A LONG WAY GONE by Ishmael Beah

This is about a young boy from Sierra Leone, who is recruited into the army at like 12 years old to fight the rebels. It takes you on his story about survival. I thought it would be better than it was. Not that I like gruesome stuff, but a lot of the book was his background, and a lot of his rehabilitation. But he was only soldier for a short time, not the whole book. It is really sad and it does give me a history lesson since I always hear about the horrible living conditions and way of life over there, but never really got it. The best part of the book is when he is in NYC for the first time and his description of everything is great. He has no idea what an elevator is, he is awestruck at the city and the lights and the people. And he had no idea what snow is or even the term winter. That is what hit me the most of this book is the things we take for granted.