Huntington Public Library Adult Reading Challenge

I did not realize this book was y.a. at first, which made me nervous because is it a genre that I am - slowly but surely - outgrowing. However, I found many elements of this book quite complex and captivating. The legal case had more validity than I would have given it credit for, and the therapy sessions were quite insightful. The love story felt shoehorned in - I didn't really need it - but the friendship connections felt real and genuine.

This may be a preteen/young teen book, but it is definitely worth reading. Is Aviva seeing the ghost of her deceased father? Excellent bit of diversity since the main character is an Orthodox Jewish girl, living within an Orthodox community.

A Long Walk to Water starts out as two stories, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan. One is a girl in 2008, and the other is a boy in 1985. Nya, the girl, is fetching water from a pond that's a two hours' walk from her home, and she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Facing every hardship from loneliness to attach by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor.