A Long Walk to Water

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is based on the hardships that a young man named Salva Dut faced growing up in Sudan during their civil war. This novel presents two stories in one which will connect at the end of the book as Linda Sue Park describes the special meeting of the two main characters. Nya’s story begins in 2008 when she describes her tedious daily life fetching drinking water from a distant dirty pond in the heat of the day in southern Sudan. Salva’s story begins in 1985 in a classroom full of boys in the same part of that country. Villages were attacked as a result of the political unrest between the rebels and the government. The school boys fled their classroom headed to the bush. Soon those that fled their villages had to walk miles and miles headed for a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Salva was told that his family was most likely dead. The difficulties the refugees faced are unspeakable. Park’s heart wrenching story follows Salva to the Unites States many years later. Read the book to find out how one person (one step at a time) overcame personal tragedies to make a difference for an entire country. Click on the video below to hear from Newbery winning author, Linda Sue Park, and Salva, the young man who inspired this story.