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Ishmael is in New York. He's shocked by how different the city is than what he had perceived it to be from rap music. " MY CONCEPTION OF NEW YORK CITY came from rap music. I envisioned it as a place where people shot each other on the street and got away with it; no one walked on the streets, rather people drove in their sports cars looking for nightclubs and for violence....." (Beah, page 193). Ishmael bonds with a storyteller, Laura Simms. He returns home after his unusual trip to New York and War breaks out in the capital. Gunmen open fire in the crowded market when they sneak out to go buy food. Ishmael and Mohamed hide in a nearby ditch until nightfall. Uncle Tommy falls ill one night, and there are no pharmacies or hospitals open to take him to so eventually he dies. Ishmael calls Laura and asks if he can come to New York and live with her, she agrees to help him. Ishmael escapes the country illegally and makes a harrowing journey out of Sierra Leone.

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Ishmael has to say goodbye to his friends in Benin Home and moves in with his Uncle Tommy's family. Moving in with a new family is challenging for Ishmael. Ishmael doesn't have trouble getting girls it's the dating process, when they start to ask more about him and his past he breaks it off because he isn't ready to talk about it. "I dated her for three weeks, but then she began to ask too many questions. Where was I from? What was it like growing up upline?.... I was unwilling to tell her anything, so she broke it off" (Beah, page 184). Ishmael to apply to be part of a delegation of children who will visit the United Nations in New York and tell their stories. He is invited to visit the United States and guided with special accommodations through the passport and visa process.

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There is a talent show and Ishmael recites a monologue from Shakespeare and performs rap and dance. "I read the monologue from Julius Caesar and performed a short hip-hop play about the redemption of a former child soldier that I had written with Esther's encouragement" (Beah, page 169 The center's directors are so impressed that they ask if he'll become a spokesperson for the center. Ishmael decides that rehabilitation is possible and that children are strong enough to overcome what has happened to them in their past. Uncle Tommy is Ishmael's only family member left that he has contact with and over a period of time they get closer and one day they go visit Uncle Tommy's family at his house.

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Ishmael becomes friends with Esther. She cares for him, listens to him, helps him, and buys him presents. "So I told her the whole story..."(Beah, page 155). Ishmael visits her everyday.

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Ishmael and the other boy soldiers in the rehabilitation center behave like caged animals. "At the end of each meal, the nurses and staff members came to talk to us.... As soon as they started speaking, we would throw bowls, spoons, food, and benches at them..." (Beah, page 138). Time and the staff's kindness and forgiveness wear the boys down. They begin to realize the extent of their war memories began unfolding. Ishmael writes that he has to fight through the war memories to remember anything from his childhood.

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Ishmael only thought was to kill or to be killed because of all the pain he has gone through by himself. UNICEF men arrive to take all the boy soldiers from the war zone. Ishmael and the remaining boy soldiers are taken to Benin Home, a rehabilitation center, but they still can't understand why. Ishmael's headaches return as his body begins withdrawing from drugs. "The drugs from the previous nights, before we were brought to the city, had begun to subside in my system" (Beah, page 137).

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Ishmael is addicted to the drugs the army is supplying him with."In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square, I took turns at the guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder...." ( Beah, page 121). He is becoming what the Rebels are, even though the government army says different. He is being manipulated by the government soldiers. The drugs block out every emotion Ishmael is feeling besides anger.

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Ishmael and his army went to war. As they were fighting in the war Ishmael watched his friends die because of the Rebels."We took the guns and ammunition off the bodies of my friends and left them in the forest, which had taken on a life of it's own, as if it had trapped the souls that had departed from the dead" (Beah, page 119). Ishmael goes into shock he's broken, numb, and traumatized from the death of his friends.

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Ishmael and his friends are taken by the government soldiers to Yele a town that is protected by their soldiers. Yele becomes under attack by the RUF. The boys are asked to join the army or leave Yele, they decide to join. Along the way they meet two young brothers who end up being Ishmaels bunkmates. "That is why we need strong men and boys to help us fight these guys, so that we can keep the village safe" (Beah, page 106).

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Ishmael meets a man Gasemu who he knows from home, the man takes him back to the village where his family is. When they arrive to the village the village had been attacked right before he gets there. "We hid in the nearby bushes and listened to gunshots and screams of men, women, and children... I told Gasemu that I wanted to fo to the village" (Beah, page 93). The RUF had killed Ishmael's family and Ishmael saw their dead bodies laying there on the floor.

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Ishmael is really starting to feel drained of all emotional and physical energy. The boys finally talk about how they each lost their families. Saidu dies after eating a deceased bird and got sick. "One of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn't sure when or where it was going to end" (Beah, page 70).

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Captured by the village chief, he left them dancing and singing which showed the chief he's an innocent kid. And the chief let them go but they had to leave the village immediately. "The chief examined us for a while, and when he caught my eye, I gave him half a smile..."(Beah, page 66).

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Ishmael had spent more than a month in the forest alone before he comes across real people. Soon he comes along boys he recognizes and travels with them. They come across an old man who knows he is about to die, but this old man is worried for the boys because they are still so young. "The only living things I had met were monkey's, snakes, wild pigs, and deer, none of which I could have a conversation with" (Beah, page 54).

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Ishmael is now traveling alone when the rebels capture Kaloko and demand to know what parts of the forest people were hiding in. He comes across a fisherman who helps him out. But the people from the fisherman's land don't trust him. "It was clear from the tone in his voice that he didn't want me around and didn't trust me" (Beah, page 48).

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In Kamator they are stopped by a chief and are asked if they were rebels or spies, then are escorted back to the farm for shelter and hospitality. There they are taught how to farm and grow crops.The rebels attack the village and it was the last time Ishmael and Junior saw each other. "It was during the attack in the village of Kamator that my friends and I separated. It was the last time I saw Junior, my older brother" (Beah, page 43).

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Junior is almost forced to kill Ishmael when they're all captured by the rebels and forced into two lines. One of the lines for people who were too weak to join and to soon be killed and the other line for the people to be recruited into the rebels army. "We want strong recruits, not weak ones" (Beah, page 34).

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Ishmael comes to the realization that there's nothing left for a normal life style anymore, its war. The six of them continued on with their journey for several days, along the way Junior is almost killed but he escaped by pretending to be one of the many dead bodies. "My heart throbbed with pain as I watched my brother lying on the ground" (Beah, page 28).

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Ishmael and his friends are waiting to hear about their families in Mattru Jong when the city is attacked by the rebels out of no where. They took cover in a bushy hill behind a swamp while others around them died. "After we crossed the swamp, the real trouble started, because the rebels began shooting their guns at people instead of shooting into the sky" (Beah, page 24). Soon after Ishmael and his friends continued their journey away from the rebels, when they were chased and were forced to run for a hour straight.

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In Ishmael's present life in New York City, he has a nightmare about the bloody bodies from his past. "These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the past experiences of my life, which trigger memories from the past" (Beah, page 20).

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Ishmael is introduced to rap and dance and learns to love the culture along with his friends. He is 10 years old when his home is attacked by the rebels and gets separated from his family. "...he brought me cassettes and taught my friends and me how to dance to what we came to know as hip-hop" (Beah, page 6).