Haing Ngor might be best known for winning an Oscar for his performance in the movie, The Killing Fields, about the genocide of the Cambodian people by the Khmer Rouge regime. But in a way, Haing Ngor’s life has always been on behalf of helping his people, and this movie was just a different platform for the work that he did.
Did you know that Haing Ngor was an immigration counselor who helped Southeast Asian immigrants resettle? I didn’t include this in my book, but I heavily researched his murder at age 55. Some people, including close friends and family, believe that he was murdered by his work bringing war criminals in Cambodia to justice. All this and more in Asian Pacific American Heroes. It’s available on the Scholastic Website and through Scholastic Bookclubs flyers.
p.s. All my Asian American Book Lists for Kids are here with some specific ethnicities broken out.
40+ Asian American Book Lists for Kids
- Asian American
- Korean American
- Japanese American
- Chinese American
- South Asian American
p.p.s. Related posts:
Modern Immigration & The Refugee Experience Books for Kids
10 True Kidlit Immigration Stories by Sandra Neil Wallace
FREE Classroom Empathy Kit: Immigration & Refugees
New MCBD Classroom Kit: Activists & Activism!
10 Middle Grade Books about Immigrant Families
Chapter Books to Support 4th Grade or 5th Grade Immigration Unit
Undocumented Immigrants in Children’s Literature
Immigrant Story: In The Year of the Boar
My books:
BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.
