Book Review 1

Book read: Sing to the Dawn by Minfong Ho

When I read this book, I immediately felt very fortunate. The book reminded me of how fortunate I was when I was young. Whatever I want, I could get it easily. Money was not a problem to our family at all. Education to me was a torture instead of a treasure.

However, when I read this book, I realized that many in the world are still living in poverty. Food was so scarce; education was something that did not even need to be mentioned at all.

When I thought of how hungry for education the main character, Dawan, was for education, I felt an overwhelming sense of…guilt. Never had I treasured or even, noticed the effort my parents put in to make sure I received good education. My mother retired when I was Primary 1 just to teach me Chinese and Maths, my two weakest subjects during then.

After reading this book at around the December holidays, I had since learnt to treasure and cherish whatever I have. Games and other things are just bonuses. Education should be not treated as a torture, but instead, a blessing.

If I were to use one word to describe the main character, Kawan, in the book, it will definitely be ‘determined’; 1) she was not afraid yet was very determined to fight for her rights as a woman to get further education, although men were superior in her country, Vietnam.

2) Many people, her Mother, her cousin and the public feels shocked and shows great disgust at the fact that she was only a girl yet could receive such high education. Under such pressure, she still continued to fight for her rights to receive the scholarship.

3) Most of her relatives thought that she did not deserve the higher education and her older brother should get the scholarship for the higher education instead because she was just a female. However, she was not afraid of the future tension between her and her brother, and continued her fight for the scholarship with determination.

4) Her brother also opposes the fact that she, as a female, could receive the scholarship. Under this kind of tension and hatred from her sibling, she was still determined to get the scholarship.

5) Although her father threatened to use brute force to stop Kawan from getting the scholarship, she still talked back to her father out of determination.

Here’s a poster I have designed for the book, Sing to the Dawn >

I think the author's target group of readers should be people like me, people who are very fortunate yet doesn't know how to cherish whatever they have. The author wants to remind us that there still many children living in poverty and education to them is treasure. She wants us to understand not only the importance of education, but also that we should be contented with whatever we have and cherish our possessions, i.e. education.