Bite of the Mango

Bite of the Mango
By Mariatu Kamara
Annika Press, 2008. 216 pgs. Young Adult Nonfiction

Mariatu recounts her life in Sierra Leone, where she became a victim of the civil war when rebel soldiers amputated her hands and told her to go show them to the president. Twelve-year-old Mariatu, who had lived in a small village all her life was left to wonder "What is a president?" Mariatu made her way to Freetown where she was treated in a hospital and found that besides missing her hands, she was pregnant, having been raped by a man in her village. From the hospital, she moved to a refugee camp with hundreds of other people who had been maimed by rebel soldiers, begging on the streets for survival until she was given the chance to move to Canada, learn English, attend school and make something more of her life.

When a teacher suggested to Mariatu that she write a book, the teenager wondered who would want to read a book about her. Luckily for readers, she decided to go ahead and write one, and the result is phenomenal. This book does many things, including inform readers about the atrocities of the war in Sierra Leone, but it's most importantly a message of hope--a message of a girl who suffered horribly but was able to overcome her past to see herself "not as a victim but as someone who could still do great things in this world." An inspiring tale of a young woman's journey, both physical and emotional, this is one I highly recommend to any and all readers.

AE