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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier. Discussion Questions. What do you know about the wars in Africa? What does it mean to trust someone? How do you earn someone’s trust? How does it feel to lose their trust? How old are the soldiers that are most often recruited in African wars?.
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Discussion Questions • What do you know about the wars in Africa? • What does it mean to trust someone? • How do you earn someone’s trust? • How does it feel to lose their trust? • How old are the soldiers that are most often recruited in African wars?
The Setting • Mid 1990’s • Located in Sierra Leone (https://maps.google.com)
The Author • Ishmael Beah grew up in Sierra Leone – he was born in 1986 (he is 27 today) • He was a soldier for the African Rebels • Not by choice • He killed many people • He was saved and rehabilitated • In the late 1990’s, Ishmael moved to New York and went to public high school
The Book Genre • This book is an autobiography. What does that mean? • Is this book fiction or non-fiction?
What to Expect • Drama • Violence • Drugs • Relationship Struggles
Why This Book? • Many of us are witness violence, tragedy, heartbreak, broken dreams • Ishmael witnesses these events to a whole new level than most of us are familiar with • Since this is an autobiography, it is a story about survival… changing where you are going in life… becoming something other than what people think you’ll become • These are important messages I want to drive home to you…
How Will We Read It? • Every Monday and Friday, we will read this book in class • I will read most of it aloud to the class, and you are expected to follow along • There may be times that others will be asked to read (maybe my throat hurts, maybe my mouth is dry, maybe I’m crying and need to compose myself, maybe I want to hear you share the gift of words with each other). If you don’t want to read, you may pass one time per class. • We will pause often to talk about what is happening so we can understand what Ishmael is going through on his journey
Will There Be a Test? • Sort of… but it won’t be very hard. We’ll “cross this bridge” at the end of the book. As a head’s up, there will be different options that you will have to show that you learned from reading the book.
Sounds Awesome! Can We Start? • Easy there, dude/dudette. First, a video… The person in this video is the author of the book, Ishmael Beah. The picture quality is not the greatest, so please bear with it. Listen to him talk about his experiences in the war… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4yhPSQEzo
Now Can We Start? Yes…