A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

In 2015, I participated in a Read Around the World Summer blog series and put together this collection of videos about A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. A Long Walk to Water is a historical fiction children's novel based on real people and actual events. It follows the lives of two people (Salva and Nya) during different periods of time. Salva Dut’s story takes place in the mid-1980s during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Nya’s story takes place in the 2000s, shortly before South Sudan gained its independence. Keep reading to learn about the history and events behind the story!

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About A Long Walk to Water

🍎Author's Summary: A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: 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.

Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way. Includes an afterword by author Linda Sue Park and the real-life Salva Dut, on whom the novel is based, and who went on to found Water for South Sudan.

🍎Title: A Long Walk to Water

🍎Author: Linda Sue Park

🍎Publisher: Clarion Books

🍎Year Published: 2011

🍎Pages: 128

About the author, Salva Dut

Salva Dut was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to the Dinka tribe. At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Salva from his family. He joined thousands of boys, famously known as the "Lost Boys," on their journey by foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in refugee camps for 10 years, Salva was given the opportunity to move to the United States, where he was embraced by a family in Rochester, New York. Several years later, Salva learned that his father was still alive in Southern Sudan but was suffering with disease caused by waterborne parasites. His father’s illness inspired Salva to help both his father and his country by bringing clean water to those in need. This was the beginning of Water for South Sudan.

-excerpt from the Water for South Sudan website

Did you enjoy this post about A Long Walk to Water? If so, check out these blog posts for more children's books you might like:

• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul
• Watch Over Our Water by Lisa Bullard
• Saving Planet Earthly by Climate Science
• Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier
• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom

search words: Sudan, Africa, water, clean water, water conservation, social studies, reading, language arts, ELA