An incredible read. A book that I bought, recommend, and share.

In 1980's Kenya, 13-year-old Auma wants answers: Why is her father not returning to his job in the city? What is causing this mysterious illness that people in the village call Slim? Why is her mother silent and withdrawn after taking Auma's father to the doctor? The one place where Auma can get answers is school, a place where the teachers are strict (students get hit with a cane in the back of the legs if they are late, "no excuses" is the rule), but at least they give the students accurate information about the transmission and inevitable course of AIDS. Auma faces the daily struggle of keeping her siblings in school and alive after the suffering and deaths of first her father and then her mother. Auma and her mother have their most difficult, honest, and courageous conversation near the end of her mother's life.

The author, Eucabeth A. Odhiambo, draws from her own experiences and her work with children affected by AIDS in Kenya. She calls these children heroes, and children like Auma have the fortitude and courage to survive and to keep their siblings alive as well. My hope is that Odhiambo continues writing Auma's story and that we find out if she fulfills her dream to become a doctor dedicated to helping her people fight AIDS.

Odhiambo's writing is genuine, clear, even. We get a clear sense of the struggles that children and women face in a society that gives them few options, but the story is uplifting. Auma relies on her best friend, her grandmother, and other women in the community to prevail in getting an education and a track scholarship.

Worth every penny.

Did establish strong emotions and was character driven, however, I just couldn't get my head into it for some reason. Perhaps, it happened because of my lack of liking for the writing.

Young adult novels about kids from different cultures lend themselves to teaching the writing of comparison contrast essays. Depending on the students’ level of sophistication, the essay can range from a simple four paragraph essay to a fully developed paper, where each topic is explored in great detail. As students are reading their novel, they should be noting similarities and differences between their own culture and the culture represented in the book. This month I am recommending three books that would lend themselves to this project. Auma's Long Run by Ecabeth Odhiambo chronicles the story of a young girl growing up during the AIDS crisis in Kenya. You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins is a multi-generational story that captures the immigrant experience of an Indian-American family. Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson explores the conflicts felt by an African America girl who is a scholarship student at an elite private school in Portland.

Set in a Kenyan Village during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, Auma's Long Run is about a 13-year-old track star, who dreams of becoming a doctor. After her parents die of the affliction, Auma is left with the responsibility of caring for her family. Feeding her siblings and grandmother becomes more important than track practice and good grades, even though she is hoping to get a track scholarship to continue her education and follow her dreams. The author draws from her own experiences of growing up in Kenya at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, in this poignant exploration of a girl conflicted between family responsibilities and her desire to find a cure for the disease that is killing her people.

This is the book I have been waiting for. A few years ago I was disappointed by a book that promised to show the hardships African girls have to face in order to receive an education. This has everything that I expected from that much-lauded book and more. Auma faces the challenges I have read about in nonfiction books about African females, but they are set in a framework that--even though there serious topics are discussed--makes it accesible for middle school students.

What a great book! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is written in an informative and sensitive manner.
The book is set int he 1980s when very little was known about AIDS & HIV. The story is based around a Kenyan community stricken with the disease & a family who are learning to live with its consequences. The main character of Auma is trying to come to terms with growing up, wanting an education & looking after her family through an array of hard times.
The book is written for a young audience but I suggest KS3 as the ideal age group. It deals with the issues of a girl in Africa growing up as well as family matters such as death.
A real page turner!

The author, Eucabeth A. Odhiambo grew up in Kenya in the 80's and 90's and knows the culture first hand. She states culture varies village to village, but this book is a good representation of life in parts of Africa. The story points out how and not in your face manner, much we have and how little we must do to have the basics needs for life. To them a rare luxury is a piece of fish, soap, or a a sweet treat called nuguru. Nuguru is caramel -flavoured unrefined sugar made from the juices of crushed sugarcane.

There is something going on in the little Koromo village. We learn of the tragedy through Auma’s eyes. This is the dawn of the AIDS epidemic and no one really knows what to do for those infected. They are stigmatised and doomed to a endure slow and painful death.

The villagers call the disease “Slim” and believe it only affects “sinners”. But why are so many innocent folks dying, even young children. It is all so confusing for the villagers. There is a witch doctor in the village. Auma's family practice a strong Christian faith and believe the witch doctor is simply an evil unit in their midst. Auma's faith is shaken after close loved ones get sick and she visits the witch doctor in a desperate attempt to save them. This was a creepy depiction and I'm sure realistic view into the witch doctor's hut.

This book puts the reader right there in the small, tight, African village called Koromo. The days are spent cleaning, collecting, gathering the supplies needed to sustain life in a most basic way. School is valued, but there is a monetary cost to attend. One also must pass tests to advance to the next level. Students are punished often with canning for infractions of simply being late. Females are treated harshly by male teachers.

Females are expected to marry at a young age and begin having children and living a life of hard labour. This is not for Auma. She wants to get an education and become a doctor. She plans to return to Koromo with a cure to save her people. She avoids boys at all costs in the attempt to avoid marriage. Auma's parents support this dream, but not her traditional grandmother.

It is heart breaking to watch the odds stack up against Auma. She remains determined to obtain her education but can she now, that she is the provider for her 3 younger siblings and grandmother.

Auma’s Long Run will not only warm the heart. It will open the eyes of the reader to the privileges most enjoy with very little sacrifice. I highly recommend this book; with its simple text and thoughtfulness, Auma’s Long Run is a story that I believe will stay with the reader for a long while, and maybe even spark interest in learning more about this continent.

This is a terrific story with an unforgettable protagonist.

Auma's quote: I won’t let you down, Mama. And I won’t let myself down.

Auma is a 13-year-old girl growing up in a Luo village in Kenya at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Her family has always struggled with paying expenses, even with her dad's good job in the city. Auma dreams of getting a running scholarship to a local high school, her only chance of being able to afford higher education and avoid being trapped in marriage at a young age. Then her dad returns home one day, unscheduled, and stays in his room, growing weaker and weaker. Meanwhile, in Auma's village, more people are dying. What is causing the epidemic? Can Auma get a scholarship to continue her education? Will she be able to become a doctor one day to save her village?

Auma's story is a fictionalized account of what it was like growing up in a Luo village in the 1980s. The author's personal experience of growing up Luo makes this story come alive. The fear of an unknown disease spreading throughout the village is tempered with Auma's courage and determination to make a better life for her and her family.

This book is highly recommended to all middle grade, high school, and adult readers, and especially those readers who like historical fiction and stories about what it is like to grow up in Kenya.

Thank you to Lerner Publishing and Carolrhoda Books for offering this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Haunting but inspirational, AUMA'S LONG RUN reminds readers that the world is bigger than what we can see, and that challenges are profoundly different throughout the world.

Thanks to the publisher for the signed galley of this title provided through a giveaway.

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!

http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/odhiambo/aumaslongrun

This book is set in the 1980's in Kenya where AIDS is beginning to take the lives of many who live in Auma's village. Auma, 13 years old and an amazing runner, dreams of attending high school, but when illness strikes her family she must also take on the responsibility of caring for her siblings. This will be an eye-opening book for young readers as it shows how children in another part of the world live. I was completely absorbed in Auma's story and gained some insight myself into how the AIDS epidemic was perceived by those affected by it in Africa. Although the topic is heavy, inspiration can be found in Auma's courage and determination.

Eucabeth Odhiambo grew up in Kenya. While she now lives in Pennsylvania, where she teaches in the teacher education department of Shippensburg University, she returns to her home country in her debut novel, Auma's Long Run. Auma is a teenager in rural Kenya whose village is being ravaged by AIDS. She is torn between her responsibility to her family and her desire to become a doctor.


In many ways, Auma is just like girls anywhere in the world. But her lifestyle is foreign to most Western readers. She has to walk to the stream to fetch water, she lives in a mud house with no electricity or indoor plumbing, and has cows in the yard. Her father works in Nairobi and sends money home to the family. Everything changes when he arrives home earlier than expected. Soon both he and Auma's mother have died of AIDS.


Auma loves to run and has become a local star, winning most of her races. She wants to earn a scholarship for her running so she can study to become a doctor. With her parents' sickness, her mother's efforts to marry her off, and her responsibilities caring for her younger siblings, it starts looking like she won't get to follow her dreams.


Auma's Long Run is a touching story that brings the realities of poverty and sickness in rural Kenya into focus, personalizing village life in a way that statistics and new items can't. The target audience may be young girls, but boys and adults will be enriched and will enjoy this story of Auma's coming of age in Africa.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Auma is living a pretty fortunate life in a village in Kenya during the 1980s. Her father has a nice job in Nairobi which allows him to not only bring presents home to the family from time to time but also allows Auma and her siblings to go to school. But when he comes home unexpectedly, he is suffering from an undisclosed illness that only seems to be getting worse. Lots of people have been dying in Auma's village which furthers her desire to become a doctor and find a cure for this new disease. When her mother falls ill as well, Auma searches for a cure and is eventually left in the care of her grandmother. Thanks for Auma's running, she is able to earn a scholarship to attend high school, believing an education is the only way to make her life and her family's life better. Auma's Long Run is honest, heartbreaking, and powerful account of Kenya during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Author Eucabeth A. Odhiambo draws from her own experiences, growing up in Kenya in the '80s and '90s during the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis, to present a spirited protagonist who questions the way things are done in their village.

Auma's Long Run transports the reader to a Kenya where people are just discovering and coming to grips with the AIDS epidemic. Auma, in contrast to most of her classmates, looks beyond a career as a farmer or wife and dreams of being a doctor. It's part of why she works to understand why so many people are dying and what can be done. The book tackles poverty, limited opportunities for women, but also celebrates family and community and perseverance. The author did a good job of putting us in that setting, so that even though it is not my own culture, I could relate. Characters are well thought out and multi faceted. Auma is not only a dutiful daughter and student but a runner and someone who wishes to go back to being a child. Her friends and classmates experience grief, taunting, romantic feelings, and moments of laughter, just like teens here. I recommend this story especially to middle grade and teen readers who want a new perspective. I received an advance copy through Netgalley.

Auma and her siblings, Juma, Musa, and Baby, live in a village where the cries of mourning are all too familiar. Many of the adults of the village are dying - but no one can understand why. Abeth, Auma's best friend, has already lost both of her parents. When their father comes home from the capital sick, their lives begin to change. They do not realize how drastic that change will one day become. School has always been a safe place for Auma and being part of the track team brings her joy. However, with so many drastic and difficult changes in her life, she must choose what is most important and strive to care for their family in this tumultuous time. When her school teacher tells them about a new disease called AIDS, Auma's passion to become a doctor is only heightened, but with so much need at home, what is best? Auma needs to work hard and be brave to give her siblings a shot at a good future, doesn't she?

Auma's Long Run is a book worth reading. Eucabeth Odhiambo's story rings true. It isn't a story that I wanted to read, but it was a story that I needed to read. It is a story that we all need to read. I cried as I read, and my heart hurt for Auma and her family as they faced what was inevitable. Although Auma's story is fictional, it is reality for many boys and girls in Africa where AIDS has ravaged the population and left the very old and the young to scrounge out a meager living. For some the facts about Africa's AIDS crisis have become daily knowledge. This book however brings the problem to life. In my cozy apartment stocked with food aplenty, I needed to be reminded that for many in this world their lives look very different. Thank you, Eucabeth Odhiambo, for this book and for giving us a glimpse into this corner of our big world.

This book was provided through NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group's Carolhoda Books in exchange for my honest review. All opinions contained above are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book for review.

This was a very good debut story, clearly written by someone who knows what she's writing about (as the author note states, she was in Kenya in the 80's during the start of the AIDS epidemic.) It's not an easy read - heartbreaking at times, but also hopeful. The characters are well written. The culture in Africa during this time period really came to life. Quite a lot to discuss if read by kids - everyone had to pay to go to school, HIV/AIDS and how it was perceived in Africa vs. here in the US/Western world, poverty/hunger and how it affects families, the pervasive misogynistic culture...the list is long. The story overall is well done. I do think that the writing seemed a bit simplistic (middle-grade-ish) considering I feel the topics make it more for teens, but overall well done and I am glad I read this.

All around her, people are dying of a mysterious disease and Auma has no idea why. She dreams on one day becoming a doctor and being able to save her friends and village. But before she gets the opportunity, her father becomes ill as well. Money is dwindling and her brothers and sisters still need to eat.

Auma's story takes place as the AIDS epidemic tears through Africa, misunderstood, feared and barely acknowledged the illness spreads quickly. Auma's story gives a voice to those affected and broadens awareness.

Set in 1980s Kenya, 13 year old Auma has aspirations of becoming a track star so that she can get a scholarship to med school and help support her family. When people in her village begin dying suddenly and mysteriously, she’s even more inspired to find a way to help.

This was a really interesting look at a time period and location that aren’t given a lot of focus in books. I’ve always learned about AIDS history and stories from people in the USA or the UK during the 80s, most of which cases were tied strongly to the gay community. This book shows how the devastating virus spread throughout the village and how stigmas and worries were closely tied to AIDS in this area but in a different way. I also liked that the book showed the traditions of mourning and burial. Odhiambo wrote what she experienced, and it shows with how vividly things were described and crafted.

The only thing that I really struggled with during the book was the weird tone of misogyny and victim-blaming. Auma’s brothers have to come and stand guard while she collects fire wood. Boys at school taunt her about not having a boyfriend and when one boy chases after her, she runs away from him. She later says that she couldn’t tell her parents about it because they would whip her if they knew how close the boy got and blame her for egging him on somehow. She has to run away from rapists and hope that her family doesn’t whip her for disrespect. I know it was an accurate depiction of that time, so maybe it was meant to make the reader feel upset, but I couldn’t help but feel like the way something were described condoned or dismissed them as normal. It left me feeling very uneasy that a young girl may pick up this book and somehow glean those same ideas from it.

Overall, this was an interesting book that exposed me to a lot of culture, customs, and history that I did not know about before.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This story is set in Kenya, a nation of almost fifty million people, mostly Bantu and Nilote, but an assortment of many others, too. It sits on the east coast, right below the spike that's known as the Horn of Africa. Kenya is home to Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. It's also home to the third largest AIDS population in Africa, but it's one that of late, has seen some success in battling this deadly infection.

This was a depressing story about the appalling AIDS epidemic in Africa which hosts about 15% of the world's population, but is home to almost seventy percent of the world's AIDs victims. This story makes that cold statistic real in both mind and heart as it tells of the life of young Auma, a child who was not thought likely to survive birth, but who grew smart, strong, and ambitious. She wants to be a doctor, and sees her performance at track as a ticket to getting the education she needs to follow her dream, but the powers that be want to see her neutered by being married off at fifteen.

We learn of her harsh schooling, and her living conditions which are primitive to us, but sadly all-too-normal for too many African children. Auma never loses her way, though. She is determined and steadfast, even when AIDS, which the locals euphemistically and with rather gallows humor label 'Slim', comes calling at her door, first taking her father and then seeing her mother fall ill.

It's good that Auma has the stamina of an athlete, because this isn't a US TV show where everything is wonderfully wrapped-up in thirty minutes, and all familial spats are resolved with joyful outcomes. This is Africa - a terra incognita to us spoiled-rotten westerners, and Auma's story is about the real world, not about the cozy fictional one with which we proudly cosset our so-called civilized selves.

I noted that some other reviewers have set this story in the 1980's, but (and I admit I may have missed it) I got no sense of when this took place at all from the actual writing. There are no temporal markers in the small village of Koromo: neither cell-phone nor landline, neither flat-screen TV nor any sort of TV or radio. There's no electricity, no running water, unless you count running down to the river and then boiling the water you bring back. There is no sense of an outside world because the world was the village to these people and very few left it.

They did talk about AIDS and HIV though, and those names did not come into use until the mid-1980s, and would doubtlessly not have been in common use in Africa until later, despite HIV first arising there. So saying this was set in the 1980's seemed to place it a bit too early to me, especially since there are, in Auma's story, medications available even in Kenya, to help combat the effects of AIDs.

The amazingly-named author, who is an associate professor at Shippensburg University (she has a doctorate from Tennessee State) grew up in Kenya, and she talks of paying for school education. Since 2003, education in public schools in Kenya has been free and compulsory, so it would seem that the story takes place sometime in the nineties at a rough guess, but in the end it really doesn't matter, because the problem is the same regardless of when the story actually takes place.

In terms of the presentation, this was another ARC provided via Amazon's crappy Kindle format, which is probably the worst medium (aside from mailing a hand-written copy! LOL!) for presenting a review copy, I urge publishers not to use Kindle format, but instead to go with PDF or with Nook format, both of which are significantly superior to Amazon's sub-standard system.

Overall, the layout of the book was good, but true to form, Kindle screwed-up the image which was used as a section divider in this novel. Instead of it being a small rectangle between sections of text, it occupied a whole screen on my phone. It did better in the Kindle app on an iPad, although why there is a difference between the two, I cannot say - except that they are both using the same crappy Kindle app!

The other instance of Kindle's poor formatting was where I read this: "Good morning, Class Seven," Mrs. Okumu greeted us." The children responded, "Good morning," but the one 'Good morning' was superimposed atop the other instead of being on the next line! I've never seen that before. I have no idea how it even happened. But like I said, these are not problems with the writing or the plot, so they weren't an insurmountable chore to deal with (and certainly not in comparison with what Auma had to go through!). It was a reminder of how Kindle simply isn't up to handling graphics of any kind and in some instances, plain text! That's not on the writer or on the story though, so it doesn't affect this review.

The only writing issue I encountered was a trivial one, but it did stand out to me. At one point I read "My legs burst forward, dashing to save Mama from Akuku. I sped ahead, my heels kicking up fresh dirt." The problem with this is that your heels don't touch the dirt when you're sprinting! Like I said, trivial, but everything is worth expending some thought on when you're a writer. Overall though, this is a worthy read and (I have to say this!) I urge everyone to read it and weep.

I liked this story and recommend it as essential reading. We can't forget about this. We can't forget that while we wallow in pampered luxury, there are others - far too many others - who struggle every day. Even without the disease, Auma's existence was precarious and heart-breaking. The disease was like a bully playing cruelly on an already deprived life, yet Auma never broke under the weight of this brutal burden she carried. This story is well-worth reading and ought to be required reading.

When we think of AIDS in Africa, the word 'hope' is not one that often comes to mind. It's more like 'absolute desolation.' And I think the media portrayal of "the third world" has taken so much humanity out of how we look at it. I went into Auma's Long Run looking for more, but not knowing what I'd get out of it.

This book is full of death, especially for MG fiction. Odhaimbo doesn't gloss over what is happening--the lesions, the weakness, the bodily functions. As an educator, her goal is to educate, and so that is what she does. She grew up in Kenya in the 80s, like Auma, when "Slim" was still so unknown, where children learned in school about the disease and then had to try and talk to their parents about it. Could you even imagine? We have a hard enough time trying to explain how the new iPhone works to them!

But there IS hope in Auma. So much hope. That's what makes this story so compelling, and why I finished it so quickly. Even as so many people in her Kenyan village were dying, that only drove her forward to find out what was causing it. At 15 she has to balance so much--school, work, family...starvation. That's so much for a teenager to have on her plate! Her focus just impresses me so much.

We learn about HIV/AIDS in school now, but there's still so much stigma around it, especially when it comes to how we view the epidemic in African countries. Maybe Auma's story can help reduce that stigma, and show us the human side.