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    Bite of the Mango
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    Bite of the Mango
    Unavailable
    Bite of the Mango
    Ebook205 pages3 hours

    Bite of the Mango

    By Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland

    4.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    An astonishing story of one girl's journey from war victim to UNICEF Special Representative.

    'Never less than riveting ... notable for its emotional honesty' Globe and Mail

    As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry.

    But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands.

    Stumbling through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown.

    In this gripping and heartbreaking true story, Mariatu shares with readers the details of the brutal attack, its aftermath and her eventual arrival in Toronto. There she began to pull together the pieces of her broken life with courage, astonishing resilience and hope.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJun 7, 2010
    ISBN9781408813560
    Unavailable
    Bite of the Mango
    Author

    Mariatu Kamara

    Mariatu Kamara was born and raised in Sierra Leone. She became a child victim of the country's civil war, and since being named a UNICEF Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflicts now speaks to groups across North America about her experiences. She lives in Toronto, where she is a student at George Brown College. www.mariatufoundation.com

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    Reviews for Bite of the Mango

    4.5/5

    9 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Compelling memoir of a girl who suffered horrific events during the civil war in Sierra Leone.
    • 4/5
      I was warned that the beginning of this book may not be suitable for the children who are the targeted audience. While there is brutality of a sort we usually save for films, I think given the right conversations the kids who are supposed to read this book can get through it. Yes, this is a non-fiction account of a child who was brutally assaulted by other children during the civil war in Sierra Leone, a child who was raped by the man who professed an interest in marrying her, and yet it is more a story of a child who went through terrible circumstances and survived them, becoming stronger each and every day.I congratulate Mariatu for having the bravery to tell her story; to not only face her past, but face her future as well.Read it. And then do something about what you have read.
    • 4/5
      The fact that I read this novel in a day should give you an indication as to my appreciation for it. This book demands that it be consumed in one sitting. It tears you down and you have to keep with it if you want to be built back up. The Bite of the Mango is the story of Mariatu Kamara, who was caught by armed child rebels on her way back home to get some supplies from a small town in Sierra Leone. In gruesome detail, she tells us of her experience of losing her hands--the price she paid to live. Mariatu is an inspiring human being and a very honest narrator. It amazes me still that no matter how many novels I read about civil war in African countries, I am constantly captivated by the beauty and resilience of its residents. Mariatu has an infectious spirit that has allowed her to overcome tremendous odds and hardships. Reading her story is humbling, and I implore you to pick up her book. Read more reviews on my blog: bookstress.blogspot.com
    • 5/5
      Reading JournalBefore you started reading this book/story, what hints did the title give you as to what this book was going to be about ?I thought that this book was going to be about how somebody was going to be hungry or someone would solve world hunger, or something like that but I was very surprised when I noticed that the book had nothing to do with hunger that it was about how things could change in the bite of a mango.What kind of message does the author want the reader to get from his book/story ?I think that the author wants people to know that thing like this really happen in Africa and other places in the world.What do you admire or dislike about this person? Explain your position.I admire that the young girl Mariatu is so strong in this book and she does not give up hope that someone will come and help her and that she will find her family.
    • 5/5
      The unbelievable memoirs of a young girl living in a peaceful rural village until one day a group of young rebels enter killing all the male inhabitants, burning all buildings, and rape many of the young girls. In the ensuing chaos, Kamara has both hands cut off and is left for dead. Miraculously, she escapes and makes it to Freetown begging in the streets and sleeping in refugee camps. Kamara, eventually making it to Canada, enrolls in college and become a spokesperson for an organization assisting children in war zones. A powerful story without the over-dramatizing and sensationalizing that pervades many other 'survival' stories. Truly powerful. Recommended for Grades 9 and up. An appropriate choice for literature circles, too.
    • 3/5
      Story of a very girl who is attacked by the rebels in Sierra Leone. This story of war is told from the side of an innocent girls whose life is ruined by the fighting.
    • 5/5
      : In this autobiography, 12 year old Mariatu endures rape torture, refugee camps, and begging in Freetown before her eventual arrival in Toronto, where she began to put her life back together. A victim of civil war in Sierra Leone in 1990s, Mariatu had her hands chopped off by the rebels, and ran away to a refugee camp. Since 2002, attending high school and university in Toronto and tours North America to tell her story working for the United Nations as a Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
    • 4/5
      An amazing an uplifting story (considering Mariatu's age), and the tenaciousness that endured throughout for a better life gave the reader a sense of that wonderful human spirit.
    • 5/5
      Twelve-year-old Mariatu Kamara often prayed for new clothes, for a good harvest, or for a nice man to marry when she got older. Then, one day in 1999, the Sierra Leone native prayed for something quite different: “Please let me die quickly. Let it be over quickly. Let my family, if they have been captured by the rebels all die quickly, too. Don’t let the rebels cut my body piece by piece.” Her prayers went unanswered. When members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attacked their village, she did survive, as did her family, but the rebels chopped off both her hands.It’s a time and place probably unfamiliar to most readers, not to mention incomprehensible. Before the attack, Mariatu lived simply, spending mornings working in the community garden, afternoons playing hide and seek with cousins. After the attack, she recovered in a hospital in Freetown, the nation’s capital, but quality of life slipped even further when she discovered that she was pregnant. Mariatu moved to Toronto in 2002, sponsored by a local family. She currently attends college, is a representative for UNICEF, and tours North America in speaking engagements. Mariatu narrates her story by intertwining two time periods: life before the attack and life after. When using words unique to her culture, she always defines what she’s referencing. For example, she mentions a tamalangba, “what we call a whipping stick, made from a long thick weed that grows everywhere.”This is the story of the results of war as seen through a child’s eyes, re-told by a young woman who lived through it. Despite the intense subject matter, the book is not overly graphic or gratuitous. It’s recommended for older teens, but adults won’t be able to put the book down either. It appears Mariatu took her mother’s advice: “It’s bad what happened to you. But you must see the positive in everything.” by Robin Farrell Edmunds