The Clay Marble [Hardcover]

Minfong Ho (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1991 | Age Level: 10 and up

In the late 1970s twelve-year-old Dara joins a refugee camp in war-torn Cambodia and becomes separated from her family.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dara's is one of the thousands of Cambodian families separated or destroyed by war, but there is hope as she and her brother and mother head for a refugee camp on the Thailand border. Once safely there, Dara makes friends with Jantu, who has an almost magical touch in creating toys from mud and scraps of fabric. When the camp is bombed, Jantu makes a magic marble out of clay that helps Dara track down her family and then return to the hospital for Jantu and her brother. Like clay dolls themselves, Ho's ( Rice Without Rain ) characters seem to walk through their parts--their emotional turmoil, rather than being revealed, is simply stated. Despite a potentially compelling story and setting, this novel never comes to life. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-9-- After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, 12-year-old Dara, her older brother Sarun, and their mother journey to the Thai border in search of food. Here they meet the remnants of another Cambodian family, one of whose members, Jantu, becomes Dara's friend; another, Nea, falls in love with Sarun. Life is going along well until infighting among neighboring guerrilla groups forces the families to flee again. In the confusion, Dara and Jantu become separated from the main group. After many incidents, they are reunited with their families, although Jantu is shot in the process and dies soon after. Sarun, once a proud farmer, wants to join the military. Dara courageously stands up to him, and convinces him to return home with the family. The title comes from Jantu's effervescence and manual dexterity, the combination of which impresses Dara as magic. She believes a clay marble, having been invested with Jantu's magic, gives her the courage to get through her ordeals. Dara and Jantu are well drawn, but the rest of the characters are not much more than pasteboard figures. Ho excels at tropical description, evoking climate and flaura with skill. The contrasts of frantic activity and enervating inaction of refugee life are also vividly depicted. However, Dara's vocabulary when she thinks to herself does not ring true for her age; few 12-year-olds would consciously characterize themselves as "irritable" or others as "glib"--certainly not illiterate 12-year-olds from rural areas. Older children might find this novel of interest for its historical milieu or slice-of-life realism, albeit from a different reality. --John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (J); 1st edition (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374313407
• ISBN-13: 978-0374313401
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,879,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the clay marble review- may, shanghai, November 24, 2005

By 

may, shanghai - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clay Marble (Paperback)

The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho is a book on courage, friendship, and obstacles. 12 year-old Dara is the main character of the book, along with big brother Jantu, and best friend Sarun. Dara's family was forced to leave their town in Cambodia and moved to where the setting is, the border of Cambodia and Thailand. Walking the long miles to the Border, they were starved and thirsty. Arriving at The Border, Dara finds happiness again with another family, Sarun, Baby, Grampa Kem, and Nea. There is also something else Dara learns from The Border. She learns to build trust with other people, even when they are strangers.

Living at The Border was peaceful and Dara and Sarun were always together having fun. But one day, Dara was separated from her friends and family. There was bombing at The Border, and Dara was left lost in the middle of nowhere. To me, this is a metaphor of a part of everybody's life. When you feel like you're on top of the world it always happens you find yourself beneath it. Struggling, Dara travels long to re-unite with her beloved family.

It took her strength but at the end, she finds them safe and sound. But Sarun is not there, for Sarun was at a hospital with Baby, who was wounded. One thing that Sarun had left with Dara was clay marble, telling her that it was magic and would give her courage. With no choice, Dara and the family once again traveled miles to the hospital to meet Sarun. Many of us experience broken friendships, either from a fight, a move, or death. But for Dara, she had no idea what had happened to Sarun after she saw her board into the hospital bus. But Dara was determined that the clay marble would help her find her best friend, and it did.

Families are very important to a lot of us, but especially for Dara. Jantu, Dara's older brother had enlisted in the army every since the bombing. Dara didn't like it, but she knew by the way Jantu had changed, he liked it. Her mind was always on going home where they grew up, but she felt that Jantu had other plans. Sometimes I think when you fight with a sibling, you usually want them to do what you want but it was harder for Dara the time, loosing self-esteem and having to show bravery for her brother was tough for a 12-year-old girl.

We all experience death in our lives, and for Dara it was when Sarun was shot by one of Jantu's soldiers. Feelings mixed with anger and loss, Dara knew it was time for her to take a stand and convince Jantu to go home to the crops. At this time, Dara still had the clay marble safe with her but as they headed for home, she courageously threw it away. She did it because she knew she wasn't going to need it anymore, she had the magic inside herself.

I think the readers who would like this book will be the ones who are sensitive, emotional and low on self-esteem sometimes. My favorite parts in this book would be the parts where Dara dares to be brave. I think that because she had hard times a lot, and still found a way to be strong and optimistic. There are many books that are like this book, a girl who is confused most of the time and having to deal with so many things before they reach the age of 16 years old.

Lastly, even though I would say that Dara and I have nothing in common, I loved this book. I have never experienced such tragedy but I can say I have experienced losing a friend. It takes so much effort to regain power and self-esteem when you feel like the world is against you. The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho will teach all of you a magical lesson based on a true story in the past, and you will have to decide if you will let it do its magic on you.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Clay Marble Rolls in, July 29, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Clay Marble (Paperback)

I was very disapointed in this book. In school, we have reading groups, and the kids pick which book they want to read. My group was the group of kids who chose "The Clay Marble" by Mingfong Ho. Well, the back cover summary makes it sound interesting, we found out, and it suckered us into the book. None of us liked it. On the poster we made about "The Clay Marble", we explained that the characters were OK, but the plot was too fast-moving and there was too much just plain talking. Some parts were okay, but mostly we didn't like it. We wanted to like it, so we weren't complaining, but truth be told, it was boring. Sorry if I disapointed you, review reader, but the is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
-BookLover24/7

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Clay Marble; review, February 20, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Clay Marble (Paperback)

I thought that The Clay Marble was a pretty good book. The thing I liked the most was how descriptive the auther was. I could realy see what i was reading. Another thing I liked about this book was that the characters seemed real; they changed through out the whole book.