A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Parker

A Long Walk To Water
Author: Linda Sue Parker
Lexile: 720
Length: 121 Pages
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Nonfiction
Awards: None
Reading Ram Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

               Salva: 1985. Salva lives in southern Sudan, right in the middle of a war zone. His family is pretty well off, they own several cows and always have enough to eat. Then one day when Salva is at school, something happens. The rebel army attacks his village, and Salva is forced to flee into the country. He is now a refugee, traveling Africa on foot, searching for his family and a home. But how can a mere boy travel all across Africa and find 3 people. 3 people that might be dead.
               Nya: 2008. Nya also lived in Sudan. But now it is for the most part at peace. She and her family have a crisis, there is no clean water in their area. Nya has to walk for 2 miles every single day to get water. And that's only the trip there! The water isn't even clean! It's muddy river water. During the dry season, her family has to move to a special camp, away from there village just to have water. Again, it isn't even good water! It is dirty water that has to be dug out of a shallow lake bed. So she lives a typical Sudanese life. Although her family is a little better well off then some other families.
               These 2 people, it would seem, have nothing in common, apart from the fact that they both lived or lives in Sudan. But you would be surprised the impact a single person could have on many, many lives.
                I loved this book! It was so good! It is based off a true story, so it is kind of a mix between nonfiction and realistic fiction. The way the author incorporated these 2 stories into 1 book was very straightforward. The author simply put part of one story into a paragraph, then started a new paragraph, which would be the other story. It made for a very interesting read. I would just be getting into one story, then I would have to read the other one so I could keep on reading the first. Overall, this book was awesome, I just wish it could've been longer! 121 pages is hardly anything! Another cool thing about this book is that each of the stories is in different ink. Nya's orange and Salva's regular black. I really enjoyed this book and I know you will too, You should definitely try it out in your free time!