first+they+killed+my+father

Further background about this text can be found at www.firsttheykilledmyfather.wikispaces.com **R ****E ****V ****I ****E ****W ****: ** //First They Killed My Father. // //First they killed my father is a true story about a young girl who is five years old when she must leave her city Phnom Penh in Cambodia to escape the Kmer Rouge and their leader Pol Pot. Walk in my shoes is about their life in the refugee camp and once they get out of the refugee camp. The main character Gulnessa is telling the story. These books relate to each other because they are both about escaping their countries with problems and moving away to safety. // //Walk in my shoes was more about their life in the refugee camps while first they killed my father is more about their life before and for a brief part they were in the Thailand refugee camps. // //Loung Ung the main character and also author wrote the novel in an autobiography of her life before she escaped Cambodia and went to America. She includes her thoughts and dreams about the situations she was in at those points of the story. // //Pol Pot is very well known around the world because he was the communist leader. The book shows you what it was like back then when Pol Pot was the leader. It makes people realise the pain that his followers had to go through. How it was like in labour camps that he produced. // //This novel is considered to be a refugee book but only for a very short period of the book Loung is a refugee. The book is more about why she had to leave Cambodia. After she leaves Cambodia, she goes to Thailand and goes to a refugee camp to get her refugee status. Once she leaves Thailand she goes to America. // //Gulnessa is the main character in walk in my shoes and she must leave Afghanistan after her father is taken away. The people who are in her country killing people and taking people away she refers to as the terror. //  //Her family friend Abdul who had to see his father be killed by the terror came with them to the refugee camp and him and Gulnessa become very close. They soon fall in love and must be separated when his visa does not come in. // //<span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Britannic Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Walk in my shoes is set for a young adults to read but first they killed my father is set for a much older audience because of the death scenes that occur in this novel. // //<span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Britannic Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">First they killed my father’s main character Loung is an inspiration and is now a national spokesperson for the campaign for a landmine free world and helps people around the world. Loung Ung is a very brave girl and this story is a great example of her survival. // //<span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Britannic Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">After she escaped the refugee camp she started to live in a house with power and running water. They were so shocked and grateful for this. They receive help from Annie who helps them to fit into Australian customs and apply for a permanent visa. // //<span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Britannic Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Both stories are good examples of the refugee theme and make people realise how refugees are good people just trying to find safety and makes people want to help them.
 * By Hannah Bourke**

Review comparison (walk in my shoes – first they killed my father) The first book I read was Walk in my Shoes, it was a pretty out there book with what was going on in it. It was about a girl, Gulnessa, her family of five and their neighbour who had lost his parents, they lived in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over and got to scared about losing more than their dad so they were left with the fact that they had to leave the country to be safe, only to find out that where they were going wasn’t going to help them in their quest for freedom. They were locked up for 2 years before being free but even then it wasn’t over because their dearest friend didn’t get to come with them. A good book it was except for its constant repetitiveness of the problems, trouble and much, much complaining that could have been cut down at least a bit. Great book but the level of interest I showed when reading this was nothing compared to First They Killed my Father. This book about another, smaller girl (also the author) Loung Ung, and her large family were wealthy and living in Cambodia when Pol Pot came to rule. Then they were forced to leave the city of Phnom Penh to work on farms and labour camps, eventually they were separated to different camps and her dad dies, trying not to have any more tragedies they only run into more and more bad luck and until they find a way out. This book is a masterpiece, so hard to put away and very well detailed, some things so sad and some things so nauseating, made me almost cry such a sad story about there struggle through life. This was definitely worth the time I put in to read it, really an extraordinary book. I liked “First they Killed my Father” a lot more then “Walk in my Shoes” because it had so much depth to it, because it was a true story and I like the goriness and messy elements to it. Loung Ung’s book starts off in an upbeat fashion as a pose to “Walk in my Shoes” which is whiny and down until the ending. “First they Killed my Father” put its detail into the deaths and blood and guts the other book had detail but it was mostly in her dreams where she would dream about the same thing over and over again with all these sickening events that you have to read just too many times. “First they Killed my Father” being Loung Ung’s journey through her child hood makes you think so much more about how it must have felt and how could she have coped with the devastation of her country crumbling around her. “Walk in my Shoes” as good as it was to read it was boring, repetitive with a whole lot of weird in between, while “First they Killed my Father” made you think harder and realise how bad life was for all the people that had to live that way, it was exceptional, hard to put down and nothing like I expected it to be. At the end of both books I thought “I’m glad I live in a place that lets me be who I want to be and doesn’t force things upon people.” But Loung Ung made me feel like I should do something about it. Walk in my Shoes 3 1/2 stars First they Killed my Father 4 1/2 stars By Kane Deane 8F
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