What people are saying…
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2024 SD Teen Choice Award Winner
The winner for the High School lists is Don't Look Back by Deng, Achut and Keely Hutton
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Pigeon 605
Sioux Falls woman’s inspirational story of hope to headline In Her Shoes Empowerment Breakfast
Read the Article on Pigeon 605
Feb 12, 2024 -
DON'T LOOK BACK is the 2024 One Book Siouxland title.
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"Don't Look Back" -- Achut Deng's Story of Survival
The terror started one night in South Sudan when 6-year-old Achut Deng’s grandmother woke her and told her it was time to run…
Her grandmother saved her life with the words, “Don’t Look Back.” But for Achut, looking back through her book is a chance to share the important story of a strong woman and a mother’s experience as a refugee in America.
Keloland Living Book Club
July 14, 2023 -
'Don't Look Back' included in Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year
“Achut Deng, one of the few Sudanese girls included in the migration of the Lost Boys, recounts her path to American citizenship. A story of love, sacrifice, and family devotion. (14-17)”
Children’s Book Committee of the Bank Street College of Education
May 2, 2023 -
'Don't Look Back' Selected as one of the CCBC choices -- the best-of-year list created annually by librarians of the Cooperative Children's Book Center
Review the CCBC Choices 2023
Feb. 2023 -
NPR Interview: 'Don't Look Back': Author Achut Deng's journey of survival from Sudan to America
— NPR interview, On Point on WBUR
Dec. 19, 2022 -
I Didn’t Want My Children to Know--And Then I Did
In a new book for young readers, Achut Deng recounts her harrowing experiences as a girl escaping the fighting in Sudan and arriving in America as a refugee.
By Caitlin Dickerson
Article in The Atlantic
Oct. 26, 2022 -
“Southern Sudanese Deng’s remarkable life story is one of loss and survival . . . The combined experience and talents of Hutton and Deng result in crisp, clear writing that is eminently readable. Deng’s voice rings authentically through the telling, her resilient spirit eclipsing the grueling trials she was forced to endure. Though Deng’s grandmother once told her to never look back, readers will thank Deng for disobeying her and sharing her moving, powerful story.”
— Booklist, Starred Review
Oct. 22, 2022 -
“This is a gripping account of an extraordinary journey. A powerful read for this time of unprecedented refugee movement across the globe.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Oct. 11, 2022 -
I Want the World to Know
Achut Deng tells life story amid Sudan Civil war in new book
Read the Article on the Argus Weekly
Oct. 10, 2022 -
Don't Look Back
A Sudanese Refugee's True Story of Survival—and Arrival
Read the Article from Publisher’s Weekly
Sept. 20, 2022