The Caged Birds of Phnom Penh was a story of a young Cambodian girl who hardly survive living on the street of Phnom Penh city and dream to live outside of this city where she was seeking for better life.
A pity girl living with measurable life was not just her though, in the Khmer society there are plenty of them. In this book the author wants to just show one illustration of life from the crowded Phnom Penh city. There was one day the young girl in this book approaching the bird lady who do business of selling bird. She gets a bird in a purpose of letting them free from the cage and make a wish for better life that she dreamed of. Imagine what is life all about? The young girl asked her grandfather did he believe in this future forecasting by letting the bird free to return her the fortune. The old man seem to agree but unless she can choose the right one a blessing bird to make this wish come true.
The author is Frederick Lipp with his second book of The Caged Birds of Phnom Penh won the American Library Association’s 2002 Amelia Bloomer Award for Feminist Literature for Children.
To understand deeper about life in the city of Phnom Penh the Kingdom of Cambodia you are recommended to read this book and discover the real life of many people which illustrate by this young girl character.