How the book made me feel

   This book has opened my eyes to the hardships people can go through. It brought a lot of different emotions to the surface. The beginning was happy, Ishmael is with his family, the war is well enough away and Ishmael is enjoying life as a kid. He likes rap music, he finds the words are strange but loves to memorise the lyrics to these songs and dance along. His brother Junior as well as his friend Talloi and him loved to practise and perform their rap routines at the talent show.
Things start to become sad when the war finally reaches his village Mogbwemo and he is separated from his parents. Life becomes tough for Ishmael and his companions. We see the difficulties of life when Ishmael is forced to stand alone in the setting of war. It made me very sad when his own people started to not trust one another when trust is very important. I became sad and scared when Ishmael was captured several times because of the fear he felt, I felt the same way. It made me laugh when most of those times he was saved by his rap CD. I became so hopeful when Ishmael might of had a chance to see his family again. I was so happy and excited that he might have another moment with his family but all of that emotion washed away when i kept reading.
When he first killed someone out of rage and anger and revenge it made me cry. Why would someone pin kids against kids or even kids against adults. I started to feel lost for Ishmael when he started to loose himself and become a true soldier who doesn't fear death or have fear of killing someone. He started loosing the child within himself and it killed me to read about how war was changing Ishmael.
Hope started to rise within me when he finally got sent a rehabilitation centre but I was still sad when the lack of drugs that the kids were being given as soldiers made them crazy. Even though they were put in rehabilitation it didn't stop there violent behaviour.When he finally meets Esther it made me so happy because there was finally someone who cared for him after all this time. I was happy when the bond between Esther and Ishmael started to grow but saddened me that it took so long and how Ishmael got annoyed when the staff kept telling him that what he did wasn't his fault, but knew and felt sorry about why he got annoyed. When we learn of his existing uncle I was so happy that he still had a family to go to. When he was finally ready to leave the rehabilitation centre and ready to live with his uncle joy filled me. When he got the chance to go to New York city, I felt his excitement and i felt so proud as well as happy for him. After everything he went through he deserves to go to a new place and enjoy life. When he met Laura Simms i was overjoyed that there was another person who loved and cared for him.
When he gets back to Sierre Leone and to his uncle I felt that everything was going to be fine, but that emotion was fast to go, for the war finally reached him again. I felt angry and very sad that he has to go through it all again. Why did that have to happen again. I felt so sorry that he had to see it again and I cried again when another family member passed away.
In the end my emotion became hopeful and happy again. Ishmael decided that he couldn't stay in Sierre Leone and had to leave. He wanted to go live with Laura and she agreed. His journey was hard and not the happiest but in the end he managed to get to New York and live there with Laura.
This book made me feel so many emotions and the author did an excellent job in making the reader feel how he felt.