Ishmael Beah talked about and read excerpts from his book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. As a boy of 12, Mr. Beah was forced to become a soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s. After fleeing the rebel soldiers, Mr. Beah was picked up by government forces at age thirteen and made to join the army. He spent three years fighting in the war before being found by UNICEF and eventually brought to the United States. He spoke against using children as soldiers and described his experiences in the army and later in the U.S. After his presentation he responded to audience members' questions.