This book was incredibly powerful. It is the story of a man who grew up under circumstances that many would consider extreme and horrible, but which was normal for him and the rest of the boys taken from their parents to be educated by the SPLM/A in Africa.

The hardships they went through many did not survive. But the author did and he does not seem bitter or angry about it. He comes across as grateful to have received his education, despite the difficult road to get there.

If anyone who has a roof over their head, food on the table and clothes on their back starts to get all pity party about how their life is just rotten, this book would be an excellent kick in the pants to get over one's self in a hurry. What he and the other boys went through was really incredible. The fact that he didn't get angry and bitter is a testament to the human spirit and will to survive.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about what those in other countries have gone and are going through and for those who need a reality check. 4, I had tears in my eyes but it was uplifting, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Concierge Marketing Inc., Jieng Publishing for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

As a child, Abraham and other boys in the region were taken from their home in Sudan and forced to live away from their families. Subjected to manual labor while scrambling to find enough food, Abraham and the other boys suffered years of deprivation. As Abraham learns to survive, he is shuffled from place to place, often fleeing for his life.

This was a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. It was well written and engaging. I can see middle school or teenage children reading this book and relating to Abraham as a young boy. Overall, highly recommended.

In spite of English not being this author's first language (although you would have thought his American co-author would have contributed more), this is a sensitive look at the conditions in Sudan's long civil war. Taken as a child from his home, Mangar details his life until age 14, when he is in a camp and wanting to emigrate to the US. Worth the read.

My Life Under the Trees: The Story of a Lost Boy from South Sudan by Abraham Manger is an important historical document. Manger is one of the Lost Boys from Southern Sudan. This is book is his biography recounting the period of his life from when he was taken from his home as a 6 year old boy, in 1987, until 14 years later when he was a young man living in a Kenyan refugee camp planning to emigrate to the USA. The entire history and philosophy of the South Sudan is confusing to this reviewer. Manger does his best to explain the politics behind what he was experiencing, starting from the introduction of the book and by interjecting important political highlights throughout to help one make sense of what the Lost Boys went through. Manger bears no ill will towards the people who caused him to ripped from his family at such a young age and forced him to endure unbearable hardships. The fact that he witnessed so many of his fellow Lost Boys suffer and die has not hardened his heart. In fact he defends his early life in the opening pages of the book when he states in the preface, “Dr. John Garang, himself, ordered the South Sudanese governors to send boys from different regions to Ethiopia so they could (eventually) attend school.” Although the author has kept the story line in chronological order and made every effort to state the facts as he lived them the book would have benefited greatly from a really good editor.