Soldier Boy
by Keely Hutton | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
1 journaler for this copy...
I am doing the 6-6-6 Around the World Reading Challenge again this year, but of course everything is different during the pandemic and I anticipated more trouble than usual in getting books set in 36 different countries... so I ordered a bunch of them from bookoutlet.ca; they came today and this book was amongst them.
This appears to be the first copy of this book registered on BookCrossing... it's always exciting when that happens :)
This appears to be the first copy of this book registered on BookCrossing... it's always exciting when that happens :)
I just finished reading this book, and... Wow. It's powerful.
You know that any book about child soldiers or former child soldiers is going to be a tough read; that's true for this one too, but I think that author Keely Hutton managed to treat this difficult subject matter honestly while remaining sensitive and tactful-- not overwhelming the reader as much as one might expect, and not being more gruesome or brutal than necessary.
This book is written in a very interesting and, as far as I'm concerned, effective literary style. It moves forward and back in time, between fact and fiction... Or fictionalization, anyway. I didn't think I would like that, but now that I've read it I definitely approve. The book tells the true story of former child soldier Ricky's time in the Lord's Resistance Army during the late 1980s and early 1990s, intercut with the modern day story (book published in 2017) of a young man named Samuel who has recently been wounded and left to die by the other LRA rebels with whom he was fighting. Samuel and his story are not real, strictly speaking, but they are representative fictionalizations-- created from various people and stories that Ricky has come into contact with during his adult life. The two stories told together as they are create one very heartbreaking but simultaneously inspirational book.
You know that any book about child soldiers or former child soldiers is going to be a tough read; that's true for this one too, but I think that author Keely Hutton managed to treat this difficult subject matter honestly while remaining sensitive and tactful-- not overwhelming the reader as much as one might expect, and not being more gruesome or brutal than necessary.
This book is written in a very interesting and, as far as I'm concerned, effective literary style. It moves forward and back in time, between fact and fiction... Or fictionalization, anyway. I didn't think I would like that, but now that I've read it I definitely approve. The book tells the true story of former child soldier Ricky's time in the Lord's Resistance Army during the late 1980s and early 1990s, intercut with the modern day story (book published in 2017) of a young man named Samuel who has recently been wounded and left to die by the other LRA rebels with whom he was fighting. Samuel and his story are not real, strictly speaking, but they are representative fictionalizations-- created from various people and stories that Ricky has come into contact with during his adult life. The two stories told together as they are create one very heartbreaking but simultaneously inspirational book.
