The Long Walk to Water - NonFiction Review

Park, L.S. (2010). The long walk to water.  Boston, MA:  Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt

The Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park covers 20 years in the life of one of the Sudan’s “Lost boys.”  Children, mainly boys 7 – 17 years old, were displaced and orphaned by the Sudanese civil war.  In 1985, 11 year old Salva Dut was a well-loved member of a wealthy and respected family in the small village of Loun-Ariik. His sense of family security and joy were shattered in a flash of gunfire and bombs when the war that ultimately killed over 2 million people in the Sudan, separated Salva from his family and everything he’d ever known. The book tells the story of Salva’s journey for survival across deserts and crocodile infested waters; through lion country and encounters with murderous robbers.  We learn of the walk from the Sudan to Ethiopia and from Ethiopia to Kenya by thousands of displaced people in search of food, water, shelter and safety. We ultimately learn of the courage and resilience of one Lost Boy, who found a way to live and give back so that others could live as well.

The book is written in short episodic chapters that hold the reader’s attention and keep one turning pages to find out what happens next. Many of the harrowing events in Salva’s life are reported succinctly without a lot of detail. For Young Adult readers this is just the right balance, so that they can get a sense of the horrors that Salva experienced without being overwhelmed by them.   The story of Nya, (walking for 8 hours every day to bring water to her family) told as brief narratives at the beginning of each chapter in Salva’s story, gives a momentary respite from Salva’s pain.  These two stories come together at the end in a triumph of hope. I enjoyed the book and I believe that it will bring the struggles of other people closer to our young adult readers and inspire them to want to learn more and do something.

Salva Dut

I learned more about the two (2) civil wars in Sudan at the following websites:

DoSomething.org –a timeline of Sudanese conflicts from its independence from Great Britain/Egypt to the present

Sudan: The War child – A National Geographic video which focuses on the life of Emmanuel Jal, who was an experienced Sudanese combat soldier by the age of 13.

Here are some organizations that offer information as well as suggestions of ways to help the children of Sudan, where war still rages:


 Lost Boys Alliance 
 Lost Boys of Sudan

Sudan, largest country on the continent

                      

Water for Sudan  - Salva Dut’s organization to drill wells and bring clean water, schools and clinics to Sudan.










Graphics retrieved from Google images