Book Talks

For extra credit, I give my students additional works to read and then we discuss them in small groups after school.
Because we are doing a unit on non-fiction, specifically relating to war and its impact on young children, I gave them titles of memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies of young people impacted by the same conflicts, or similar conflicts.

Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children, Why It Matters and What You Can Do
by Faith McDonnell and Grace Akallo

This was some propogandist BS, and I'm a little sorry that I had my students read this. The review seemed really good, but it was really poorly written, and the narratives were confusing and occasionally inaccurate.
Way too much emphasis on Jesus and Christianity, and the history of Christianity in Uganda.
Grace's story, of a girl kidnapped from her boarding school and sent to fight was compelling, but it was split up with historical chapters that didn't really relate well to the content of her own. Although her story would have been heart-rending, I just didn't care.


A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah

I'd read this before, and recommend it all the time to my students. This is what I was hoping for from Grace's story. It's horrific, and you feel his struggles and difficulties, as well as his hopes for the future.
This book really brings home to my students that these things could happen to anyone, and that people around the world are really more similar to them than different.

Good reading!
Caitlin