I taught middle school English for a year! ( )

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.

An excellent approach to getting American teens to "walk in the shoes" of a refugee immigrant. Sundara, from Cambodia, still does much of the interpretation for her family and, thus, carries heavy responsibilities and family expectations. Added to this is the sense of guilt she feels over family who did not make it out of the war-torn country. Yet the tone of the book is not that heavy. Sundara also has her life as a high school student. ( )

Children of the River, by Linda Crew, tells the story of Cambodian refugees through the eyes of Sundara, a 17-year-old high school student. She had escaped with some of her family members from Cambodia as the Communists took over and moved eventually to Oregon with the help of American sponsors. The author takes us through Sundara's experiences with "white" Americans and with her Khmer family members as she tries to find her own place in the world. This is a book that teaches about the Cambodian culture but also examines the issues a high-school student wrestles with in any culture.

Two extensions that might work well with middle-school or high-school students would be:
1.) To look back at the history of what was happening in Viet Nam and Cambodia in the late 1970's and early 80's and how the US was involved.
2.) Try cooking some Cambodian dishes that might give a flavor of the region. ( )

It's been so long since I read this book (since middle school? high school?), but I remember that it always used to make me cry. The story has stuck with me too over all these years. ( )