Interviewed in 2020 by the New York Times about the effects of COVID-19 on immigrants at a meat-packing plant in South Dakota, Achut Deng worked with children’s book author Keely Hutton to tell her full story in this riveting memoir. Achut was born during a time of political upheaval in southern Sudan in the mid-1980s. After the southern Sudanese split into two factions, violence came close to her home. She was seven the night Nuer soldiers invaded her Dinka village. Fleeing with her grandmother, Koko, and teenage aunt and uncle, she never saw her home again. The second night, Koko died while protecting Achut. Soldiers rescued Achut and the few survivors. Achut, orphaned, became connected with her mother’s good friend Adual, who cared for Achut while they were in a military prison camp. Eventually escaping, Achut, Adual, and a group of women and children made the difficult journey by foot to a refugee camp in Kenya. Years later, after experiencing the death of Adual and the traumas of daily life at the under-resourced camp, Achut was selected to move to the United States, along with a few male family members with whom she was reunited. While under the care of her relatives, Achut was sexually abused and contemplated suicide. With the determination that guided her so many times before, Achut escaped and built a life for herself. Despite a young life full of loss and cruelty, Achut’s visceral and harrowing memoir carries an undercurrent of hope and love. (Age 13 and older)