Blogger Book Club

Would you like to read a book in which people are getting killed by bullets, lions, crocodiles and extreme conditions? I didn't want to read this realistic fiction .This book is so much more than the killings.  It is about hope in the depths of adversity - perseverance for months years. I could not believe how quickly the storyline moves.You won't believe it either.

I was wrong in assuming that Linda Sue Park  would only concentrate on writing certain types of books.  I am still amazed at her Newbery Award winner, A Single Shard. This book is special because it is based on the true story of a boy in Sudan. Salva was in school one day and he had to escape gun fire from brutal rebel soldiers. Escaping meant running away without his family and not knowing where he was going. The book starts when he was eleven. Every chapter alternates with the details of a girl who walks every day - ALL DAY to fetch water. Linda Sue Parks uses the alternate chapters to surprise us and fulfill our yearning to find out how everything really turned out. Not only has Linda Sue Park met the real Salva, she lives in the same town!

                                         * Rebecca Caudill 2015 Award Nominee*