Independent Reading Essay

Lound lived a privlieged life in the Cambodian capitol of phnom Penh until she was five years old. At the age of five she basically had to act like an adult and raise her little brother and sister while her mother had to keep an eye on the Khemer Rouge Army. Eventually their life was in danger when the army decided to storm into the city and forcing her family to flee and disperse. They were doing good until the Khmer Rouge came and changed everything. In the next few paragraphs i'm going to explain how it all started.

In the beginning it was Ma,Pa,Meng,Khouy,Keav.Kim,Chou,Geak, and Loung. Their mother had 7 childrenand they lived in Phmon Penh. They weren't poor or rich but they had enough food and money to survive. Loung's mom stayed home while her father worked for a secret agent in the next city. The kids didn't go to school but they were there to help their parents when it was necessary. In phonm penh they had many opportunitys and could go anywhere without being questioned by the army. Loung's family always went out to eat and they would always explore. To them they had the best life and didn't think anything wuld of came in the way.

In the climax everything has changed. What i told you in the beggining didn't last very long. In april 1975, the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army invaded the whole Phnom Penh city. Everyone had to leave or they would die. Loung was trained as a soldier in the camp that she was at while her older siblings were sent to labor camps. The army would roam the city everyday looking for men to recruit in the army. Loung's mom didn't want her son geting recruited so she forced him (khouy) to get married and by the way hes only 16. Khouy married Davi and moved to their own house. After the army invaded, they decreased the food rations so they wouldn't have much to at everyday.

Everyday the Ung family had to struggle toget food. Sometimes Kim (one of the girls) would steal it but the father would punish her so it didn't really work out. Their father still worked as agent but his family had to hide it from the others in order to keep the family safe and to keep pa alive. They had to act like they weren't educated or the people in the camps would get suspicious and rat them out. One afternoon ma sees some of the soldiers walking towards the house and at that very moment she knew her husband was going to get killed. She immediatly told the kids to go inside and told her husband to come outside ith tears running down her face. Loung keeps asking her mother what's going on but she was to young to understand according to her parents. As two soldiers take pa the kids ask when is he coming back they didn;t reply. Pa hugs and kisses the family goodbye and they just sit on the steps watching pa lave. They sat their until they couldn't see his shadow anymore. Since then pa hasnt returned. Eventually they found out pa died and it took the a while to get over it especially loung.

In the resolution kim,chou,and geak are sent away to Me Bong in order for the rest of them to stay alive. Since the khmer rouge amys killed pa for being a secret agent they would come after ma and the rest of children for lying about their life. The only thing good about met bong is that they increase the food rations so they weren't hungry. There was plenty of kids that they can play with so they weren't bored. Towards the very end of the book all the people who lost their husbands and children got what they wished for. One of the khmer rouge soldiers got executed and everyone got to watch. They were discussing which tools to use to crack his skull and to slice his throat. He died because he has killed plenty of innocent people. He died painfully and slowly.

Kim,chou, and loung kept moving to different camps and at one point they had to leave cambodia and stayed in vietnam. Her oldest brother meng was sent to Lam sing refuge camp where se met up with him and her mother . Overall the story is a tough book to read they went through so much just to protect their famliy. People say famliy comes before everything and that is true family always have to stick together even through hard times.