Wendy Glenn, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
A wonderful addition to the "First Person Fiction" series, this novel traces the experiences of twelve-year-old Nakri and her family as they live through the Communist take-over of Cambodia. Fearing the threat of American bombing attacks in the city, Nakri and her family flee, taking with them only what they are able to carry. They camp their way to the grandparents' home and settle in, waiting to see what will become of their city home. To pass the time, Nakri and her older sister, Teeda, practice the dance that their mother taught them to do and love. When Nakri's father, an educated man, is carted off never to return, the rest of the family is marched to a work camp. The hard labor is unbearable for Teeda, who soon dies of exhaustion and hunger. Before her death, however, she dances the dance in front of the moon, inspiring her observers to remember life before the arrival of Communism. In deference to her sister and to mourn her loss, Nakri refuses to dance. When the Vietnamese army invades Cambodia, the captors flee, and Nakri and her brother return to the grandmother's home, enjoying a bittersweet reunion with the family members who have survived. Lack of food forces the family to set out again, this time headed to the Thailand border where supply stations are stocked with rice and other essentials. A twist of fate allows Nakri and her family to journey to America and establish a new home. There, Nakri and her family must learn to accept new ways of life while staying true to their native values. With time, Nakri dances again, honoring her sister and the homeland she has left. A powerful historical novel that humanizes an event from which many students feel far removed. Highly recommended. 2003, Orchard Books, $16.95. Ages 11 to 15.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003 (Vol. 71, No. 3))
In this historical first-person narrative, Nakri Sokha, a 12-year-old girl living in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in 1975, has her world shattered overnight. A day that starts with Nakri's classical dance class ends with heavy bombing. By the next morning, the Sokha family wakes to find their city taken over by communist Khmer Rouge. Nakri and her older sister, Teeda, are sent to one refugee camp, her older brother to another. Her father, a teacher, is taken away by the Khmer Rouge and killed for being too educated while Nakri's mother is forced to stay behind with her younger brother. Readers follow Nakri and her sister to the work camp and watch painfully as they struggle to overcome the starvation and physical abuse. Nakri manages to keep herself alive, but Teeda dies from malaria. When the Khmer Rouge is dismantled four years later, Nakri reunites with her family and they flee to America. When the family settles in Philadelphia, Nakri, through her love of classical dance, is finally able to process her tremendous grief as she adjusts to the strange excesses of American life. Ho's (Maples in the Mist, 1996, etc.) narrative, arranged in four compact parts, manages to cover a lot of ground, but never strays from the intimacy of Nakri's strong, but vulnerable, voice. Teeda also shines as Nakri's idealistic and talented older sister, though the other family members lack emotional depth. The author takes on this shocking slice of world history with the appropriate amount of detail and sensitivity for a young audience, but the difficult subject matter makes it better suited for more mature readers. 2003, Orchard, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 11 to 15. © 2003 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, January 2003 (Vol. 37, No. 1))
First Person Fiction is a series about immigrant experiences, and Gathering the Dew tells of a Cambodian family surviving under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and journeying to the refugee camps on the Thai border to come eventually to America. Minfong Ho is of Chinese heritage, and she and her husband worked in the camps in Thailand, where she met many refugees like Nakri, the narrator of this novel. Nakri and her older sister are studying classical Cambodian dance, with their mother as their teacher, when the country falls to the revolutionary Khmer Rouge. Such a family from the educated middle class is unacceptable to the new regime and they are forced to leave their home in the capital city and travel to the village of their grandparents. Even there, they aren't safe: the father is taken prisoner and never heard from again, and the teenagers are sent to work camps far from their families. Starvation and brutal oppression are prevalent. When the Vietnamese army invades Cambodia and restores some order, it is too late to save Nakri's sister, who has died in the camps. Nakri and her brother walk the hundreds of miles back to their grandparents' village, where they are reunited with the remnants of their family. Still there is no food and no promise for the future, so leaving their country seems the only viable option. Again, they undertake a hard journey until the family reaches the safety of the refugee camps in Thailand, where they can have rice and medical attention, and can start the process of becoming refugees to America. Nakri's story of dealing with American culture, adjusting to schools, food, and the cold weather, is told in 50 pages at the end of the novel. The cover art is a stunning photograph of a young Cambodian girl in costume for the Cambodian classical dance, standing in a temple with the distinctive architecture and sculpture of her culture. The attempt to destroy that rich tradition is the main focus here, as that was the goal of the Khmer Rouge, but Nakri and her family represent a remnant determined to preserve the classical dance of their people and bring that richness to America. (First Person Fiction) Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Scholastic, 199p., $16.95. Ages 12 to 18.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April 2003 (Vol. 56, No. 8))
Nakri and her sister, Teeda, are studying the art of Cambodian classical dance when their lives are cruelly interrupted by the Khmer Rouge. Forced to leave their home, their family is broken up-their father disappears, and Nakri, Teeda, and their older brother, Boran, are sent to a labor camp. There Teeda teaches her younger sister the wisdom of the goddess Mekhala, who patiently gathered dew drops one by one until her cup was full; for Nakri, gathering the tiny dew drops of memory and hope enable her to survive hard work and near starvation-which Teeda does not. When the Khmer Rouge is ousted, Boran and Nakri return to their grandmother's house, only to move on again to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border. Relief workers notice an American address on an envelope Nakri has brought from home, and use it to locate sponsors for her family to come to America. Ho lyrically and compassionately captures the details of Nakri's experiences as she journeys on the "wheel of suffering" from the loving and genteel environment of her home in Phnom Penh, to the deprivation of the camps, to the alienating excess of American culture ("'Extra' was a very American word. Americans seemed to have extras of everything"). Especially poignant is her little brother's reaction to the coffee-table book of brightly colored photographs of a Cambodia before the war that he finds in their sponsors' living room: "Is this Cambodia?" he asks, "do they think this is what it was like, where we came from?" As with previous books in this series (Danticat's Behind the Mountains, BCCB 2/03, Veciana-Suarez' Flight to Freedom, BCCB 2/03), there is an afterword by the author that recounts her "parallel journey" and highlights the history, both personal and political, behind Nakri's story. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (First Person Fiction) (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2003, Orchard, 208p, $16.95. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2004)
Nakri's sheltered childhood ends abruptly when the Khmer Rouge evacuate her city of Phnom Penh. The book follows Nakri through four years in a labor camp, then her family's escape to Thailand and eventual immigration to America. Ho communicates heartbreakingly how, halfway around the world in Philadelphia, hearing Cambodian music gradually gives Nakri back the sweetness of her lost childhood. Reviewed in the Horn Book Magazine as Gathering the Dew, 5/03. (First Person Fiction series). Category: Older Fiction. 2003, Scholastic/Orchard, 199pp, $16.95. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Rosemary Moran (VOYA, February 2004 (Vol. 26, No. 6))
Forced to leave their comfortable home in Phnom Penh, members of a Cambodian family walk for days to reach their grandmother's village. Once there, the father is taken away by soldiers, and then Nakri, her older sister, Teeda, and their older brother, Boran are ordered to a new camp with other teens. There Teeda dies of malaria before Nakri, Boran, and the others are freed to return to their villages when the communists hurriedly leave the country. Reunited with their mother and young brother as well as with other family members, they travel on foot again, this time to the Thai border where refugees are given food and medical care. There they come to the attention of social workers who realize that an American friend of their father's might sponsor the family as emigrants to the United States. Once in America, the family must adjust to a foreign culture and a land where food is plentiful. Fitting in is especially difficult for Nakri because she has never made peace with her sister's death and because of her continued longing to become a classical dancer. Finally, through connecting with the music of her homeland, she is able to overcome her anguish and learn to live her life. Covering several years in Nakri's life, this quick read grabs the reader's attention and reveals the confusion and longing that are surely felt by all emigrants who are forced to leave their countries. This first-person narrative should be instructive for American students. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M J (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2003, Orchard, 208p., $16.95. Ages 11 to 15.