“A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” is written by Ishmael Beah. This book is an inspirational truthful story about Ishmael Beah and his difficult childhood. Our book club group’s first impression of the book was that it is a vicious and brutal book by looking at the cover of the book. This book is also written with a lot of power and emotion.
   Ishmael Beah, the author of this book was born on November 23, 1980 in Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone and his nationality is Sierra Leonean. His occupation right now is a Human Rights Activist. Beah doesn’t have any other books out besides “A Long Way Gone”. He won a Young Adult Award for this book which meets the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading teens.
   Ishmael was a brainwashed child soldier participating in a revolution that killed his family. He kills many rebels and he uses the excuse that they killed his family. He goes through the hardship of his young life and you will see if he makes it through it.
   “A Long Way Gone”, is written in first person. The genre of this book is a memoir and it was published on February 15, 2007. This book is about four years old and the events that happen in the book are still happening to this day. This book has very good style to it because it accurately paints a picture in your head about the events that happen in Beah’s life. When our book club read it we all felt like we were actually in the book traveling with Beah throughout his journey.
   Our book club enjoyed this book because it was written in a very specific and real way. This book also left us hanging after each chapter which made us want to read more. We recommend this book to people who like action and actual reality. The actual reality in this book is the child soldier problems which are still happening in other countries. All in all, our group thinks this book is great, and we recommend other people to read this story about Ishmael Beah and his rough life growing up.