A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Park, L. S. (2010). A long walk to water: based on a true story. Boston, MA: Clarion Books.

This non-fiction novel is about a young man in Sudan named Salva who is separated from his family one day during the Second Sudanese Civil War in the year 1985.  This story is alternated with that of a story of a girl named Nya, who is in Southern Sudan, but in the year 2008.

Nya is a young woman, who day after day must travel for 8 hours to retrieve water for her family, due to the lack of clean running water in the Sudan area.

Salva is driven from his village and put to test as he must travel through the desert, cope with loss, abandonment and withstand refugee camp after refugee camp as he continues being moved throughout Africa.   Salva is eventually appointed to the leader of the famous Lost Boys, and brings them to their last refugee camp before he is chosen to live with a family in America.

Salva learns the culture of Americans with his new family, but still yearns for his home back in Africa.  Salva becomes an activist for his home country and once again takes on an incredible leadership role to advocate for clean water in African villages.

 Somehow, Salva and Nya's lives become intertwined in the most heartwarming way, but you must read all the way to the end to find out how!

This book can be a great read for children between the ages 11-14, and can be used for readers in 5th grade all the way to middle school.

This novel is truly moving and appropriately eye opening to the trials that citizens must face who were a part of the wars raging on in Africa.  The main character shows an incredible amount of growth through his unfortunate series of events surely growing into a wonderful inspiring leader.  Since this story is based of a true story, it is natural and believable for any reader.  We can see a completely different culture being portrayed beyond what a child may know about Africa, it is a taste of true events that are occurring in the world today.

What's inside?

The use of personification is used many times in this piece of literature where an inanimate object is given human like qualities.
"the sun is already baking the air"
The author insinuates that the sun is like a cook, where the sun has human like qualities.

The use of simile:
"overhead, a jet plane veered away like a sleek evil bird"
This plane is compared to how a bird would be able to swoop over a village quietly without a warning of its destruction.  This is how the village felt as the plane was going to attack it.

Onomatopoeia:
This is the use of words that actually make a sound when used.
 " CRACK! POP -POP -CRACK!"
This is used to describe the gunfire heard in the village, and when you hear it, you can almost imagine the sound of an assault rifle in your head.

How can we use this to learn??
Onomatopoeia would be a great engaging lesson to teach children of just about any age. Ask your students to pick a favorite part in A Long Walk to Water, and after rereading it, use onomatopoeia to describe an action that a character or object might make if you were to try and hear it.