Warning: Mature readers only due to the subject matter of
this fictional account of one eleven year old boy under the sadistic rule of
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in 1975.
Patricia McCormick has written a compelling account of what
it took to survive under the brutal upheaval in Cambodia by a group who called
themselves the Khmer Rouge. Not knowing the true nature of this radical
revolutionary communist group, Arn’s town obeys orders to evacuate to the
country for three days. No one understands they will never see their homes
again. Families will be destroyed.
Children will be separated from their parents. Men will be separated
from the women. All will be forced to work in the Killing Fields.
Arn-Chorn Pond survived. It is his story which Patricia
McCormick has recreated in Never Fall
Down. Arn’s ability to make himself “invisible” at times to adjust
to the many different leaders, to figure a way to be invaluable whether it be
as a messenger or a player of the movement’s military music are some of the
ways he gets by. His story is filled with angst. This historical fiction piece
is recommended for mature student readers only.
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