Book Review

The Bite of the Mango by Susan McClelland and Mariatu Kamara conveys the importance of seeing the bright side of everything, regardless of the terrible things life throws at you. Mariatu Kamara’s village is attacked by rebels from the Revolutionary United Front. The rebels cut off Mariatu’s hands and send her out into the African bush. Mariatu recovers in a hospital in Freetown, and finds out she is pregnant. Mariatu’s baby dies, and she spends several years in Freetown begging. Thanks to a sponsorship, Mariatu moves to Canada, where she joins UNICEF to promote equal rights.
I learned several things I had never thought about while reading The Bite of the Mango. Firstly, the book taught me about the effects war had on civilians. Whenever I had thought about the effects of war, I had just thought about the soldiers that died. I really never considered the fact that civilians, like Mariatu and the rest of her village, are also harmed in wars. While reading The Bite of the Mango I was hit with the realization that in war civilian’s houses are destroyed, their families torn apart, and the people they love tortured or killed. The second thing I learned while reading the novel was about the civil war in Sierra Leone, and how North America did not send any military forces to try and help preserve the peace. I had not even heard of the conflict before reading the book, which only goes to show how isolated from the rest of the world North America can be at times. Learning about the war made me think about the fact that North America had not made in effort to help at all in Sierra Leone, yet when things got unpleasant in countries like Iraq, we almost immediately interfered. This leads to my belief that when it comes down to it, North Americ...

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...simple style, and sheds some light on the horrors of war. The book also shares some knowledge with the reader on the civil war in Sierra Leone, a war before reading this book I never knew happened. The Bite of the Mango is also a brutally honest book, not holding back the gruesome details of Mariatu’s journey. For this reason I would recommend this book for ages 12 and up. If I were to rate this book, I would give it four out of five stars. I would give the book four stars as it was a very compelling and inspiring story that made me much more grateful that I live in a first-world country. I would take away one star as the overly simplistic writing style of the book became bland at points, and for some unexplained time lapses that gave rise to confusion at times. The Bite of the Mango is an inspiring, incredible book that I am exceedingly glad to have gotten to read.