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?
WINNER
| 1992 Washington Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
WINNER
| 1991 Texas Lonestar Reading List
WINNER
| 1990 IRA Children's Book Award for Older Readers
* "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
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?
Awards
WINNER
| 1992 Washington Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
WINNER
| 1991 Texas Lonestar Reading List
WINNER
| 1990 IRA Children's Book Award for Older Readers
Praise
* "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
