First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

This novel offers students a look at the genocide that took place in Cambodia. Unlike the Holocaust, the genocide in Cambodia is not as well known by middle school students. This gives the students a chance to learn about other genocides that have gone in the world’s history. It can also be used to introduce students to the memoir genre.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?isbn13=9780060856267&displayType=readingGuide

First They Killed My Father is a heart-wrenching and often difficult historical autobiography that recounts the brutality of war with vivid detail. A story of political oppression in Cambodia, it is all the more striking and intense as it is told from the perspective of a child, one who is thrust into situations that she doesn't understand, as she is only five years old when the terror begins. Loung Ung made many difficult journeys during her Cambodian youth, starting with being evacuated from her hometown of Phnom Penh. More meaningful were the journeys of self, which led her from a life as the child of a large and privileged family to that of an orphan and work camp laborer. From the deaths of her parents and sisters, we get a glimpse of the power that family relationships have in our lives. From the loss of economic status, the ways in which our social class can define our days is drawn in sharper relief. From her growing knowledge of the regime that has caused her to suffer, we learn of the vast gulf that often exists between a government's intentions and its actions, between words and deeds.

Ung, Loung. (2000). First They Killed My Father. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 238 pp. ISBN: 0-06-093138-8.