My favorite book is called A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. This book is the most powerfully haunting book I have ever read, and for that reason, it became my favorite.

This book tells the story of Ishmael Beah, a citizen of Sierra Leon, who was first affected directly by the devastating civil war in the 1990's. He traveled to another village with his older brother and a few friends to participate in a talent show, and while he was away, he heard news of his village being attacked by the Rebels (RUF) who randomly went through the villages attacking, murdering, pilfering, and recruiting. From that point on, he was told not to go back to his village because "too much blood has been spilled where he was going." He never saw the other members of his family again. He and the group of boys he was with spent two years running away from the war and hiding from the Rebels at all times, living and hiding in the forests and abandoned villages all over Sierra Leone. At the age of thirteen, he joined the People's Army of Sierra Leone because, separated from his group, he had nowhere to go. Another child soldier in Sierra Leone, Ishmael was dehumanized and trained to kill with no regard. He spent most of the three years as a soldier hiding in forests, killing the RUF, and pilfering villages the same way the RUF did (They were no better.). At the age of sixteen, he was rehabilitated against his will and sent to a humanitarian camp to be civilized again. There he met a nurse who never gave up on him. After a long while, he became stable enough to be considered a civilian and was ready to live in society in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, where he was brought. He began to live comfortably for a while until the war spilled into the city. He then realized that he was not a soldier anymore; therefore, he must somehow leave the country or be killed.

I recommend this book because it tells the dark history of Sierra Leone in the 1990's that hardly anyone outside of that country knows about. It broke my heart to read the book and learn of those events almost fifteen years after it had been going on. This book tells the truth about the soldiers' drug addictions, the killings the soldiers do, and the reality in which they live. Most hauntingly of all, most of those soldiers are children. People should read this book, know that it happened, and educate the world so this can be lessened if not completely eliminated. The people of Sierra Leone deserve to have their story told.