Australian article, Mr. Beah has earned around $1 million from this bestseller. I take no pleasure in criticizing this book because the issue of child soldiers is such an important one. But lies do not further their cause -- in fact, they only hurt it.

Ishmael Beah lived in a village in Sierra Leone until he was 12. He played soccer, listened and danced to hip hop and reggae, and recited speeches from Shakespeare to his neighbors around the fire at night.

At the age of 12 his village was invaded while he and his brother were away, and he never saw the rest of his family again. He wandered around with a group of boys avoiding the warring factions but was finally drafted into the army to fight the rebels. He became a ruthless boy soldier at the age of 13 and stayed with it till he was 15. His description of the fighting and his own lack of remorse when he killed people is horrifying and moving.

When he was 15 he was taken away by some people from UNICEF and put into a rehabilitation camp outside Freetown. The counselors worked with him for months and he fought them off, first physically, then by withdrawing from them emotionally, but finally through his own sensibility and intelligence and their love he was won over and was offered the chance to testify before the UN. The counselor's repeated assurances that it wasn't his fault and his gradual understanding that what they said was true was the most moving part of the book.

He had more travails after that but wound up through his own efforts living with a new family, going to high school and college and writing this book.

Ishmael Beah is a remarkably good writer. His description of his life is matter-of-fact, making the horror show through more clearly than any number of Anguished Adjectives would have done. Not many wasted words, and the language gently includes some African attitudes and expressions that give a real sense of the people. This is a very important book.

The book is amazing, inspiring, and heart-rending. The CD is a good way to share this important memoir with reluctant readers. Hearing him tell his story himself makes it that much more "real".
We're waiting for the next chapter, Ishmael!

I really enjoyed this book. I kept thinking of the time line and what I was doing in my life at the time that Ishmeal was enduring all the torment and on going suffering in his life. THis book really show how we take life for granted. THe only fault I found with the book is that I wanted to know more of his experience in Guinea and how he got back to America. Good book

"A Long Way Gone" is an amazing story that puts you in the shoes of a boy solider. He starts out with a normal life, but when rebels attack he ends up on the run, being separated from his family. Throughout the story, he runs and escapes, but commits to being a solider to avenge the group that killed his family. Hooked on drugs to not be as tired or alarmed by the blood and bodies, he starts to become addicted to violence. Finally sent to rehab, he struggles to recover, and get back to ordinary life. In the end, he finds relatives and ends up with his Uncle's family and speaks to the UN about the conditions in his country.
As reading isn't a favorite hobby of mine, the book seemed somewhat long. But as the story had very interesting points, those kept me reading. Ishmael Beah really does a good job describing the setting of the wars he suffered through.Some parts when he was describing the horrible scenery, I couldn't believe something that bad was possible, and had to read the section over and over to let it sink in. It was a good book to show that not everywhere is as peaceful as the U.S.. I would recommend it in a heartbeat.

This story is simply told. There are no fancy literary flourishes designed to manipulate the reader's emotions and no eloquent explanations designed to sway us to a particular viewpoint. It is the simple story of a child unwittingly caught up in the appalling violence of civil war. The narrator tells his own story. It is the story of how civil war destroys the normality of life in his village, of how he runs from the advancing violence, but eventually cannot avoid being drafted into its very heart as a child soldier. He describes the process of desensitization that allows him to survive the horrors he participates in and the even more difficult process of learning to re-engage with civil society once he has been rescued from the battlefield.

Some readers may be disappointed by the fact that the book provides only very limited historical background to the conflict in Sierra Leone and by the fact that the narrator engages in only very limited introspection about what he has experienced. The plot also contains a few scenes that come across as a bit contrived and unlikely, but none of this detracts from the picture that is painted of the horrors of child soldiers involved in civil war. The power of the story lies in its simplicity and in the fact that we know it is being told by someone who lived through it.

This story is simply told. There are no fancy literary flourishes designed to manipulate the reader's emotions and no eloquent explanations designed to sway us to a particular viewpoint. It is the simple story of a child unwittingly caught up in the appalling violence of civil war. The narrator tells his own story. It is the story of how civil war destroys the normality of life in his village, of how he runs from the advancing violence, but eventually cannot avoid being drafted into its very heart as a child soldier. He describes the process of desensitization that allows him to survive the horrors he participates in and the even more difficult process of learning to re-engage with civil society once he has been rescued from the battlefield.

Some readers may be disappointed by the fact that the book provides only very limited historical background to the conflict in Sierra Leone and by the fact that the narrator engages in only very limited introspection about what he has experienced. Neither of these facts detracts from the picture that is painted of the horrors of child soldiers involved in civil war. The power of the story lies in its simplicity and in its honesty.

I am shocked at the reviews of this book! People are dumber than I thought! This book is a first class lie. Ishmael did not kill anyone, and all his contradictions in this book make me laugh. The "Rap" tape that falls out of his pocket on two occasions to save him; running from wild meat eating pigs for a half a mile. Remember he was almost going to be stabbed by a rebel boy and the next thing he know the boy had been stabbed by his friend? It sounds like a Rambo movie. This is what happened, he came to the U.S. and read about child solders in Sierra Leone, and decided he would be come one, and wrote a nice fictional account. No one can disprove his account, because he came to the US alone, and we can't verify the story. For someone who claims they brutally killed "countless" humans, this book rings hollow and untrue.

Wow! What more can one say? This is probably one of my favorite books, which sounds a bit sadistic given what the book is about.

Ishmeal Beah must be commended for sharing with us his story and memories. You do get a sense that some of his worst memories are probably hidden within him, as sometimes the story looses its flow, and jumps and bumps a little along the way, which can be forgiven, since for much of his boy soldiering he was high at the time. You do get a good feel for the author's loss of childhood, and can easily loose yourself in his pain. The author gives so much however; that in the end it's a relief to know something positive happens in his life.

This was a good plug for UNICEF, which I always wondered about having traveled overseas quite a bit and been asked to donate my spare currency upon my return flights. It's nice to know they are doing good things, as in this case, having helped rehabilitate the author from a boy solider back to a boy again.

My only one small complaint, as if I should have one, is in how the story ends. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy how the author ended it. But, I would like to have read more about what happened to him after he came to America. Perhaps we'll get to read another book?

This is an excellent book with a true story written from the child now grown. It is a poigant story with wonderful ending!

. . . if given a chance."

Ishmael Beah, author of this remarkable and very disturbing memoir, is living proof of this statement. It was a statement initially prepared for him as a spokesperson on the issue of child soldiers during his rehabilitation period, and one he learned to repeat again and again, as he outlived not only this wartime sufferings, but also all of his family members and most of his friends.

"Why does everyone keep dying except me?" is a question that plagues him, and plagues the reader as well upon reading brutal account after brutal account of rebel attacks on otherwise peaceful villages in the West African country of Sierra Leone. It takes a strong stomach to read his gut-wrenching descriptions of the killings. But Beah is a gifted writer with a clear memory and the ability to relate vivid visual descriptions and express his feelings. This book gives new meaning to the phrase: "living to tell the tale."

For example: "Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am." These were the words of a friend from a time before Beah and his group of teenage boys became drug-addicted, AK-47-carrying soldiers.

This is an important work about learning to understand not only the mind of a child soldier, but also the reasons behind how and why children become soldiers. Beah includes a chronology of events in Sierra Leone from 1462, when written history for the region began, until March, 2006. Very well written with a lot of rap and reggae music undertones, by a charming, educated, lucky, and grateful young man. Highly recommend.

From the author of A Line Between Friends, McKenna Publishing Group.

Ishmael Beah tells of how his village was destroyed when he was just 11 years old, during Sierra Leone's civil war of the 1990s. He and his friends wandered to escape the war for many months and then were forcibly enlisted in the military. After two years of fighting, UNICEF rescues him and other boys, and we learn how Ishmael is rehabilitated and reintegrated into civilian society.

Beah is a skilled storyteller, and he gives a compelling account of how the war affects children like him. The first half of the book is the wandering (which is similar to another excellent narrative of boy refugees, What Is the What by Dave Eggers), and the last third focuses on the rehabilitation and Beah's life beyond. The relatively small middle portion deals with Beah's time as a child soldier; I would have appreciated more information on that time, but Beah doesn't need long to paint a clear picture. (I was surprised at the omission of any role of sexual violence, which was apparently significant in the Sierra Leone conflict.) I felt the eye-opening, unique contribution of this book was the story of the rehabilitation. This was in the early days of UNICEF's and other organizations' efforts to rehabilitate boy soldiers, and the challenges they faced are striking.

In some ways, Beah's story feels like two stories. The first three-quarters are the normal: his experience seems to be similar to the experiences of other children in the period. The last quarter is the exceptional: Beah's story diverges from that of the other boys as he comes to the USA as a UN representative for children affected by the war. Both are of interest, mostly due to Beah's skills in narrating his tale.

It is natural to compare this to other books about young refugees and child soldiers in Africa. Beasts of No Nation and Moses, Citizen and Me are both novels about boy soldiers, the former focusing on the conflict and the latter on post-conflict re-entrance into the community. Beah's account is more compelling than either of the novels, partly because it's more likely to be fact and also simply because he's a good writer with a powerful story to tell. Child soldiers play a small but crucial role in Adichie's wonderful Half of a Yellow Sun. Interestingly, Moses, Citizen, and Me revolves around the boys putting on a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Cesar, and that play also has a role in this memoir.

This book stands out from the others in its vivid and detailed description of the challenge of rehabilitating child soldiers as they withdraw from addictions to both cocaine and violence. A heartening supplement to Beah's success story is the research of economist Chris Blattman, who finds positive outcomes for former child soldiers in terms of political participation elsewhere in Africa [1].

[1] Blattman, Christopher, "From violence to voting: War and political participation in Uganda," Center for Global Development and Yale University, 2008.

I thought the story was powerful but the beginning of the story was kind of hard to get into because it was slow and the way it was written was not all that great. It would have also been helpful to included history on why everyone was fighting. But when he was in rehab i began to understand how powerful the story was. How someone can live through something like that and still be so kind really shows human potential. and shows that maybe some of us have notgot it as bad as we think.

This personal memoir tells the story of a war refugee and child soldier making his way out of Sierra Leone. Ishmael was a an African boy living in a small village when rebels attacked, placing him in deadly danger. He was forced to flee with his family, which he tragically lost early in the book, making him a war orphan and refugee.

The first half of the book tells the story of the young man running from a senseless war and living as a refugee. I thought this was clever: the book is actually a two-fold memoir- the one half the story of a refugee, the other the story of a child soldier. In the second half of the book, the reader sees the young man drawn into the war. He manages to escape, largely through the help of the United Nations.

This book is written on a high school level, and I believe would be a wonderful teaching tool for a high school class. The young author displays considerable writing talent, and the story is riveting. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this book because I have never read anything like this. At first I was skeptical, but after a couple of pages the world the author opened for me was amazing. I could not put the book down until I finished it. A little bit graphic at times, a psychological journey more than a physical one, the story is inspiring. I am not great with words, but I recomend this book to everybody. It is a must read.

A Long Way Gone was inspiring, strong, touching and very, deep. It had some of it's gory parts but that was his story. It was basically about Ishmael Beah and how his life was affected by the war between the gov't & the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) in Sierra Leone. The war didn't just effect him physically, it effected him mentally and emotionally too. Until he was rehabilitated he didn't start to see the violence he had watched and caused himself, things he could not and cannot forget. Along Way Gone demonstrates that children all around the world are dealing with problems caused by issues in their country, and it's destroying their childhood. Anyone who reads it will love it and will most likely want to help children like Ishmael.

Ever want to read a short story that touches you? This is an amazing journey that you must read. Children can overcome such tragedy and this story really shows you that.

I enjoyed the book, and I have no doubt Ishmael Beah had to serve in the army as just a boy and witnessed the horrors of war, but some points of the book just struck me as very unlikely to have occurred. One example was the fight in the rehabilitation center, which included not just knives but a GRENADE, which left 6 boys dead. I just wonder whether everything happened 100% as he describes it or whether there wasn't some artistic license involved. I hate to say it but in this day and age, you can't necessarily take a person at their word...did the publisher fact check where possible to make sure this is the unadulterated truth?

I heard Ishmael being interviewed on the radio and was so impressed with his eloquence, I knew I had to read his story. It is honest, sad, and inspiring. I felt like an ignorant American, not knowing that lives were and are being lived in such conditions. I have been catching up on world events ever since reading "a long way gone". I'd like to use the book in my junior high reading classes. It is an eye opener just as the classic "Diary of a Young Girl".