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Summary
Summary
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?
Author Notes
"The approach I take with my writing is to have my work reflect real life, and yet be shaped into the best story possible. I feel that a powerful piece of fiction can often convey an emotional truth more compellingly than a strictly factual version." --Linda Crew
Linda Crew is a recipient of the IRA Children's Book Award and the Golden Kite Award, and her books have been named ALA Notables as well as ALA Best Books.
Linda Crew didn't always have to be a writer. In fact, while attending junior high school in the early sixties, this award-winning author wanted to be a folksinger. By high school, when it bad become apparent to her that she really couldn't sing, she decided to become an actress. Then, at the University of Oregon, her theatrical ambitions evaporated. At her mother's suggestion, Crew switched her major to journalism--and loved it.
Crew's training was in journalism--interviewing, researching, and marketing--and she was encouraged to present the facts accurately and without fuss. But her assigmnents always ended up full of dialogue and she "had this compelling urge to make a story just a little better than the way it happened." Thus, her talent for writing fiction was born.
After college, Linda Crew married her husband Herb and settled on a farm in her home state of Oregon, where the couple still resides today with their three children. Crew leads a full, busy life and admits, "It's difficult sometimes to carve out the time for writing with so many other demands, but it's important for me to do some living. After all, what could a person possibly write about if she spent all day closeted in front of her computer?"
Book List
Long Time Passing
Children of the River
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An IRA Children's Book Award
A Golden Kite Award
New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
Fire on the Wind
Maine Student Book Award Master List 1996-1997
Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Master List 1996-1997
Nekomah Creek
An ALA Notable Children's Book
Nekomah Creek Christmas
Author Fun Facts
Previous jobs- Florist, mail carrier, visitor center receptionist for the Forest Service at Cape Perpetua
Pets- One lively black cat named Goblin
Favorite . . .
. . . hobbies? I like theater. I enjoy working with dried flowers, also sewing, especially creative things like doll clothes and costumes. I am notorious in my house for going overboard on costumes!
. . . foods? chocolate!
. . . clothes to wear? jeans or long dresses
. . . colors? green, of course! I'm an Oregonian.
. . . books? good children's books
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-By Linda Crew. To escape the Khmer Rouge army, Sundara fled Cambodia with her aunt. Now she is a high school student in Oregon. Reconciling American values with Cambodian traditions is difficult. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A Cambodian girl who fled her country struggles to fit in to an American lifestyle. In PW 's words, ``The resolution comes smoothly and plausibly, offering a moving look at the way in which a survivor of great tragedy. . .faces young adulthood.'' Ages 12-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Sundara struggles with the conflict between her Cambodian heritage and her growing love for Jonathan.
Library Journal Review
Gr 7-12-Seventeen-year-old Sundara is torn between her Cambodian family's expectations and her desire to become more American now that she has been forced to relocate along with her aunt's family following the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge. Matters are complicated by her feelings for Jonathan, a popular American boy who has fallen for Sundara and has trouble accepting the custom which forbids Cambodian girls from dating and dictates arranged marriages. The captivating, touching, and sometimes tragic story by Linda Crew (Delacorte, 1989) touches upon issues of culture, history, gender, and race wrapped around an engaging romance. The story is set in 1979 and provides enough details about the situation in Cambodia at the time to set the scene without bogging down the narrative. It is superbly narrated by Christina Moore, who deftly handles Sundara's accent. The novel is included on various bibliographies and as assigned reading in many schools. It will make an excellent teaching aid in classrooms and will appeal to teens who like romances.-Diana Dickerson, White Pigeon Community Schools, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.