A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

• Genre: Nonfiction; Memoir
• Originally published: 2007
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 920L; grades 7-9
• Structure/Length: 21 chapters; approx. 241 pages; approx. 8 hours on audiobook
• Central Concern: During the Sierra Leone Civil War, author Beah is forced to become a child soldier. For three years he witnesses and partakes in unimaginable violence; eventually he is brought to a rehabilitation facility for child soldiers, after which he attends a United Nations Children’s Conference and meets his future adoptive mother.
• Potential sensitivity issues: Child soldiers, graphic violence, drug use, sexual violence

Ishmael Beah, Author

• Bio: Born in 1980 in Sierra Leone, Africa; recruited to fight in the Sierra Leone Civil War at age 12 as a child soldier; now an author and activist
• Other works: Radiance of Tomorrow (2014) and Little Family (2020)
• Awards: Quill Award nominee (2007)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• The Traumatic After-Effects of Violence
• The Uplifting Aspect of Nature and Spiritual Traditions
• The Capacity for Altruism in Human Nature

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the historical context of the Sierra Leone Civil War as seen in Ishmael’s recounting of his experience as a child soldier
• Analyze the storytelling methods used in writing a memoir by looking at the techniques that Ishmael Beah employs
• Develop an understanding of the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of war, especially on children
• Explain how child soldiering is a much larger issue and how Ishmael Baeh’s memoir offers insight into one part of it