The book “Never Fall Down” by Patricia McCormick, is a harrowing tale, about the pain and suffering of Arn an 11 year old boy soldier, and his hellish journey through the Killing Fields of Cambodia were over 2 million people were killed. A quarter of the country's people were killed, the largest genocide a country has ever inflicted on it's own citizens. The book is full of human spirit, emotion and tears. The tale will boggle your mind and have you thinking about it long after you have finished.  I would recommend this book to teen readers.  It is an awe inspiring book. It weaves a tale that many people can empathise with.  You see the story through Arn’s eyes and his words. Patricia tells Arn’s story through halted english that helps the reader connect with him on a deeper level, like he is right there telling the story. 

Arn is an 11 year old boy selling ice cream for spare change and rocking to music in the city of Battambang, Cambodia.  Suddenly the Khmer Rouge takeover and destroy Arn’s little world as they enforce their totalitarian regime over all of Cambodia. He lived in slave camps growing rice and eating next to nothing for four years. The camp he lived in had around a couple hundred kids. They spend all day in the rice patties working nonstop with no breaks. The food was like water with three pieces of rice in it.  They were fed once a day if they were lucky.  They lived in large empty room with a thin blanket each and all crammed in right next to each other. They were told they work for the glory of Angka who will take care of everything.
Then one day, the soldiers asked if any of the kids could play an instrument. Arn never played a note in his life, but he volunteered. In order to survive, he must quickly master the fast and complex revolutionary songs the soldiers demand. He steals food to share with the other kids to help keep them alive.
This decision to play music will save his life, but it will pull him into the very center of what we know today as the Killing Fields.  Just as the country is about to be liberated from the Khmer Rouge, by the Vietnamese, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a child soldier. He lives by the simple credo: "Over and over I tell myself one thing: Never fall down." Patricia has given Arn a strong and powerful voice in the book Never Fall Down.