Customer Reviews

The Stone Goddess

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I enjoyed the Stone Goddess, by Mingfong Ho. This book is great for pre-teens and teens who are interested in first person fiction. It is a book based on the late 60's and the ending of the Vietnam War. It shows the struggle and trauma that one girl named Narki goes through to become free as she once was, before the war. Even though the book is fiction, it has very true messages for growing up and not taking freedom for granted.

Narki, is a young Cambodian girl, her sister Teeda, and her brother Boran, are separated from their family during the Vietnam War. They all struggle to survive in labor camps where they are not treated with any kindness. They are made to work in rice fields. They are withdrawn from their Buddhists beliefs and they are forced to become part of the Angkor, which is the belief of the people who captured them. It shows how strong they were to survive for four years in the labor camps. It shows how being away from your family doesn't keep you from believing that one day you will re-joined with them.

All in all, The Stone Goddess is an enjoyable book. It unlocks doors that show the adventure of surviving in an unfamiliar place. It shows, even if your dreams are crushed, you just need to believe and everything seems possible as it once did before. This book represents adventure, dreams, trauma, and struggle. And it shows that all of it makes you a stronger person.

We bought Stone Goddess in preparation for a trip to Cambodia with our children. The older ones (10 and 12) read this book along with two others that tell similar stories (Little Brother, and Chantrea Conway's Journey to America). Stone Goddess was BY FAR the best-written of the three - Ho's prose is spare but emotionally rich, and her descriptions certainly rang true with what we saw in Cambodia. We visited Angkor, and the scenes in the book that were set there helped prepare us for what we would be seeing.

The plotline was also the most believable of the three books, and I found the latter section of the book, when Nakri has come to America and is trying to adjust, very poignant and true to the 20th century immigrant experience.

I would highly recommend this book for tweens and up - it's on the short side, but even adults will find it moving. If you were planning a trip to Cambodia with kids, I would say it's a must-read.

Twelve-year-old Nakri and her family live comfortably and happily in Phnom Penh until their lives are forever altered by the civil war in Cambodia. Forced out of their homes by Khmer Rouge soldiers, the family flees to safety in the country home of their grandparents. Their security is shattered again when the father and three older siblings, including Nakri, are sent away to forced labor camps. After years of deprivation and loss, Nakri is reunited with members of her family, only to be forced to move again, first to refugee camps in Thailand and finally to a new life in America. Compassionately written, The Stone Goddess explores themes of family and culture, war and death, hope and renewal.

The Stone Goddess is one of the books in the Scholastic First Person Fiction series exploring the experiences of teenagers of various backgrounds who immigrate to
America.

Reviewed by: Dong-mei Wang at the International Reading Class at the University of Rochester 2009

The book "The Stone Goddess" by Minfong Ho tells a life story of a Cambodian girl Nakri and her family. Nakri's family was forced to abandon their city life because of a civil war, and hurriedly walked out of the city with life necessities to join her mother's family in a rural village.

Life in this village, however, is not as calm and safe as the city people expected. It is not long after their arrivals, Nakri's father Hoon was taken away from her grandparents' room for a so-called "re-education", but her father never comes back since then. Nakri and her elder brother Boran and her elder sister Teeda were also forced to leave their family and began their heavy work at a labor camp, where the youngsters had to learn to conquer hunger and illness to avoid losing their lives. Unfortunately, Teeda died of malaria at the camp.

After four-years of hard work at the camp, Nakri and Boran reunited with their family. But soon after the reunion, they had to move with most of their family members and crossed the Cambodian border to Thailand at the risk of being bombed to death. This is really a place where Nakri and her family indeed can get free food, free rice seed for growing, and free medical service as other people told them. Further, Nakri was informed that she was invited to live in America together with Boran, their mother and younger brother Yann by an American colleague of her father's.

With great sorrow, the broken family started their life in America. Everything there was new to them. Everything there was different from that in their old lives. The quick life changes made Nakri upset. But finally, Nakri learned to adapt to her whole new life.

I thought this was autobiographical because it seemend so real. The turmoil of Cambodia and the family's escape from their were so terrifying.

As a middle school teacher, I found this book wonderful. Although it deals with issues some younger students may struggle with, I plan to use it in my 8th grade classroom. The story is told from first person, the voice of a 12 year old Cambodian girl. It takes place in the 60's and therefore deals with Vietnam war and that time frame. The main character experiences some severe traumas, but makes it through them all stronger and more mature. A wonderful book for young adolescents and a quick read for adults!

I'm sure this is the best book written by Mingfong Ho yet. Some of her earlier novels like The Clay Marble are a bit creaky but this novel doesn't have a false note in it! The story involves a girl who is caught up in the Khmer Rouge evacuation of Cambodia and is sent to work in a camp in the rural areas. Some members of her family die while others survive. Mingfong Ho worked in the refugee camps in Thailand for Cambodians and speaks Thai as well as Chinese and English. She witnessed the lives of the Khmer people in refugee camps and heard their stories. This all comes alive in the book and makes the story much more realistic than some other novels about the Khmer Rouge time. She has also grown as a writer and communicate her story in a clear, descriptive manner. There is no doubt that she is now a terrific children's novelist.