Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten worlds from books that we wouldn’t want to live in.  The first part of the list was easy, I’ve haven’t met many dystopian societies that have much to recommend them…  After that it got a little tricky since I don’t read a lot of books that take place in different worlds so I included some that take place in times/places that I wouldn’t want to live in.

1. Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins – There’s nothing good about a world that pits teenagers in a televised contest to the death.
2. Delirium series by Lauren Oliver – Love as a disease?  Not cool…
3. Divergent series by Veronica Roth – Being forced to choose a faction, serums that affect your brain, fighting, death – doesn’t sound like all that much fun to me.
4. The Giver by Lois Lowry – While things do improve some, eventually, in later books, who wants to live in a world without color, beauty, memory, emotion?
5. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – Iceland in the early nineteenth century is brutal enough before you consider the whole beheading thing…
6. Lorien Legacies series by Pittacus Lore – Disgusting aliens shooting up everything and trying to take over the planet so they can ultimately destroy it – need I say more?
7. Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien – Lots of fighting and really repulsive creature hanging around in creepy places.
8. I Am A Man by Joe Starita – Being a Native American in this country in the nineteenth century is not something I would recommend.
9. Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra – Taking place throughout the wars in Chechnya, the brutality and poverty and fear are heartbreaking.
10. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park – The story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, this heartbreaking tale brings forward this horrific war and its effect on the innocent and the children in the country.

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A Long Walk to Water

My daughter was reading this in her 7^th grade English class and we decided to read it aloud in the evenings during our story times together for a couple of reasons. I had to sign a permission slip allowing her to read it.  This didn’t overly concern me, but I wanted to be reading it with her so we could discuss anything that she might find upsetting.  Even better, she wanted to share the story with us.  So we read along at the same pace as her class, which was SLOW, since of course they had to do a ton of work after each chapter.  But in spite of the pace, it was easy to remember what was happening and we were all eager to see what would happen when we were finally “allowed” by my daughter to move on to the next chapter!

A Long Walk to Water is based on the true story of Salva, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.  It tells his story as he is forced to flee his village without his family, travel across the country, and live in refugee camps before finally being relocated to the United States.  Along the way he faces armed rebels, lions, crocodiles, death, hunger, thirst, exhaustion and despair.  In parallel, it tells the story of Nya, a girl living in a warring tribe almost thirty years later, as she walks two hours in each direction, twice a day, to get water for her family.  Ultimately, their two stories intersect, overcoming tribal differences in a touching and hopeful way.

The story provided a stark view of what life is like for others across the world even in this modern age, giving everyone, especially my daughter, a greater appreciation for the way that we are able to live, with running water, surrounded by family, and living in a peaceful society.  With the recent resurgence of violence in South Sudan, my daughter has been following current events carefully.  And given that Salva now lives in Rochester, NY – a mere hour and a half away from us – she is desperately hoping for the opportunity to meet him.

 

Title: A Long Walk to Water
Author: Linda Sue Park
Genre: Kids
Pages: 128
Publication: Clarion, November 2010

Wednesday WWW

WWW is hosted by Should Be Reading.

WWW Wednesday

WWW is hosted by Should Be Reading.