When the Khmer Rouge take over the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the lives of the Sokha family are suddenly disrupted. Forced to evacuate the city, Nakri and her siblings are soon torn from their parents and made to work in a labor camp in the countryside.

After the Khmer Rouge is overthrown, the Sokhas are reunited. Along with thousands of their countrymen, they leave their beloved homeland for the sprawling refugee camps on the border of Thailand. In the camps, Nakri and her family gather the fragments of their former life in Cambodia. They eventually make their way to the U.S., where they live with the memories of all that they left behind.

Minfong Ho, the author of the Caldecott Honor Book Hush!: A Thai Lullaby, is a sensitive and powerful storyteller. With imagery that is at once vibrant and subtle, Ms. Ho shows how a young girl—through her love of classical dance—eventually comes to terms with a world shattered by upheavals beyond her control.

From the dust jacket