Is a long way gone a good book?

Is a long way gone a good book?

This is a beautifully written book about a shocking war and the children who were forced to fight it. Ishmael Beah describes the unthinkable in calm, unforgettable language; his memoir is an important testament to the children elsewhere who continue to be conscripted into armies and militias.

Is a long way gone a novel?

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a 2007 memoir written by Ishmael Beah, an author from Sierra Leone. The book is a firsthand account of Beah’s time as a child soldier during the Sierra Leone Civil War in the 1990s.

A Long Way Gone.

First edition cover
Author Ishmael Beah
LC Class DT516.828.B43 A3 2007

Where is Ishmael Beah now?

Now living in Los Angeles with his wife and children, Beah is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and advocate for Children by War, and a member of the Human Rights Watch Children Advisory Committed. His new novel, Little Family, tells a story about five young people who create a home in the fuselage of a downed plane.

What army did Ishmael Beah join?

the Sierra Leone army

Ishmael Beah was only 13-years-old in 1993 when he was taken into the Sierra Leone army, given drugs, an AK-47 and ordered to kill. Beah had already lost his entire family to the war, and had been on the run for a year.

What reading level is a long way gone?

A Long Way Gone – Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier

Interest Level Reading Level Word Count
Grades 9 – 12 Grades 4 – 12 80413

How long does it take to read a long way gone?

The average reader will spend 3 hours and 49 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute).

What reading level is A Long Way Gone?

What does the monkey symbolize in A Long Way Gone?

The monkey symbolizes the broken political system that encompasses both the corrupt government and the misguided rebellion that led to civilian deaths during the Sierra Leone civil war. Beah shows that it would be better to act, even with bloody consequences, so as to stop the cycle of destruction.

How does Ishmael lose his humanity?

For Beah, losing his humanity came easy. By the time he was wielding an AK-47 and “killing too many people to count,” he had already lost so much: his brothers, mother, father and grandmother had all been murdered by rebel forces.

Why is music so important to Ishmael?

Lesson Summary
As he is unsure what has happened to his family, Ishmael uses music as a distraction. When he is captured by a village, the music convinces the village chief that Ishmael is harmless and enables him to be identified by a boy who had seen him perform.

What age is a long way gone for?

Is a long way gone a true story?

A Long Way Gone (2007) is a profoundly moving book that was written by Ishmael Beah, a young man from Sierra Leone. The story told by Beah is a true story about his life as a child soldier during the civil war in his home country.

What is the meaning of the end of A Long Way Gone?

Ishmael ends his story not with his safe arrival in America, but with a little tale he heard as a boy: You are a hunter and you are about to shoot a monkey. Before you can pull the trigger, the monkey tells you that if you kill him your mother will die. If you don’t kill him, your father will die.

What happened at the end of A Long Way Gone?

At the very end of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah remembers a story that he first heard around a campfire from Pa Sesay about a monkey and a hunter. As the hunter is about to kill the monkey, the monkey tells him that if the hunter shoots the monkey, the hunter’s mother will die.

What does the L button symbolize in Long Way Down?

The L (lobby) button in the elevator symbolizes, much like the elevator itself, the horrendous fate that awaits Will if he chooses to step out of the elevator and into the lobby. Once Will reaches the bottom, he plans to avenge his brother Shawn’s death by shooting his killer, Carlson Riggs.

What is the meaning of the end of a long way gone?

What is the message of A Long Way Gone?

But in addition to its emphasis on the beauty of human resilience and hope, a central message of A Long Way Gone is that war, hatred and violence consume everything in a society, especially children.

What does Ishmael say was one of the most unsettling things about his journey?

Ishmael feels that the most unsettling thing about his journey is that he isn’t sure when or where it is going to end. To survive each passing day is his only goal. He finds it much easier to be sad than to go back and forth between emotions.

What did Ishmael always tell people about children?

What did Ishmael always tell people about children? Children has a resistance to overcome their suffering if given the chance.

Why did Ishmael like being alone?

Why did Ishmael like being alone? Being alone made surviving easier.

Is A Long Way Gone a true story?

What does the moon symbolize in A Long Way Gone?

Ishmael describes the moon as a many-layered symbol for innocence, family, and friendship. Throughout the book, he raises his eyes to the night sky and becomes entranced by the beauty and mystery of the moon. Nature and the moon are their own characters in A Long Way Gone.

What does Shawn’s gun symbolize?

The Gun. Shawn’s pistol broadly represents the cycle of violence prevalent in his and Will’s community, and the ways in which that cycle of violence corrupts young men and deprives them of their innocence.

What does Dani symbolize in Long Way Down?

After Dani’s death, Shawn begins to teach him The Rules. Dani represents Will’s loss of innocence, and it is her death that marks the true loss of his childhood.

What is the most important theme in A Long Way Gone?

The major theme in the story A Long Way Gone is that with family and love a person can make it through anything. Overall Ishmael’s story is a very powerful, eye opening read; it informs people on a subject that some know little to nothing about, the civil war in Sierra Leone.

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