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“Lai’s poems have the stabbing specificity of the Vietnamese refugee experience, but also speak to any sensitive child wrestling with the necessity to compromise with wrenching, world-shifting transitions.” –Children’s Literature

Inside Out and Back Again

Written by Thanhha Lai

“No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.” For all the ten years of her life, Ha has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Ha and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Ha discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl’s year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

Primary ISBN: 9780061962783
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback
Chapter Book, Age 09 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , , , , ,

Setting: Vietnam (Saigon), United States

Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: Refugee

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

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