A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story

by Linda Sue Park

It was hard to keep hope alive when there was so little to feed it.

Now that Salva was learning more than a few simple words, he found the English language quite confusing. Like the letters “o-u-g-h.” Rough . . . though . . . fought . . . through . . . bough—the same letters were pronounced so many different ways!

Setting and spiking the ball were the same in any language.

A step at a time. One problem at a time—just figure out this one problem.

To young people, I would like to say: Stay calm when things are hard or not going right with you. You will get through it when you persevere instead of quitting. Quitting leads to much less happiness in life than perseverance and hope.