From the Bookshelf of Mock Newbery 2026…

Auma's Long Run

Eucabeth A. Odhiambo

Start date: November 1, 2017

Finish date: November 30, 2017

Discussion: Newbery 2018

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Newbery 2018

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What Members Thought

Jul 23, 2017 Monica Edinger rated it it was amazing

Set in a 1980s Kenyan Luo village during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Auma's Long Run is a piercingly honest account of the struggles, pain, hardships, deaths, famine, and challenges faced by a determined young girl and her community with grace and fortitude. Debut author Eucabeth A. Odhiambo, who grew up in a Luo village, beautifully brings out the complicated ways thirteen year old Auma, her family, and neighbors cope with the scourge. Lack of resources, traditional practices, personalities, and ...more

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Jan 07, 2018 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: assault, feminists, cooking, friendship, cultural-identity, drama, education, grief, loss, facing-fears

Although it is certainly true that education is a reliable avenue out of poverty, it also comes at a heavy price and requires great resilience as this novel by a new author shows. Auma lives in a small Luo village in Kenya with her parents and her siblings. Since it is the 1980s AIDS and HIV are just starting to make their effects felt. She is an excellent runner and studies hard, dreaming that her athletic talent and her academic performance might earn her a scholarship to secondary school, whi Although it is certainly true that education is a reliable avenue out of poverty, it also comes at a heavy price and requires great resilience as this novel by a new author shows. Auma lives in a small Luo village in Kenya with her parents and her siblings. Since it is the 1980s AIDS and HIV are just starting to make their effects felt. She is an excellent runner and studies hard, dreaming that her athletic talent and her academic performance might earn her a scholarship to secondary school, which will eventually lead to her becoming a doctor. Auma's mother has always depended on her to help with the other children, but she still has free time to spend with her best friend, also a runner. Things change, though, when Auma's father returns home from the city where he has been working. He is tired, keeps losing weight, and stays in bed most of the time, never being able to summon the energy to return to his job. As others in her village die of a disease they never call by its name, false information, gossip, and superstitions swirl around the deceased. When Auma's father dies, many villagers come to honor him, but they consume the family's food stores, and it becomes clear that her mother is also ill. Although Auma has suspected that her father died as the result of AIDS/HIV, she only comes to fully understand the disease during a school lesson. Readers will be inspired by her determination to keep up with her schooling despite the challenges and the odds stacked against her. The author paints a vivid portrait of hunger and poverty and the embarrassment Auma experiences because she is an orphan and lacks the resources of others. Try though she might, it is impossible to care for her mother and siblings, make money for their food, and attend school, and she is constantly torn between what she wants to do and what she needs to do. The secrecy surrounding this disease and some of the so-called cures that led to desperate behavior on the part of some of her neighbors add authenticity to the story. I also liked how Auma resisted being married off to some man in order to solve the family's financial woes and how she somehow sorted things out for her. By the time I finished the book, I was exhausted emotionally as though I had run several marathons when all I had to do was turn a few pages. I was also left with a deep, abiding respect for this young woman whose long run to victory and something better than what others had in mind for her was achieved through schooling. By succeeding in her ambitions, she could certainly give back to others. ...more

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Oct 21, 2017 DaNae rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, bildungroman, z2017-new, z150-in-2017, africa

A heart-breaking account of the recent Pandemic sweeping Africa and the world in the 1980s. Uncompromising in its devastation.

However the expository narrative keeps the reader removed from the emotion. Amua never seems like she is immersed in her world. The first person narrative self-consciously tells the reader about village life of Komoro in pedantic explanations, rather than showing us through deft descriptions.

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Jul 30, 2017 Dan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: middle-grade, newbery-contenders, staff-book-club, ya

I highly recommend Auma's Long Run by Eucabeth Odhiambo: Beautiful historical fiction about resilience, family, loss, & racing after your dreams!

I am looking forward to sharing this story set in Kenya during the AIDS epidemic with my students throughout the school year and discussing it with colleagues at our staff book club in March! ...more

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Aug 31, 2017 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-j-fic

I reviewed this for SLJ and gave it a star. Auma's story is compelling and the book does a good job showing what the beginning of the AIDS epidemic was like when it was known as "slim" in Kenya and mysteriously killing villagers. Realistic historical fiction recommended for grades 6 and up. ...more

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Aug 02, 2017 Mary Lee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, 2017, historical-fiction

Amazing story of resilience. Set in Kenya in the 1980s at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, a young girl is torn between family obligations, cultural norms, and her dreams of becoming a doctor.

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Mar 07, 2018 Adriel added it

Shelves: ya, ya-diverse, seba

I was surprised to find a J fiction book with such a frank discussion of AIDS and sex. I appreciated the frankness and the clear intention of the author to give the readers some practical sex education along with their fiction.

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