Book
Never Fall Down
Never Fall Down is a 2012 young adult novel by Patricia McCormick based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, a child survivor of the Khmer Rouge.[1][2] It was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.[1]
The story
Arn, from a family of artists in Battambang province, is eleven years old when the Khmer Rouge take power in 1975. He dances to rock 'n' roll, hustles for spare change and sells ice cream with his brother.[1][3][4] The soldiers march the whole town into the countryside, and Arn is separated from his family and sent to a labor camp, where he works in the rice paddies and sees other children die.[1][5]
When the soldiers ask for musicians, Arn volunteers, though he has never played a note. An old musician teaches him the khim, a traditional Khmer dulcimer, and he learns the revolutionary songs the soldiers demand.[5][3] The music saves his life, but it pulls him into the center of what is now known as the Killing Fields: his band is made to play loudly to cover the sounds of killing.[1][6] He learns that anyone who falls down is killed, and he tells himself one thing over and over: "never fall down."[1][6] He survives the three years, eight months and twenty days of Khmer Rouge rule, and saves others along the way.[3][4]
As the country is about to be freed, Arn is handed a gun and forced to fight the Vietnamese as a child soldier. He escapes to a refugee camp in Thailand, where Peter Pond adopts him and brings him to the United States. There he lives with trauma and discrimination, and his foster father chooses him to speak to Americans about the Khmer Rouge years.[1][3][4]
Common Sense Media, in its review, notes that the Khmer Rouge killed about a fourth of Cambodia's population between 1975 and 1979.[6]
Writing
McCormick interviewed Chorn-Pond for two years, and also spoke with his surviving family, his American adoptive family and former members of the Khmer Rouge. She says she verified his story as far as possible and filled it out with research and imagination.[5] She wrote it in Arn's own voice, setting aside the usual rules of grammar to catch the way he speaks.[5][3] The book includes an author's note and acknowledgments from Chorn-Pond himself.[5] McCormick saw the book as a lasting record of his story.[2]
Chorn-Pond went on to return to Cambodia in the 1990s and to found Cambodian Living Arts, which works to revive traditional music.[4][3][6]
Publication and editions
Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins, published the first edition on May 8, 2012, as Never Fall Down: A Boy Soldier's Story of Survival, ISBN 9780061730931. The page count is given as 216 by Open Library and 224 by Common Sense Media.[1][7][6] The publisher recommends it for ages 14 to 17.[6] A Persian translation has been published by Aradman.[5]
Reception
The National Book Award judges wrote that McCormick's narrative "never flinches from scenes of murderous anarchy," and that its vignettes of life under the Khmer Rouge are indelible.[1] Common Sense Media called it powerful and compelling, for readers 15 and older.[6] The New York Times reviewed it in May 2012.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 National Book Foundation, Never Fall Down
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 NPR, 'Never Fall Down': Surviving The Killing Fields (May 19, 2012)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Khmer Times, Book Worm: Never Fall Down
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Khmer Times, Never Fall Down
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Goodreads, Never Fall Down
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Common Sense Media, Never Fall Down
- ↑ Open Library, Never fall down
- ↑ New York Times, 'Never Fall Down,' by Patricia McCormick (May 13, 2012)