What if the only way to survive is to join with your enemies?
In April 1975, 11-year-old Arn, who narrates, describes his town of Battambang, Cambodia, this way: "Music is like air, always there." From Cambodian love songs to Elvis and the Beatles, music brings joy to Arn and his fellow villagers. But then the Khmer Rouge arrive, and Arn and his four siblings march with their aunt for days. The family gets separated, and Arn does whatever he must to survive. He is chosen for a band and has five days to learn the khim, a wooden instrument with strings that one hits with a bamboo stick. Once his teacher has taught Arn to play, the man is killed; the authorities do not want anyone around who knows the old songs--only songs that praise "the Angka" ("I don't know this word Angka, but I know not to ask"--and Arn never does).
Patricia McCormick (Purple Heart) bases Arn's story on that of a real survivor of Cambodia's infamous Killing Fields. The soldiers turn even young Arn into a murderous accomplice. The boy heartbreakingly likens his baiting big frogs with small ones, in more carefree times, to being sent ahead with other armed children as the "Little Fish" to flush out Vietnamese soldiers for the "Big Fish," the Khmer Rouge, to mow down. This carefully crafted novel is a chilling reminder of how war can shatter an entire country and generations of its people. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness