Review by Booklist Review
Of all the photographs from the Vietnam War (and there were many), one of the most memorable was that of a young girl running down a road in terror from a napalm attack in 1972. The girl was Kim Phuc, and that picture would indeed cause Americans to ask once again the question, "What are we doing in this war?" Another question might have been, "Why did we introduce napalm in a ground war where villagers and the enemy are so close together?" Napalm is a gel-like substance that clings to the skin, burning it with intense, painful heat. Because it also draws oxygen from the body, many victims asphyxiate before they can be treated. Barely alive and burned over 30 percent of her body, Kim was taken to a hospital in Saigon. By the time her parents found her, she had been taken from the main hospital to an outbuilding where she was expected to die. Through the intervention of two foreign journalists, Kim was transferred to a hospital where her horrible burns could be properly treated. When the war ended, Kim became a reluctant propaganda tool for the Communist government. Eventually she would flee to Canada. Her struggles as well as those of her parents to rebuild their lives after the war are well chronicled here. The Girl in the Picture is a must read, if only to rediscover the effect images have on history. Yet it is ultimately a story of a remarkable young woman who triumphed over tragedy and refused to let it break her spirit. --Marlene Chamberlain
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
All you have to do is say "the girl in the picture" and any American who was politically aware during the Vietnam War will conjure up the image of a little Vietnamese girl running down the road, her naked body scorched by napalm, her face contorted in pain. That photograph, taken of a girl named Kim Phuc on June 8, 1972, by Nick Ut of the Associated Press, remains a haunting image of the American war in Vietnam. Canadian writer Chong (The Concubine's Children) now tells Phuc's story in this instructive authorized biography. Tracing Phuc's life both before and after she was nearly killed (at age nine) by a South Vietnamese air force napalm strike gone wrong, Chong unblinkingly presents graphic depictions of the horrors that the war visited on innocent civilians. She finds, however, amidst these tragedies, a redemptive story in Phuc's life, which, thankfully, has a happy ending. Through the heroic efforts of Nick Ut, British correspondent Christopher Wain and others, the girl was taken to an excellent hospital in Saigon. Through 17 operations (in 24 months), an international team of doctors saved her life. Later, after communist authorities mercilessly used her for propaganda purposes, she fled Vietnam. Today, she and her husband are Christians, living in Ontario with their two sons. Although Phuc's entire back remains deeply scarred (keeping her in near constant pain), she works as an unpaid goodwill ambassador for UNESCO and runs her own foundation for child victims of war. Chong's biography, though overly detailed at times, is a well-rendered and affecting life story. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The horrors suffered by villagers during the Vietnam War were encapsulated in the unforgettable, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of nine-year-old Kim Phuc running naked and screaming in agony from a blast of napalm dropped by a South Vietnamese fighter plane. Chong (The Concubine's Children) presents the story of Phuc's miraculous recovery and the memorable life of the war victim always to be remembered as "the girl in the picture." Phuc's spent 13 months recovering from third-degree burns that covered 35 percent of her body. She later became a good student, but her dream of becoming a doctor was never realized because of the celebrity status given to her by the victorious Communists. Prime Minister Dong treated Phuc like a granddaughter, allowing her to attend the University of Havana in Cuba, far away from the demands of the Vietnamese government. Phuc realized that Cuba, which had fallen on economic hard times once its economic sponsor, the Soviet Union pulled out, offered no promise of a future. In 1992, she escape to Canada,d two sons. An important story vividly retold; highly recommended for all public libraries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The tale of the girl, Kim Phuc, who survived the napalm burns (the result of ""friendly fire"") that sent her fleeing in terror and pain into history. Via interviews, documents, and published reports, Chong (The Concubine's Children, 1995) reconstitutes the life of Kim Phuc in the context of her family and her war-torn, economically stricken country. That Kim, as she now calls herself, did not die from her wounds is virtually a miracle; she was raced to a hospital by the photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture. The middle of nine children and in frequent pain from the scars and consequences of her burns, Kim survived near-starvation and the primitive living conditions forced on her once prosperous family by war and politics and even managed to qualify for medical school. It was her mother Nu's noodle shop that kept the family going, its ups and downs the stuff of mythology as it follows the course of war, peace, and vindictive bureaucracy. Kim was rediscovered by the international press and used by the now-Communist Vietnam regime as a propaganda tool. Befriended by prime minister Pham Van Dong, successor to Ho Chi Minh, she eventually persuaded the government to send her to Cuba to study. In Cuba, she met her future husband, and together they defected to the West. Today, she lives with her husband, two children, and her parents in Toronto and travels frequently to speak on behalf of world peace. Simply told, with a delicate political balance for the most part carefully managed, the story of the girl in the photograph is one of horror, survival, and hope--a primer if not the definitive text for those trying to understand the Vietnam war. (b&w photos) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
