Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. Arn does what he must to survive-and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country.

McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers.

The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). There’s the kernel of a dramatic space yarn here, but it never comes to fruition.Ī surplus of angst-ridden back stories told in deeply regrettable prose.Ī harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields. Malapropisms abound in the florid, awkward narrative (“Her voice warbled with the weight of those words”). Melodramatic back stories abound: there’s a prophesied savior, a prince in hiding with a secret power, and a noble young man with no memory. Jax and Robb keep making eyes at each other, which is troublesome, since Robb’s mother wants Ana’s whole crew dead. Complicating matters are Robb, a blue-eyed, olive-skinned noble on his own quest, and Jax, a violet-eyed, silver-haired Solani boy who pilots the pirate ship. Metals aren’t popular since the rebellion most have been infected with the mind-controlling HIVE program that removes their free will. Ana’s best friend-about whom she has secret, more-than-friend feelings-is Di, a Metal: an android. Meanwhile, a ragtag crew of space pirates is community to brown-skinned and burn-scarred Ana. In this version, the family of the Emperor of the Iron Kingdom, including his daughter Ananke Armorov, is known to have been murdered seven years ago in the android rebellion. In 1918, the 17-year-old daughter of Russia’s last czar was murdered with her family, but rumors persisted for decades that she might have survived in secret. The story of Anastasia, lost princess of Imperial Russia, retold as space opera.

Heart of iron poston