Jal is a typical boy, revering the warriors in uniform who stand before him and looking up to the fighter pilots who banish the enemy from the sky. As a small child he dreams of joining the military to fight the good fight. What is different about Jal is that he is not a pampered American boy playing with G.I. Joe dolls in the backyard in suburbia. Jal is a seven year old boy in war-torn, desert arid Sudan; his family is always on the run from the guns and violence. As he witnesses the deaths of family and friends, Jal's reverence and admiration for the military grows until, from a place of hatred, comes the desire for violent tortuous revenge. He wants to follow in the footsteps of his father, a commander in the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Jal hungers to go to school to be a soldier. His singular focus is to kill the enemy; and kill them, he does.

Don't let the simplicity of Jal's language fool you. His story is tragic and harsh. His manner might be sparse but it is straight an arrow, truth-telling writing. Consider this phrase, "gulping down pain like hot knives..." (p 86). ( )

The war in Sudan through a child's eyes. Incredible. Amazing that he has survived and told the story. Most of it is unbelievable. He ends up in Nairobi with Emma, who is killed in a car accident. Incredible story.

It’s a good book that tells you the life of a Sudanese child. There are many good compelling aspects to this book. The best part was the training for Jenajesh (child soldiers). It was a very good book and should be a requirement to graduate from school. Don’t change this. It’s an extremely awesome book. On my list of good books it is third. AHS/JF

I really liked this book because the story of this child is awsome and enticing. It's also quite sad, but I still reccomend it to anyone who likes war books. Q4P3 AHS/Matt F

Lots of violence but a hopeful story. ( )

The story of Emmanuel Jal, formerly known as Jal Jok, and his life during the civil war between the South (Christian/animist black population) and the North (Muslim, Arab population) in Sudan. The son of an officer and a nurse, Jal started his life in Khartoum. He was somewhat privileged while living there. Soon, however, the war broke out his father left to join the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and he and his family were forced to flee for their lives. From here, his family was forced to move from village to village as they barely avoided death that the guns and RPGs found them.

Soon Jal's father sends word that he is going to send him to "school" in Ethiopia. In reality he is being sent to train for war and defend his people. What follows are the horrifying tales of the refugee camps, battles and the tragedy of starvation.

Eventually, he ends up in the right place at the right time (if one could say that about a refugee camp). Emma McCune, a peace activist turned wife of a warlord, finds Jal in a refugee camp and smuggles him into Kenya, where he has finally escaped the war.

He eventually attempts to start a regular life. He goes to school, but the horrors of war hunt him. he fails in school after school and struggles to get along with the other children. Eventually he finds outlets -- God and Music.

The story then continues to tell the story of how Emmanuel struggle to rise to international celebrity as a rapper and activist.

Many will compare this book to A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah's retelling of his childhood as a soldier in Sierra Leone. But this book stands out for a couple different. First, it tells the story of what happened after the war for Jal in much more detail than Beah's did, and, secondly, Jal will not be blamed for misrepresentation like Beah was, since, at the beginning of the book, Jal states that, "this [book] is not meant to be a history of a country read by scholars. It is the story of one boy, his memories and what he witnessed.” He admits to not knowing dates or his true age, he makes no representation of being an expert on foreign affairs.

I only had a couple complaints about the book. Firstly, I found it a little too religious for my liking. No one can fault a guy for finding God through surviving the horrible battles that Jal did, but I found a little bit of issue with all the credit that he gives to God. Often, when Jal is helped along the way by a friend a saintly person, Jal immediately gives nearly all the credit to God. How about throwing a little bit of love for the people?! Secondly, there were times that I thought the writing was a little bit contrived. He often ends paragraphs with questions and phrases that are supposed to leave the reader hanging. In reality, many of the statements seemed flat and forced. ( )