86 pages • 2 hours read
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2007
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Introduction
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- Genre: Nonfiction; Memoir
- Originally published: 2007
- Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 920L; grades 7-9
- Structure/Length: 21 chapters; approx. 241 pages; approx. 8 hours on audiobook
- Central Concern: During the Sierra Leone Civil War, author Beah is forced to become a child soldier. For three years he witnesses and partakes in unimaginable violence; eventually he is brought to a rehabilitation facility for child soldiers, after which he attends a United Nations Children’s Conference and meets his future adoptive mother.
- Potential sensitivity issues: Child soldiers, graphic violence, drug use, sexual violence
Ishmael Beah, Author
- Bio: Born in 1980 in Sierra Leone, Africa; recruited to fight in the Sierra Leone Civil War at age 12 as a child soldier; now an author and activist
- Other works: Radiance of Tomorrow (2014) and Little Family (2020)
- Awards: Quill Award nominee (2007)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- The Traumatic After-Effects of Violence
- The Uplifting Aspect of Nature and Spiritual Traditions
- The Capacity for Altruism in Human Nature
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
