What a beautiful little story, I wish it had been so much longer. Hopefully the author will choose to revisit the story and its rich characters. There was so much more to be told. I would love to know what led up to the story and hear more about their lives prior to the story’s opening

Interesting subject that comes from the heart and captivates the reader. I love when offers offer a unique perspective.

What an intriguing and engrossing little book! This is the story of five young people in Sierra Leone who live in an abandoned airplane and form a “little family”. You will come out of this powerful novel with an immense appreciation for everything you have in life that we take for granted everyday- a roof over your head, plenty of food, a safe environment, not to mention all the extras in modern life. These characters are so resilient and yet strive to do more than just survive, they want to thrive. I loved exploring their world- the writing is so good I felt like I was there. .

Read this book when you can devote your attention to it. It takes some concentration at first but you will be rewarded with a powerful read. And it deserves your full attention. I hope this book continues to get pushed by librarians and book sellers because the unfortunate timing of the pandemic could make this novel get forgotten. I hope to see it on some best of 2020 lists so that it gains momentum.

Exquisitely written..

Bookmark the prologue after you read it, you're going to need to refer to it again and again. Set in an unnamed village in an unnamed African country, the little family is composed of lots of people who seem to wander into it. There's such a huge number of characters its hard to keep track of them and the characters stories are woven together. If you make it through the first 100 pages you'll enjoy the book. Wow, does Beah have a an ability to write expansive language. His descriptions are excellent.

“…they had an unspoken understanding not to press one another about the past and its pain, but to keep trying to live in the present, offering silent understanding and respect.”

Little Family is a beautiful, quiet story about five young people who come together to form a “family” despite their circumstances. There are so many things worth discussing about this book.

For everyone who loves a slow, character-driven novel with thought-provoking nuggets scattered throughout, this novel is for you. The writing is unique, even compared to other character driven novels I have read. Character-driven novels often feel disjointed. This book flowed smoothly, and I never felt like the story was jumping around too quickly.

It took me a few chapters to fall in love with the way this story was written. To me, it felt like “a day in the life” of these young people with no place to call home. We see through their eyes what it looks like to survive, the choices they must make in those day to day moments, and the bonds they form with one another. Khoudi was my favorite character, and the one that felt the most developed. I would have loved to see a few other members of the “little family” fleshed out more. There is a small plot that developed as the story moves forward, but it takes second place to the the characters as we watch them live, love, and grow.

The book provides very little context and setting for the stories. There are clues that are dropped throughout the story such as the local cuisine, but the exact town within Africa is not explicitly mentioned. The characters are also not given an exhaustive history or background. I do feel like this was purposeful, because these characters lives can translate into many different countries across Africa and even across the world. This really sheds a light on those who are easily overlooked within a society. I loved that Beah posed thought-provoking questions that weren’t forceful but instead felt like observations. With the subject matter, you would think this would be a heavy read, but the writing style made it feel lighter.

There are other books I have read this year that have similar themes and pose similar questions but with a different method. When you pick up this novel, I wouldn’t expect a page-turning plot or even a highly entertaining read. But I would expect a quiet brilliance, beautiful descriptions, and to fall in love with the characters.

Thank you Riverhead and Netgalley for my gifted copy.

This had the elements of a book I could love, but ultimately didn't do enough with them. The members of this young found family all engaged me, as did their ingenious cons and strategies to keep themselves fed and clothed, day by day. Their unnamed West African beach city vividly came to life for me too. But I wish the author had dug more deeply into these characters, especially their previous lives and how they came to be homeless. This would also have given the author a richer opportunity to explore the post-colonial scars on African life, which are touched on, but get eclipsed by a corny romance, which surprised and disappointed me.

🔹BOOK REVIEW🔹

Little Family by Ishmael Beah
On Sale: April 28, 2020

-DESCRIPTION-
Ishmael Beah does not disappoint. This little family includes five kids that, for whatever reason, have brought them together where they live in an abandoned airplane hidden away from the world. They have developed very sophisticated ways to survive and keep themselves safe. This story really focused on, Khoudi, a young lady who is being pulled in two directions and still unsure of her past. While she longs for the comfort of the 'colonial" life in Africa, she despises the utter devastation it continues to have.

-THOUGHTS-
Beah could not have been more brilliant when it came to the descriptions. I felt like I was there, the sights, the scents, the weather, the people. The reader really gets a sense of the struggle this little family has with wanting the comforts that money can bring, but also rebelling against those that have all the money and power. I do wish that we had a better understanding of what brought each character to the airplane. What was their background and their circumstances?

-RATING-
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 stars
I recommend this read!

-SIMILAR RECOMMENDED READS-
A Long Way Gone
The Handmaid's Take
Cutting for Stone

Ishmael Beah has made the transition from memoir to fiction successfully, creating a title group of young outcasts who immediately capture the heart. They are round, empathetic characters for whom we desperately wish safety and comfort and peace. The pacing of the story is superb, and the ending is realistic enough to be believable and conclusive enough to give a sense of resolution. I did struggle at times to categorize Little Family as general fiction, thinking perhaps it should be marketed more towards the top of YA readership. While portraying the brutal reality of existence in a corrupt, post-colonial land, the book’s soul is in the Bildungsroman of one of the characters. Regardless, it is well-done and should find its place in contemporary conversations.

Unfortunately, I could not get into this book and had to put it down. There was too many characters to keep track of and I didn’t understand what was happening.

Ishmael Beah's first book was a memoir of his life as a child soldier in Africa. Since then he's been an important human rights activist. He has also become a novelist.

Little Family, Beah's second novel, is both understated and powerful. It follows a group of five young people (roughly ages 8 to 20) living on their own in Zimbabwe in a derelict airplane hull near an airport. The pacing is slow because Beah observes their lives with the same detail with which they observe the world around themselves. They are always on full alert, looking for items to be "corrupted" (their slang for stolen), anticipating both threats and opportunities, hiding from soldiers, and seizing odd (sometimes questionable) jobs as they arise.

Over the few weeks the novel covers the "little family" builds new relationships that force them to question their status in the country and their relationships to one another. One of them begins working for a man clearly involved in illegal finance, drug trafficking, and human smuggling. Another finds herself being pulled into a social circle of upper-class youth, who mistakenly assume she comes from a background similar to their own.

One of the aspects of this novel I particularly appreciated was the way Beah lets us see the little family's philosophizing. This is never pretentious or didactic. It is just that, like most of us, they are seeking a narrative for their own lives that makes sense of the conditions they find themselves in.

I recommend this novel very highly.

I received a free electronic review copy of Little Family from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

I’m struggling with rating this book. It took a while for me to read. I started and finished multiple books after I had already started this. I never felt the urge to read it other than I did want to finish it. I usually love stories that deal with cultures unlike my own, in this case Africa, and while that part of the book was interesting it was just really slow.

Little Family is the story of a “family” of orphans, the oldest being in his older teens and the youngest being elementary school age. We don’t know much of their history other than they all seem to want to forget their past. They are essentially street urchins living in an abandoned airplane in the brush. Their day to day lives are focused on getting food or money through any means possible. But things start coming to a head when the oldest girl of the family is attracted by the young and rich in the town and sees her opportunity to join them.

Part of what I didn’t like in the book was how long it took to figure out where the story was going. I was still feeling like there was no plot to the book and I was just getting day by day details of the families lives when I realized I was more than half done with the book. It wasn’t until the 75% point that I felt like a little more started to happen. And then finally when something did happen the book was over!

On the positive side, Little Family was written well. The language was beautiful and I was able to clearly see what was described. If you want a very thoughtful book that just meanders here and there this book is for you. But otherwise I’d look elsewhere.