Inside Out and Back Again. by Thanhha Lai. 2011.
260p. New York: HarperCollins. Newbery Honor, 2011.
In a series of free verse poems which act as diary entries, Inside Out and Back Again is the story of a year in the life of
a young South Vietnamese girl as she flees her home with her mother and
brothers, and struggles to build a new life in America. Though life in Saigon
in 1975 is fraught with uncertainties, ten-year-old Há loves the sights, sounds, smells and
rhythms of her hometown, which are richly evoked in Lai’s heady descriptions.
When North Vietnamese troops take over the city, Há’s family is forced to make the
heartbreaking decision to leave behind everything they know, including her
father who has been missing in action for several years, in order to seek
refuge in a foreign land.
Há
and her mother and brothers end up in Alabama where they must each make their
own place in an entirely new and sometimes hostile world. Há
sees her new town as colorless and lonely; she struggles with learning a new
language and faces school bullies who taunt her for her differences, yet she
also learns kindness from her sponsor and a neighbor who both defend and
support Há through her travails.
This is a sad, beautiful and hopeful book
told in simple, yet profound language. Readers both young and old will be
deeply moved by Há‘s story.
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