Non-Fiction 

966.404 BEA

The civil war in Sierra Leone began in 1991 and ended in 2001. The conflict was primarily over the so-called “blood diamond” trade. During that time many young boys were taken from their parents and villages and forced to participate in the war and commit horrendous acts.  They were drugged in order to make them more controllable and were traumatized beyond belief. 

 A Long Way Gone is the story of one boy (Ishmael) who at the age of 12 learned that his village had been raided and he did not know what had happened to his family.  He had been away at the time performing in a musical contest.  He was able with his older brother to hide in the forests and so began his tragic story of a living nightmare.  At 13 he was captured and forced to fight for the government’s army, killing and mutilating other boys and men who were also being forced to fight for the RUF (Revolutionary United Front).  At 16 UNICEF saved him and he began the long process of rehabilitation and recovery from what he had witnessed and committed.    

I have a personal connection to Sierra Leone because my niece was born there. She is one of the few children who were allowed to escape to the United States during this horrible conflict.  My sister adopted her in 1997 when she was not quite 2 yrs. Old.  Her biological father was killed in the war and her mother died three days after she was born due to complications from the birth.  My niece has several brothers and sisters still living in Sierra Leone with their grandmother.  We have no way of knowing what their situation is like today.  Her grandmother was overwhelmed with caring for all of these children during such an unstable time and felt my niece would have a better chance for a successful life in the U.S. Sadly, the man (Joseph) who risked everything to bring my niece to the United States was killed by members of the RUF about a month after his return to his country.   Looking at pictures of him is difficult for me to this day.  

A Long Way Gone is graphic and may be difficult for some people to read. However, I feel that books like this one are important. Unless the world knows and learns from reading about the horrible acts people are capable of inflicting on each other, we can never hope to change it.   

Mrs. Lavigne

Library Aide

Extras
Scott Westerfeld
Fic
Wes

Hi all-

Welcome to the first entry in our book blog! Hopefully there will be many more to come. I wanted to start out with what is currently our most popular title- Extrasby Scott Westerfeld. This is the fourth book in the Uglies series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials) but the first three stand alone as a trilogy, where this book takes place a few years later with different characters (although some of the old characters show up after a while).

 The setting is both similar and different to the first 3 books- the action takes place on Earth after what seems like a massive nuclear war (although the details are never explained). In the first 3 books, a seemilgly “perfect” society is established, where everyone is given plastic surgery to look pretty and live a vapid life of leisure and parties, oblivious to revolutionary groups at work. Extras takes place after events of the first 3 books, in a city where all citizens are ranked by their popularity (there is a constant feed of gossip and video that everyone checks to see if they have risen or fallen).

Aya Fuse, the 15 year old main character, has a rank that is so low that she is a nobody. She is trying to make that change, however, by using her hover-cam to “kick” a great story: film some undercover story and then upload it to the feeds (think YouTube). She thinks she is on to a great story, but it sets off a chain of events that she cannot control.

Fans of the first few books will not be disappointed- the technology is similar (including Hoverboards that work magnetically off an underground grid). However, things are just different enough in this city to make it interesting. Like all good science fiction, it takes today’s technology (Internet, YouTube, Instant Messaging) and imagines what the next step will be, giving a warning about how the technology might change us in the process.

 These books have been hugely popular over the last year. I like them because they appeal to a lot of readers- boys, girls, science fiction fans, adventure fans, etc.  Mr. Cleney turned me on to this series. Scott Westerfeld has also written in other genres, which maybe we will blog about in a future post. If you are interested, check out his blog, which has a lot of details about the books - http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Please leave a comment if you have read this book or other in the series, liked them, hated them, or read something else that was similar that you also like. Our goal is to share these books with other Shen readers so pepole might read something that they otherwise would have missed.

talk to you soon-

Mr. Davidson