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Book Summary and Reviews of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

A Long Walk to Water

Based on a True Story

by Linda Sue Park

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Nov 2010, 128 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. There have been several books about the lost boys of Sudan for adults, teens, and even for elementary-school readers. But Newbery Award–winning Park’s spare, immediate account, based on a true story, adds a stirring contemporary dimension...Teachers may want to point out the allusion to Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom (1995) echoed in this moving book’s title." - Booklist

"Starred Review. [A] spare, hard-hitting novel delivers a memorable portrait of two children in Sudan." - Publishers Weekly

This information about A Long Walk to Water was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Alex

very good
I was able to read this book in 2 hours every time I would try to put the book down I could not do it I was just so hooked and I want to know how it ended so badly that I missed some of my brother's birthday party!

cc

what makes his book so good
A LONG WALK TO WATER is two interlocking stories, taking place in Sudan more than 20 years apart. In the first, 11-year-old Salva runs into the bush when his village is attacked during the civil war. He spends years walking to overcrowded refugee camps in bordering countries, seeing friends and family die at the hands of armed men as well as from attacks by a lion and crocodiles, wondering if he will ever see his parents or siblings again. In the other story, 11-year-old Nya spends her days collecting water for her family, often making two trips a day to a dirty pond. When strange men arrive in her village, they begin working on a project that could not only change her daily duties but also her life.

rae

amazing!
I loved this book!!!

Eggo

Amazing
I read this book with a group for school. Apart from wonder, It is one of the best books I have ever read.
It shows you how lucky we are to have what we have and to not take that for granted. I think every school should read this heart-warming book about struggle and friendship that will stick with you forever.

stormy lowery

a long walk to water
A Long Walk to Water is a great book. There are two really good characters in the book, which are Salva Dunk and Nya. They each are going though a lot and are different at the same time. If you get the chance to read this amazing book please take the time to you will be very happy with what you have read.!!

Anonymous YYDS

Good book
This is an amazing book. The author portraits the character carefully with details making it very interesting to read. However, if the author wrote a little more about Nya, then I would give it five stars.

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More Information

Age range 12+. Linda Sue Park is the author of the Newbery Medal book A Single Shard, many other novels, several picture books, and most recently a book of poetry: Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems). She lives in Rochester, New York, with her family, and is now a devoted fan of the New York Mets. For more information visit www.lspark.com.

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