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The beginning
Ishmael, Junior, and Talloi all leave their village to go to Mattru Jong to perform at the talent show. While there, all three of them stayed at their friend Khalilou’s house. When Khalilou returns to his house he tells the boys that the rebel’s has attacked their village. Ishmael, Junior, and Talloi all decide to go back and look for their family. -
The walk back home
As they are heading back home they see the results of the attack: people running away, cars filled with dead bodies, and the terror on the faces of people. They then decide that there is no use in going back to the village, so they decide to head back to Mattru Jong in hope that their family will find their way there. -
Five days later
Five days later the rebels attack Mattru Jong and Ishmael and his friends escape. Ishmael, along with his brother and friends, walk for days without food or water. As the hunger becomes unbearable they return back to Mattru Jong to get money and provisions. They find money and carry on to other villages to buy food, but no other village will sell them food. So, they wait until night falls and then steal the food. -
Danger
The boys headed back to Mattru Jong. On their way there the rebels captured them and held them at gunpoint. They are forced to watch the rebels torture an old man. This left Ishmael shocked because no one his age would ever disrespect an elder. The rebels separated them into two groups and said that they had to kill each other in order to be initiated into the rebel army. Before one of them were killed gunfire broke out and the boys escaped. -
Travels
As they are traveling they meet a women who tells them that Gibrilla’s aunt was at a villages called Kamator. When they got there they were given a job of clearing the land for planting. Three months go by and the rebels attacked Kamator. The boys get separated and Ishmael never sees his bother, Junior, again. -
More travels
Ishmael left his friends and began walking through the wood by himself. As he is walking he comes across a group of seven boys. He recognized a few of them from school and joins them. They reach the ocean and found a village close by. They enter the village to find it abandoned. Then people ran out and attacked them. They took their shoes and chased then out of the village. They come across a hut and inside the meet a man who helps them with their injuries and fed them food. -
Other Villages
Guards from another village capture the boys and bring them to the village council. Since they didn’t have any way to identify where they were from the head of the council threatened to drown them. Then as they searched the boys they found a cassette tape of rap music that Ishmael had. Then as the council was playing the song a boy recognized Ishmael and saved them from being killed. The head of the council offered them food and a place to stay but they decided to keep moving. -
A glimpse of hope
After leaving the man in the hut, they have to stop at a nearby village because one of the boys became ill. There a women tells them that their family is in a nearby village. They then left and went on to find their family. As they draw near the village they come across Gaemu. Gasemu and Ishmael knew each other and he tells him that his family will be very happy to se him. Right when they were in the village the rebels attacked. The rebels shoot at them as they run through the woods. -
War
After days of walking the boys were captured by soldiers and taken to Yele. There they are thought how to shoot gun and fight. Then when the time came to fight Ishmael was given drugs to help him kill the rebels. After a whole Ishmael become addicted and starts smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine and gunpowder. Ishmael now considers his squad his family and has become immune to the killing. -
UNICEF
When Ishmael is 15 years old he is taken by UNICEF men and put into a compound in Freetown. The group of young soldiers cause many problems which cause them to be moved to a rehabilitation center. -
Rehabilitation center
There they attack the cooks, nurses, and counselors. They also fight each other because they are bored. Ishmael is then given to a nurse named Esther. Esther uses rap cassettes to get Ishmael to open up to her and tell her about the war. She gives him a notebook and tells him to write as a way to get past his experiences in the war. -
Uncle Tommy
Ishmael’s caseworker found his uncle and then he moved in with him. After a while Ishmael is invited to the United States to tell his story in New York City. Once he returned home he returned and school and moved on with his life. -
Last Straw
Ishmael is woken up by gunfire and fears the civil war is back. By nightfall the government was overthrown and Ishmael realizes that he has to escape. So he calls his caseworker and she lets him come to New York to live with her.