1. Today I was in my car listening to music while reading my book. A song came on that happened to relate to my book. It talked about how the boy soldiers were forced into drugs and killing and how they were beaten if they disobeyed their orders. The song talked about how people in other countries like America do not understand what it is like to live in countries where there is fighting everywhere. In America we do not understand what it is like for the children in countries like Sierra Leone. In the US we do not have to be worried about being taken from our parents and being forced into an army. If I had never read this book I would have no idea what the song was about. I was very surprised that I caught on to the song being about boy soldiers. It was amazing that as I was reading my book a song would come on that was about the same topic.
2. They struggle little recruits
Cute Smileless, Heartless, violent
Childhood destroyed, devoid of all childish ways,
Can't write their own names or read the words on their own graves
Think you gangster popped a few rounds,
These kids will come through and murder a whole town,
Then sit back and smoke and watch it burn down,
The grave gets deeper the further we go down
Little Weapon By Lupe Fiasco
Here is a part out of the song I was talking about it is called Little Weapon. This part of the song really stuck out to me. The reason it stuck out to me is because it is so similar to the book . This part of the song talks about how the boys are forced into violence which destroys their childhoods. It talks about how merciless the kids were made. The soldiers drugged the boys to make them think that everything they said was good and true and that killing people was not a big deal. The boys were uneducated and all they were taught was how to kill and not have feelings. It says that the longer they were in the soldiers forces the deeper their graves get. After reading A Long Way Gone and hearing what the soldiers actually did to the children I know that everything said in thing that is mentioned in song is true however harsh it may be.
3. Ishmael is a twelve year old boy living in Mogbwemo, Sierra Leone. Ishmael, his brother, Junior and and their friends are all into American Hip/Hop. Their favorite song was Rappers Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. I think it is cool that their favorite song was one of my favorites. Last summer my friends and I sang it while hiking through the mountains at Boy Scout camp. Because of their love of rap, Ishmael and his brother would travel to other villages to dance and rap in talent shows and other such events. Ishmael's parents were divorced and did not have enough money to send him and his older brother to school. Ishmael and Junior only got to go to school for a few years. Ibrahim, the youngest, was the only one of the brothers going to school. Because Ishmael was not able to go to school he enjoyed learning new vocabulary from the rap songs that he and his brother Junior performed. I think that it is really cool that they found a way to learn new words from music. It is a really creative way of learning.
4. Ishmael, his brother Junior and friends are all in the city of Mattru Jong to preform in a talent show when they find out that Mogbwemo, their home town, has been attacked by rebels. Instantly they ran to the river to ask people that were fleeing Mogbwemo if they had any news about their parents. This was the first time that any of them had witnessed the brutality of the rebels. They witnessed fathers running still holding their long dead children. They saw mothers who still held tightly to their dead babies. It was the most brutal and bloody thing they had ever witnessed. This was just the start of the hard road ahead of them. This was the last time that they ever saw their parents. This was also the first time that they realized that they were actually in the middle of a war.
5. They decided to stay in Mattru Jong to see if their family would ever show up, they didn't. After about 6 days the rebels attacked the city. Everyone was forced to flee. They barely escape and start walking through other villages trying to find food and be told where the rebels are. Ishmael, his brother and friends decide to go back to Mattru Jong to get their money out of the house where they had stayed. They are seen by rebels when they are leaving the town and have to run away. After all of the work they had to do to get there money, no one would take it so they could not buy food for themselves. I can not believe how they must have felt. They would have to be on look out at all times. There was death around every corner. I do not think I could have gone through what they did and survive.
6. They continue to walk through town and are captured by three rebels and are taken to a small village where there are eight more children and one old man. Ishmael, Junior, and the other children are forced to watch as the rebels shoot the old man in the head. The rebels are planning to take the children to their headquarters to make them into soldiers, but they hear gunshots and dive into cover. All of the children run. Some are shot down and others make it out alive. This was the last time that Ishmael saw his brother Junior. He is sad and crying about losing his brother but knows that he has to keep moving. He realizes that if he stays where he is he will most likely be found and killed. He finally manages to get up and start moving through the forest. He gets lost in the forest for a long time. He sleeps in the forked branches of trees to stay safe from the animals.
7. Once he finds his way out of the forest, Ishmael continues walking until he finally meets up with some of his old friends and decides to walk with them. After a while of walking a group of huge men jump out of the trees and take them into their village. The village consul talks about whether they should kill the boys, because they think that they are rebels. Finally they decide to let the boys go. They are given food and then told to leave. They thank them and say farewell. It was amazing how Ishmael stayed calm during their capture. There is no way that I could have stayed as calm as he did.
8. They boys are ambushed by a group of rebels and run frantically through the woods finally they come to a stop. They realize that one of their friends has been shot and is losing blood fast. The boys know that he isn't going to get any better. Their friend dies. It is hard on all of them. The next day Ishmael and the rest of his friends are taken in by the government army. The army trains all of the children to kill and have to not have feelings. It is a huge honor to receive your gun so Ishmael is extremely happy and scared at the same time when he gets his AK 47. The boy soldiers are given green headbands and are trained to kill anyone who is not wearing one. The soldierss give the younger ones white pills, which they tell them will make them fight better. Ishmael becomes a soldier and kills many people.
They never tell us what the white pills are but they get the kids addicted to them so that the government can control them. They also smoke marijuana and use "brown, brown", which is a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder. Ishmael said that he would go days without sleeping.
9. Ishmael receives his AK-47 at age thirteen and remains in the army until the age sixteen when UNICEF picked him up. He was taken by UNICEF to a compound with many houses with other boys his age. They are given new clothes, food, and a bed. But none of them seem thankful. All the boys are interested in is finding more drugs. The boys begin talking to each other and find out that they all fought on the same side in the war. Ishmael says that he hated being told what to do by "civilians" and he thought about killing them every time one of them told him what to do. I was amazed that the boys weren't happy that they had been taken away from the army and given food, water, and shelter. I would have been ecstatic if this happened to me after three years of being in a war.
10. Ishmael begins going to counseling and fights to get over his drug addiction. Eventually Ishmael is adopted by one of his uncles that live in a small town outside of Freetown. He is soon after chosen to speak to the UN in New York about his experiences as a boy soldier. Ishmael returns to Freetown which is soon after attacked by the rebel army, his uncle is killed in the attack. He escapes Sierra Leone and finds a way into the US. He began writing his book 8 years later. His story is now known by thousands of people all over the world. He has helped show us what is going on in other areas of the world. This story has really made an impact on my life and has shown me how cruel man can be and how scary it really is.
11. Before I read this book I had no idea how cruel people could be. This book was brutally descriptive and because of that it was hard to read. I thought it was a good book because it was very truthful and didn't take any of the more adult things out. He told it exactly how it happened and that's what made it such a good book. I think that I made a good choice on books to read because of how the book was written I couldn't put it down. Every time I thought about putting it down something huge would happen.
