Books We Love--Kaffir Boy

Thanks to Stacey, I got into the idea of sharing the books we love.  We have a LOT of books.  My favorite type of book store is the type with new and used books, where you can exchange your books for credit.  They have lots of rooms lined with books and not enough room so there will be miscellaneous piles of books everywhere.  The kind of store you can literally and figuratively get lost in.  I used to frequent the book store a lot when I was younger, but now the public library is our friend.  

There are so many books I love, so many authors.  Each book is loved for a different reason.  The first book I'm going to share is a favorite not because it's light, fun reading but because it changed my perspective on life.  Kaffir Boy was required reading for my high school sophomore world civilization class. 

This book took me into a whole different world, where people were suffering, where life seemed hopeless.  I didn't know of hardship when I was 14.  And even though I've experienced really hard things, I have never experienced hardship like this man has.  I started realizing that there were people (women experiencing domestic violence, children being abused and neglected) that needed help.  This is an autobiography of a boy experiencing apartheid in South Africa.  He saw things that no child should have to see.  This book was hard to read because it was devastating to know that people had to live like that.  It was also amazing to see what Mark was able to do with his life, how he was able to escape.  This book sparked my dream of visiting Africa because although this book talked about some of the darkness that African people experienced, it also shed light on the strong, faithful people there are.  The more I learned about Africa, I could also see the beauty that was there.  This book also started me on the road to Social Work although I wouldn't know it until my sophomore year in college.