This is the memoir of Mariatu Kamara, who at the age of 12 was brutally attacked by rebel soldiers, in a small village in Sierra Leone. Some of the rebels were about her age. She had both her hands chopped off. What followed was her very difficult road to recovery. When the war broke out in Sierra Leone, families were scattered, separated and many were brutally killed. Mariatu's story takes her to a refugee camp for amputees. She finds her two older male cousins (also who's hands had been chopped off). And she discovers she is pregnant. An old man who wanted to marry her raped her. At that time she didn't even know what he had done. She didn't even know that was how women got pregnant. She told her story to a reporter, and news of her reached England and Canada. People came forward wanting to help her. She went to England for awhile to go to school, but really wanted to go to Canada to the man who contacted her and offered his help. After many trials, so went to Toronto. She was fitted with her new prosthetics. Her baby died, unfortunately.

This book is rated good for grade 9 and up. I would say grade 11 and up. Some of the brutality of the war is quite gruesome and disturbing.

I especially liked the strength that Mariatu had to survive. Against all odds, a stepmother who treated her badly, being so young and having her hands cut off, she still trusted people who came along to help her.

I didn't like that the president and his people fled the country when the war broke out, leaving his people to fend for themselves. I didn't like that many children were made into soldiers and ordered to torture, mutilate and kill in cold blood. I didn't like how the stepmother was so awful to Mariatu, but she did apologize in the end. But though I didn't like these characters, they were real. The really existed in Mariatu's life.

Because it had a happy ending, of course I smiled and was happy that I had read it. We need to know about the suffering of others around the world, even if just to appreciate how our lives are so good. I was very happy for Mariatu in the end.

This book made me feel very upset and sad as I was reading about the atrocities in Sierra Leone.

It is very well written. It will make you go through so many different emotions. At the back there is a picture of Mariatu, and even just looking at her and seeing that she is a real person, made her story that much more real.

At one point, Mariatu even gave some thought to the child soldiers, wondering if they too missed their families and wanted to go home. That is real empathy.

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Created Sep 27, 2024 at 9:32pm • Submit your own review...