Customer Reviews

Children of the River

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Find out what happens in Children of the River right now!

"Children of the River" is an intriguing story about the adventure of a Cambodian refugee family and their struggle to survive and find contentment in American culture. Readers both sympathize and identify with the ups and downs of Sundara's experience. This book is definately a page turner; the high drama is entertaining, and yet it seriously portrays the plight of a teenage outsider trying to fit in.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I hope to use it in my classroom someday. The story is fun and will maintain the intrest of young readers. From an educational stand-point, "Children of the River" contains excellent discussion possibilities. Under careful supervision and consideration the issues of race, dating, family, culture, popularity, and many other concerns that are relevant to teens can be addressed in relation to the Sundara's plot. Not only do these dicussions have the potential to provide important insights in the lives of the students; but they also motivate the students to read for a full comprehension of the literature. This book provides students with a diverse perspective on life and will hopefully expand and challenge their world view. Excellent book!!!

America is a "melting pot". It's new race, new social system, new law and new life. The people come to America have to lose old prejudices and manners in some way. They have to adopt new standards. They begin their new way of life. That doesn't mean you have to abandon your own way of life. You can have them both. In this book, you can find racism. Sundara's aunt tells her not to date with American boys. A good Cambodian girl never dates. The girl should wait for her family to arrange her marriage. Her husband should be Cambodian, too. There is no way to marry a white boy, because her family thinks Americans are not serious about marriage. Some Americans get married and after a while, they want to divorce. Her family thinks all American boys are bad. They don't want to her to become a bad girl just because of an American boy. "All men are created equal". Everyone is the same on matter what color their skin is. You can't look down on others just because the color of their skin. This is an injustice. I like the book so much because my experience it is almost as same as Sundara except I came to America for studying. Sundara is from Cambodia. I am from China. She is seventeen. I am seventeen, too. She lives with her aunt's family, so do I. "At home Sundara was too American; at school she felt painfully aware of not being American enough. She didn't fit in anywhere." I have the same feeling. This book is so touched me. When I am reading the book, I am thinking and comparing myself to Sundara. I find a lot of things from the book. Sundara is really a nice girl. She tries to do her best for everything. It's not easy to live in two different kinds of cultures. Linda Crew put Sundara's growing and her aunt's changing at the same time. Linda arranges Sundara's Cambodian friend died to make Sundara think more about her relationship with the American boy Jonathan. His death makes Sundara realizes she should care what she has now not the past life she left behind. Before I read the book, I didn't think the people from different cultures could be together (boy friend and girl friend). Their backgrounds are totally different, especially the western country and the east country. They don't have too many things in common. So they can't share the same things. It's hard to be with each other without the same language. Now, I have some new ideas. Where they come from is not important, the most important thing is if the two people are right for each other. If they are happy to be with each other, then they should get together no matter what different color of skin they have. Love can happen between two different cultures. The lovers must understand each other's hearts very well so that they know their appearances don't matter.

Children of the River by Linda Crew is a very good book. I think it shows the struggles that could be going on inside someone, when they have to adapt to a new country and have a conflict of cultures including memories of a terrifying past, in an understanding way. The style of writing narrates the book and especially the characters' emotions and conflicts in a very compelling way that draws you into the book. The story is about a young Cambodian girl named Sundara who escapes with her aunt's family from the frightening threat of the Khmer Rouge invasion of Cambodia. Her family starts up a new life in America but the horrors she saw in her city in Cambodia still haunt her and she misses her country and her parents and siblings a lot. She also feels torn between her native culture and traditions and her new exciting American life which includes an American boy she loves. I would recommend Children of the River because the culture that is shown in the book is very interesting and because the characters seem very real and you get drawn into the book. The culture is shown in places all through the book and you learn interesting little things about Sundara and her family's beliefs and traditions as you are reading it. Events and the characters' emotions are shown with great detail and understanding, like when Sundara's aunt finds out that Sundara has been very upset inside about how hard she treats her and that Sundara thinks that her aunt blames her for the death of a baby. This is a very powerful part of the book. Someone may disagree with my recommendation of this book because they may say that the book is too dramatic, and so this would make it unrealistic. An example of this could be when Sundara kind of has a crying fit and half faints and has so stay in bed for a while. Her Grandmother thinks it is the spirit of the dead baby that haunts her but it is because Sundara has been so worried and tortured by the thought that her aunt blames her for the death of the child, and by memories of things in Cambodia. Things like this may be dramatic but I think they're still realistic because in a culture like Sundara's, where children are encouraged to not speak openly of their emotions and have to hold them inside themselves, then it can be very upsetting when there is a conflict. I recommend this book, it's an amazing and gripping read. I loved it!

I am disturbed by most of the reviews especially by young people. Its supposed to be this wonderul story of a Cambodian girl who finds love and new life in America. But then you read about this wonderful western world and this "strict" Cambodian culture. Of course Sundara is saved and empowered by this wonderful Caucasian prince in shining armor. How typical: an asian saved by the "american hero" aka Joy Luck Club. Cambodian families "strict and mean"? Apparently Crew felt it more appealing that Sundara relate to a Caucasian family which by accounts of the book her own family seems to love her very much. It disturbes me that teachers are use this book. If they use it then they should teach students what Asian families are "really" like and this overuse of the "White Savior" in tv and books. If you say "how wonderful" this book is then do research on the Khmer Rouge and how Cambodian, Hmong, refugees suffer even in the U.S because of a society that forces them to assimilate and forget who they are in contrast to how the book talks about their liberation.

I had to read this for school, and I didn't think I'd enjoy ithas much as I did. I would reccomend this book. Besides having a niceplot, it's really accurate. :-)

Children of the River is a very good book. I am not much of a reader but after reading a few chapters of this book I just kept reading and reading. I like this book because it sort of relates to me. I am Cambodian just as Sundara was. We both somewhat live under the same rules.
This book is about a Cambodian girl named Sundara who was forced to start a new life in America. The setting in the beginning of this book is in a village called Ream in Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The 2nd chapter, stars off 4 years later now living in America. Sundara lives with her aunt Soka and her uncle Naro. Sundara has to follow the Khmer ways and customs, meaning she has to have an arranged marriage which creates one of the conflicts in this story. Sundara meets this boy in her school named Jonathan McKinnon who was on the football team and is a star player. Jonathan was the son of a doctor who helped Sundara's family and inspired her to be a doctor as well. Sundara soon falls in love with Jonathan, but was forbidden to be with him by Soka her aunt. Sundara has conflicts between Jonathan.
Some of the themes in this book are Culture, ethnicity, race, and some forbidden romance. I learned a little bit more about my culture after reading this book and from all the researches. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about romance and learn facts about culture and race. I also would recommend this book to any teachers who would want to teach there class about Cambodian culture and Cambodian history. Linda Crew is a good writer and really describes thing well.

Reading Children of the River by Linda Crew was a fascinating experience this book made me realize the importance of letting your parents know each day how much you love them. Sundara, the main character,is a Cambodian girl who had to leave her country along with her aunt Soka and her family because of the Khmer Rouge attack on her homeland. Sundara had to leave her parents,friends, siblings and Chameroun-the boy she loved. Coming to America Sundara had to adapt to a totally different custom that of Americans. Although her aunt Soka kept implementing in her house and in Sundara their old traditions. Sundara, eventually falls in love with an American boy, Jonathan. Jonathan is fascinated with Sundara's past and he wants to make her his present. I loved the book, it was awesome. I recommend everyone to read it, Teenagers, Children and even Adults because everyone would definetly find something that interests them.