Never Fall Down

The New York Times Book Review

…a journey into the horror of those years, told with the ingenuous directness of youth and employing [McCormick's] subject's rough-and-ready patois…As the story unfolds from atrocity to anguish it gains momentum until, in its final chapters, it becomes a gripping account of the inner turmoil of a child soldier.
—Seth Mydans

The Washington Post

To authentically convey the boy's experience, former journalist Patricia McCormick interviewed Arn, now grown and the founder of Cambodian Living Arts, and fellow survivors over a two-year period. This historical novel is every bit as powerful as McCormick's Sold…
—Mary Quattlebaum

Publishers Weekly

McCormick (Purple Heart) again tackles a horrifying subject with grace while unsentimentally portraying the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia’s killing fields. Not unlike Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water, this novel is based on a real person, Arn Chorn Pond, who was 11 years old at the time of the country’s Communist revolution. Arn’s narration balances a palpable and constant sense of fear, starvation, and humiliation with his will to survive. Doing so involves great moral compromises, bravery, and a capacity for love and friendship despite the nightmarish circumstances. McCormick divides the narrative into five periods: life before the revolution; in the camps, where Arn learns to play the music (which is used to disguise the noise of regular executions); his induction into the Khmer Rouge; his time in a refugee camp; and, finally, his transition to America. On how to survive, Arn observes, “You show you care, you die. You show fear, you die. You show nothing, maybe you live.” While never shying from the ugliness and brutality of this genocide, McCormick crafts a powerful tribute to the human spirit. Ages 14–up. (May)

ALA Booklist

Praise for PURPLE HEART: “Gripping details of existence in a war zone bring this to life.”

Booklist (starred review)

“Powerfully, hauntingly unforgettable.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

“This compelling chronicle deserves to be widely read, discussed, and reflected upon by a generation of young people who may be largely unaware of this dark chapter in world history.”

Children's Literature

The only way to truly survive is to "never fall down." Arn learns this lesson at the age of eleven when his village in Cambodia is invaded by Khmer Rouge troops. The entire population is marched into the countryside and forced to live in labor camps. Arn finds ways to use his "smarts" and some luck to escape the worst problems. He manages to make friends, learns to play an instrument, protects others and survives against all odds. But he has plenty of struggles after the regime is conquered as he deals with his horrific memories, the guilt of many of his actions, and adjusting to a new life in America. Despite being teased and having difficulty learning English he again rises above his circumstances to become an advocate for his homeland and his people. An author's note gives some additional background about the war and the difficulties in fictionalizing and relating a living person's true experiences. McCormick employs a fragmented vernacular that captures the childlike perspective and keeps it from becoming too heavy. Though there are still plenty of instances of violence, rape, and murder the worst takes place off-page or is handled deftly conveying the horrors without dwelling on them. Well-written and heart-breaking, this is an important and enlightening story for any teen collection. Reviewer: Amy McMillan

VOYA

Following the pattern of excellence McCormick began with her novel SOLD (Hyperion, 2006/VOYA December 2006), she has created another amazing story through skilled and patient research. This time she brings us Arn Chorn Pond, one of the thousands of children who fled with their families after the Khmer Rouge terrorized Cambodia in the late 1970s. Gathering bits of stories from Arn and several other sources, this carefully woven work of fiction could not be more real. In April 1975, Arn Chorn Pond, his family, and everyone in his village joined thousands of his people as the Khmer Rouge led them into the countryside saying, "The Americans are coming!" Over time and distance, many people died from starvation and dehydration—the Khmer Rouge's first step to shrink the masses. Next, they targeted the educated. During the next several years, Arn is separated from his family, then from all adults, and then from females. He worked in rice fields nearly around the clock; watched people kneel in a line and have their heads bashed, then pushed those bodies into a pit as ordered; learned to play music to honor the Khmer Rouge; became a soldier for them; and finally ran away. Told in brutal honesty this book honors Arn and those who managed to survive Cambodia's Communist leader, Pol Pot, and his war to take over this small country. Reviewer: C.J. Bott

Kirkus Reviews

A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields. 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). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. 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. Arn does what he must to survive--and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. 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. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. 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. Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)

New York Times Book Review

"A gripping account of the inner turmoil of a child soldier."

The Horn Book

"McCormick’s novel is one that needs to be read."

Booklist

"Powerfully, hauntingly unforgettable."

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

“This compelling chronicle deserves to be widely read, discussed, and reflected upon by a generation of young people who may be largely unaware of this dark chapter in world history.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"This compelling chronicle deserves to be widely read, discussed, and reflected upon by a generation of young people who may be largely unaware of this dark chapter in world history."

Archbishop

"One of the most inspiring and powerful books I’ve ever read. Never Fall Down can teach us all about finding the courage to speak our truth and change the world."

Loung Ung

"Arn Chorn Pond is a fast-talking dynamo with endless energy and zest for life. In Never Fall Down, Patricia McCormick captures brilliantly the man, his heart, and his passion to make Cambodia and our world a better place for all. Arn’s against-all-odds survival story and McCormick’s crisp prose gripped me from the first page to the very end."