A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park

 

Linda Sue Park is a renowned Korean - American Author of Children's literature.  Her 'A Long walk to water' and 'When my name was Keoko' highlight the human experience and promote empathy and understanding.  Simplicity, clarity and emotional depth make her stories lovable to readers of all ages.  Her novel "A long walk to water" alternates between two story lines: One is about Salva Dut, an eleven year old boy living in the South Sudanese village of Loun-Asiik in 1985 and the other is about a young South Sudanese girl named Nya in 2008.

The first chapter of the novel 'A long walk to water' introduces us the two main characters Nya and Salva, living in South Sudan.  Eleven year old Nya's struggle to bring water from a pond that was miles away ended in 2009.  A mysterious man came to dig a well there in their village and put an end to the water scarcity.  Then the rest of the chapter deals with a eleven year old Salva in 1985, who became that mysterious man in his later life.  One day when Salva was in his school, hearing gun fire, the teacher asked the students to run into the bush.  They were the rebels fighting against the government.  When he got to the door, men, children and women carrying babies were all running.  The air was full of dust.  He began to run as hard as he could into the bush.  In the other chapters, Salva's staying in the camps of Sudan Ethiopia and Kenya are described.  In his mid-twenties Michael, a foreign aid worker, taught him how to speak and write in English.  Later Salva was adopted by American couples Chris and Louise and moved to Rochester.  Then he founded a non-profit organization with the mission of building wells in impoverished Sudanese villages.  That was how he became a mysterious man to Nya in 2009.  Thus Linda Sue Park throws light into the life of children and how their childhood was affected by war and environmental factors.

------Thulasidharan V