Bookverdict.com

Gr 6-10 Learning the graceful motions and steps that are part of classical Cambodian dance, 12-year-old Nakri has always followed in her older sister's footsteps. When the Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh and the Sokha family is forced to flee, she continues to cling to Teeda for companionship and strength, first in her grandparents' village, from which her father is taken, and then in the camp where she, her sister, and her brother do forced labor. Three years later, when the Vietnamese take over, only Nakri and her brother make their way back to the village where her mother ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

While the previous titles in the commendable First Person Fiction series (Behind the Mountains and Flight to Freedom, rev. 1/03) focused on young immigrants' experiences once they have arrived in America, Ho's story takes place primarily in the narrator's home country. Nakri's sheltered childhood ends abruptly when the brutal Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia and evacuate her city of Phnom Penh. Her family splinters: first her father is taken away for being too educated; then she, her beloved older sister Teeda, and her older brother Boran are sent to ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More