A review by mindfullibrarian
Soldier Boy by Keely Hutton

5.0

Add this to high school required reading lists IMMEDIATELY. Eye opening and heartbreaking, Soldier Boy is not a book we want to exist, given that it's a semi-factual account of horrifying events (Ricky's account is true, while the other narrator Samuel is a compilation of the thousands of boy soldiers Ricky has helped). However, given that these child soldiers are real and suffering, and Ricky Richard Anywar is a real person doing real work to help rehabilitate these child soldiers, this book needs to be read. It's not an easy read, given the graphic depictions of killing, rape and mutilation, but it is a fast read in the sense that you want to keep turning the pages. It's written at a perfect level for high school, as well as for adult readers like me who are new to reading about this ongoing tragedy. While the descriptions may be graphic, the events happened and need to be understood by more people worldwide. If we expose US students to book after book about the horrors of the Holocaust, it is our duty to share this story as well.

Please read this. You will squirm and cry and want to believe this is fiction. You may need to spread it out over several days because it's so heavy, but please read it.

You can find more information on Ricky, Friends of Orphans, and the background of the war here: http://frouganda.org/index.html

Note: There is a story in the book "The Moth Presents: Stories From the Unknown" called "Unusual Normality" by Ishmael Beah that describes his experience as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone and struggling to fit in with other teens in his adopted home of NYC. This was a fascinating story, and would be a great one to share with students when reading this book - you can listen to it here: https://themoth.org/stories/unusual-normality

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this title for review - all opinions are my own.