TV commercial

The script:
This is how wars are fought now: by children, traumatized, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become the soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.
What does war look like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Journalists have profiled Child soldiers, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell and survived.
In A LONG WAY GONE: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a powerfully gripping story: At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, the government army had picked him up, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.
This is an extraordinary and thrilling account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

In the commercial, I would make it really simple with just one person explaining how great the book is. Also, I would put some pictures in of little kids fighting in Africa just to show the reality of the book. I think a lot of people would be attracted to this just to see what really happens out there. After the commercial I would hope a lot more people would want to read the book. Also I would have quotes from reviews too:


What Beah saw and did during [the war] has haunted him ever since, and if you read his stunning and unflinching memoir, you'll be haunted, too . . . It would have been enough if Ishmael Beah had merely survived the horrors described in A Long Way Gone. That he has written this unforgettable firsthand account of his odyssey is harder still to grasp. Those seeking to understand the human consequences of war, its brutal and brutalizing costs, would be wise to reflect on Ishmael Beah's story.
— Philadelphia Enquirer

In place of a text that has every right to be a diatribe against Sierra Leone, globalization or even himself, Beah has produced a book of such self-effacing humanity that refugees, political fronts and even death squads resolve themselves back into the faces of mothers, fathers and siblings. "A Long Way Gone" transports us into the lives of thousands of children whose lives have been altered by war, and it does so with a genuine and disarmingly emotional force.
— Minneapolis Star Tribune

What I learned during High school on PhotoPeach

why the author wrote the book

The author primarily wrote this story to explain the harm that is going on with these little kids.

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words.

In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion.

During a February 14, 2007 appearance on The Daily Show, Beah said that he believed that returning to civilized society was more difficult than the act of becoming a child soldier, saying that dehumanizing children is a relatively easy task. Rescued in 1996 by a coalition of UNICEF and NGOs, he found the transition difficult. He and his fellow child soldiers fought frequently. He credits one volunteer, Nurse Esther, with having the patience and compassion required to bring him through the difficult period. Another reason why he wrote this story is to release his anger through writing. Also I think the author had lot to tell about this conflict going on that many people did not even know about. People need to know about these kinds of things, and I think that is another reason why he wanted to write it.

This is also a very amazing story that can be very attractive when you hear about it.

Aspect of Society

The aspect of society this book represents is the poverty in our country. I think this because the poverty in our country has nothing, and is treated pretty bad. In the book, these little kids in Africa are treated like nothing, and get thrown out in warfare with having the feeling that they are going to die. In our country, nothing goes on like this but you can make a good comparison about the poor in this country. They are very malnourished and without food they will eventually die. The little boys in this book may know how to fight, but they are no match to strong grown men..

Taking a character to lunch

The character I would take out to lunch is Alhaji. I would take him to lunch because he is a little kid that needs to find his childhood. Every kid in this world needs to have some sort of childhood. We would go to some place original with American food, and somewhere to walk around or play on the swings. I would take him here during the day because all kids have done this sort of thing during their young years. I would just want Alhaji to experience something like this, to think he can be a regular normal kid. We would also just have hamburgers and soda just to keep it original. I always like to help out other people and I feel by doing this kind of thing, it would make this little boy really happy inside.

Main Character

My main characters name is Ishmael Beah. He is important to the story because he narrates it and the story is told through him. This character is very worth having the story told because he is a very interesting kid that you can learn a lot from. It is very rare to find a kid that has gone through as much as him. I am very interested to what happens to him at the end of the story.

If the book were a movie

If my book was a movie, It would probably look similar to the Slumdog Millionaire. It would look like this because my book is based off in Africa and in a run down area like in Slumdog Millionaire. I am not sure what all the characters would be because I have not read the whole book yet.