A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park - ESSENTIAL

Park, Linda Sue A Long Walk to Water, 121 p. Clarion, 2010.  $16.  Violence: PG (small war related violence).  1985 – Salva Dut’s life is torn apart when his small Sudanese village is attacked and he loses his family as he flees with others.  A journey of hundreds of miles awaits Salva as he tries to lead 1500 boys, first to a refugee camp in Ethiopia and then, six years later, to Kenya and finally to safety in the United States.  But Salva has never forgotten his Sudanese family and knows that he must do something more to aid his people.  2008 – Nya has to walk eight hours every day to gather water for her family just to survive.  Then a group of strangers comes to her village with an exciting proposition – they will drill a well here, so that no one need make the long walk for water any more.  While the story is somewhat fictionalized, Park met Salva Dut and has retold his story as faithfully as she can so that American children can understand what other children around the world go through every day.  This would be a great book for an elementary class to study.  EL, MS – ESSENTIAL. Cindy, Library Teacher