# A Long Walk to Water

**Author:** Linda Sue Park
**Lexile:** 720L
**Grade range:** Grades 5–8
**Age range:** 10–14
**First published:** 2010
**Page count:** 128
**Genre:** Historical Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780547577319`
**ISBN-10:** `0547577311`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/a-long-walk-to-water
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Two stories braid together: Salva, one of Sudan's 'Lost Boys,' flees civil war on foot in 1985, and Nya, a girl in 2008, walks hours each day to fetch water. Based on the true story of Salva Dut, the short novel is one of the most widely assigned middle-school texts on resilience and access to clean water.

## Themes

- survival
- perseverance
- war
- water access
- hope

## Content notes

- war violence
- death

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 10+

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