A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Nonfiction · age 14+ · grade 9+ · 1080L · 320 pages · 2007
Why we'd hand it over
Essential testimony, not assigned reading — the prose is honest and unflinching; a 14-year-old ready for adult truths will be changed by it, but this is a conversation-with-a-parent book, not a solo read.