Ishmael Beah was a 12-year old boy growing up in his village in Sierra Leone when his world was shattered forever by civil war. After fleeing the area for safer ground, he and a group of boys his age survived by roaming the countryside under the radar of both the rebel front and the army, while scavenging or stealing whatever food they could. Eventually, his luck runs out and he is "recruited" by the army, where he is drugged, brainwashed, and molded into a trained killer.
The life Ishmael leads as a soldier is difficult to read about, especially knowing that he is a young boy perpetrating and witnessing unspeakable horrors on other human beings. He is a leader among his peers and gains his lieutenant's attention with both his soldiering abilities and his love of Shakespeare. At the age of 15, he and a handful of his compatriots are removed from the front and taken to a rehab center sponsored by UNICEF, where he eventually overcomes his drug addiction, begins the healing process and is welcomed into his uncle's home as a son. When he is selected to travel to New York for a United Nations conference on children and war, it is a trip that again changes his life.
This book, while heartbreaking, is an important and eye-opening look at the realities of life for children and families around the world. Ishmael was so fortunate - many of his friends returned to the war after rehab because they had nowhere else to go. While this is a book about war and the damage it causes, it is also a testament to love and hope of a better way. This is a book I would highly recommend to both adults and high school students - it is a story that will stay with them long after they have finished reading.
