Product Description

Grades 7 and up

Sundara fled Cambodia with her aunt's family to escape the Khmer Rouge army when she was thirteen, leaving behind her parents, her brother and sister, and the boy she had loved since she was a child.

Now, four years later, she struggles to fit in at her Oregon high school and to be "a good Cambodian girl" at home. A good Cambodian girl never dates; she waits for her family to arrange her marriage to a Cambodian boy. Yet Sundara and Jonathan, an extraordinary American boy, are powerfully drawn to each other. Haunted by grief for her lost family and for the life left behind, Sundara longs to be with him. At the same time she wonders, Are her hopes for happiness and new life in America disloyal to her past and her people?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119712 in Books
• Published on: 1991-08-01
• Released on: 1991-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780440210221
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
A Cambodian girl who fled her country struggles to fit in to an American lifestyle. In PW 's words, "The resolution comes smoothly and plausibly, offering a moving look at the way in which a survivor of great tragedy. . .faces young adulthood." Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-- Forced to flee from the dreaded Khmer Rouge several years before, 17-year-old Sundara struggles daily to reconcile the cultural conflicts she encounters as a refugee in Oregon. When handsome, popular Jonathan asks for help with a report on her native land, she is unable to refuse, even though as a Khmer girl, she is to have no discourse with boys. Risking censure by her family, she agrees to sit with Jonathan during lunch in the school cafeteria. Jonathan, for whom everything has always been easy, is intrigued with Sundara's elusiveness and honestly moved to sympathy and love after learning her story. When Sundara's aunt expresses rage and shame about the chaste romance, the conflict-ridden girl is eventually launched into a severe emotional crisis. Crew deftly applies ironic juxtaposition to convey the cultural leaps that a refugee must attempt. Americans pray publicly to win a football game; Sundara importunes silently for the survival of her parents and sister in a land which kills babies for sport. Crew's characterization is excellent. The Cambodians are each portrayed as individuals with flaws and follies, but never are they denied their inherent dignity. Their perserverance, hard work, and family unity see them through many stressful adjustments. The plot is well-structured, allowing profound concepts to be simply and beautifully presented. Dramatic tension melds past and present, pain and hope seamlessly together so that readers are swept effortlessly to a most believable and emotionally satisfying conclusion. Crew entertains without trivializing and instructs without sermonizing. She salutes the resilience and basic goodness of humankind which triumphs in some way even under the most inhumane circumstances.
- Cindy Darling Codell, Belmont Junior High School, Winchester, Ky.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
* "A powerful first novel....A book to change readers' eyes and hearts."-- Pointer, Kirkus Reviews

* "Crew salutes the basic goodness of humankind which triumphs in some way even under the most inhumane circumstances."-- Starred, School Library Journal

"A moving look at the way in which a survivor of a great tragedy, having confronted overwhelming changes in her life, faces young adulthood." -- Publishers Weekly


From the Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

A Great Book
Not every person in the world can say that they have gone through the crisis of moving to a new country, leaving behind their family, and trying to keep a baby no older then a few days old alive. Sundara is one who can. Children of the River is a story that looks into the lives of Cambodians trying to stay alive while a group of Communists invade and try to communize the country of Cambodia.
The setting takes place mostly in Willamette Grove, Oregon but starts out in Cambodia during the attack of the Khmer Rouge (the group of communists). The main character, Sundara, who is only thirteen at the time of the attacks, is forced to leave her family and go to America with her aunt and uncle. In America, Sundara learns and tries to adapt to the customs of the Americans but has a hard time fitting in. After being in America for a while, Sundara meets an American football player who she comes to like. She knows though that she cannot be seen with him or be with him because of the Cambodian tradition, which do not allow any relationships between any non Khmer boy and that all marriages are arranged. But, she slowly begins to give way to the customs and she finds herself and Jonathan (the white American football player) in love. Fighting traditions and family, Sundara struggles to choose between Jonathan and her Cambodian ways.
After reading this book I could not help but notice one extremely well inscribed theme: "Never judge a person by looking at them." I have never read a book that has ever used this theme so profoundly. In most ways it jumped out at me, which made me realize how the society in America is centered on this one idiom. This book challenges its readers to "see not only with their eyes but in other ways as well." An extremely well written book by Linda Crew could only deserve my utmost recommendations for a young adult audience, mainly to open their eyes to the world that we live in outside of their city and country boundaries.

Good Book
Children of the River, by Linda Crew, is an excellent book. It illustrates the numerous ways that cultural differences influence the lifestyles of many people in the U.S. It tells the story of Sundara, a young girl from Cambodia, who flees to the U.S. escaping the violence and chaos of her home country. She must leave behind her family, her brother and sister, and her childhood sweetheart, Chamroeun. In America, she meets an American boy, Jonathan, who accepts and embraces her cultural differences. Sundara must struggle with keeping true to her Cambodian way of life, and the grief of not knowing whether or not her family is still alive. It is a moving story that I enjoyed reading and definitely recommend.

Cornwall Ny 6th grader
I am a 6th grader.

I read the book Children of the River by Linda Crew. The book is about a 16 year old girl, named Sundara, and her aunt's family who are all traveling from Cambodia to America. Sundara's aunt and her family don't know anything about what has happened to Sundara's family. Sundara's family was unable to escape from Cambodia. Sundara and her aunt's family left their home country because of the war. The Khmer Rouge army was coming and capturing all of the families that didn't have a chance to escape the country. Sundara boarded a boat with her aunt's family and fled from Cambodia to America. For Sundara, it is hard to live in America. They have to work really hard from dawn to dusk to make enough money to live in a house and buy food.
My favorite part in the book is when Sundara falls in love. When Sundara is 18, she has to get married because it's Cambodian tradition. In her culture, parents usually arrange a marriage with another man (or woman if you're a man). In Sundara's case, she doesn't know the whereabouts of her family, so her aunt and uncle have to find another good, respectful Cambodian man for Sundara to get married to. That will be especially hard because they are in America now. Usually, the two people that are getting married have never met and are complete strangers to one another. There is a major problem with this plan. Sundara doesn't want to get married to a Cambodian, she wants to get married to an American boy that she met at school. Sundara's aunt and uncle forbid her to talk to this American boy because he is "white." Sundara really likes this boy and he really likes her.

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