Thereza Lituma - A Song for Cambodia

A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord

This is a more serious children’s book, in that it describes the narratives of others who are children of war in Cabodia. It discusses the music they heard before, the chaos of soldiers coming, and the silence in being forced into child labor. Music was passed down from the grownups to share to the young children and when the final grown up music teachers were taken away to be killed, Arn, a young boy realizes he needs to continue playing music for his people and he needs to keep their spirits up, even when everything looks bad. Music in a way, saves Arn and his culture. This is a great book for children, because it teaches children that not all kids are the same, and that some go through major hardships in their life. It also teaches, that when life does get hard, you can always go to music to express who you are or what you care about as a way to change tragedy into healing.