A Long Walk to Water: A Short but Uplifting Tale



I decided to read this story because I was looking for a short book that wouldn’t take too much time, but still had a good plot and was worth reading. I wasn’t sure I could find a book like this, but thankfully, A Long Walk to Water exceeded both my expectations!

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park follows the stories of two eleven year old children. It focuses on the story of Salva, set in 1985, and the story of Nya, set in 2008. Both stories take place in Sudan. Salva is on what seems like a never-ending walk to safety after his village got destroyed in a war. Nya has to walk 8 hours a day through an extremely treacherous climate just to get water for her family. 


A repeated theme throughout the book, especially in Salva’s story, is to get through one day at a time. This makes sense because for a while, Slava’s entire life is just waking all day every day trying to get to safety. This gets especially hard for him when he realizes he will probably never see his family again. So he follows a strategy to not think too far in the future, and to only take life one day at a time. 


Another similar theme that is more present in Nya’s story is to not lose hope. There are many points in her story where she could have lost hope, but she didn’t. For example, when her sister got very sick, when the construction workers near her house did not want to finish making the well, when there seemed to be no clean water to drink. But not giving up hope helped her get through the 8 hours of walking every day. 


One thing that was really cool about this book is that Salva’s story (set in 1985) keeps progressing on until his and Nya’s story meet in 2009. I think bringing these two distinct stories together really helped the book shine at the end. Even though there were some quite sad and depressing parts during the climax of the stories, the ending is surprisingly happy and perfect.


The only thing I didn’t like about this book is that when something really interesting was happening in one of the character’s stories, it switched to the other character’s story (for example: Salva wakes up and his best friend is just gone, nowhere to be found, in an area surrounded by lions…switch to Nya’s story). Even though this detail made me a bit impatient sometimes, it kept me hooked till the end. 


For anyone looking for a short book (only 115 pages!) with lots of plot, this book is for you! I highly recommend it. 


-Arshia


Comments

  1. Janny KnutsonJanuary 26, 2026 at 6:02 PM

    This sounds like an interesting book! I've read a few books by Linda Sue Park (my favorite is When my Name was Keoko) and have seen this one before so thanks for reminding me about it, I'll have to read it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. NivedithaJanuary 27, 2026 at 5:00 AM

    This sounds like a really good book! 'll have to read this book to see what happens when their stories connect!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnaJanuary 30, 2026 at 8:30 PM

    Wow, there are some really deep themes in this book. I like how you framed your review; it is very compelling and informative, nice job :)

    ReplyDelete

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