Book Cover
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Book Summary
The book starts with the Lunar New Year's Day in 1975. Tet, a 10-year-old girl, shares her view on the world around her and what struggles she goes through. The book is divided into four parts: Saigon, At Sea, Alabama, and From Now On. Saigon is about Tet and her family's daily life before it falls: the markets, her friends, and her own papaya tree. At Sea documents what Tet and her family's life is like on the ship. Alabama is the longest part in the story. Even though Tet's family are now safe from war, there are still many uncertainties ahead of them. They have to get used to a different life style, different schooling, and a different language. The last part, From Now On, is short but signifies acceptance and closure to Tet's dad's not returning, and the whole family is ready to move on with their new life in a new land.
The book starts with the Lunar New Year's Day in 1975. Tet, a 10-year-old girl, shares her view on the world around her and what struggles she goes through. The book is divided into four parts: Saigon, At Sea, Alabama, and From Now On. Saigon is about Tet and her family's daily life before it falls: the markets, her friends, and her own papaya tree. At Sea documents what Tet and her family's life is like on the ship. Alabama is the longest part in the story. Even though Tet's family are now safe from war, there are still many uncertainties ahead of them. They have to get used to a different life style, different schooling, and a different language. The last part, From Now On, is short but signifies acceptance and closure to Tet's dad's not returning, and the whole family is ready to move on with their new life in a new land.
Reference
Lai, Thanhha. (2011). Inside Out & Back Again, Harper Collins Children's Books, Harper Collins.
Librarian's Corner
I have never read a verse novel before and didn't know what to expect. I turned out to like this book, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai a lot, and added other verse novel titles to my reading list. The major event in the verse novel is the start of the Vietnam War. I think this verse novel works well for students who are not ready for historical fiction since there are not a lot of descriptions of the war, but the descriptions of the protagonist's feelings of the whole ordeal are just as powerful. Even though the number of words in this verse novel can't compete with the number of words in other fiction books, this verse novel is able to reach the readers just as well. I particularly like the parts Tet shares her thinking on learning English. She is confused because the rules that she's learning don't always apply. I wonder if children who grow up in an English environment ever wonders about these grammar rules? I would recommend this book to grades 3 and up.
I have never read a verse novel before and didn't know what to expect. I turned out to like this book, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai a lot, and added other verse novel titles to my reading list. The major event in the verse novel is the start of the Vietnam War. I think this verse novel works well for students who are not ready for historical fiction since there are not a lot of descriptions of the war, but the descriptions of the protagonist's feelings of the whole ordeal are just as powerful. Even though the number of words in this verse novel can't compete with the number of words in other fiction books, this verse novel is able to reach the readers just as well. I particularly like the parts Tet shares her thinking on learning English. She is confused because the rules that she's learning don't always apply. I wonder if children who grow up in an English environment ever wonders about these grammar rules? I would recommend this book to grades 3 and up.
Reviews
From Booklist
Starred Review* After her father has been missing in action for nine years during the Vietnam War, 10-year-old Ha flees with her mother and three older brothers. Traveling first by boat, the family reaches a tent city in Guam, moves on to Florida, and is finally connected with sponsors in Alabama, where Ha finds refuge but also cruel rejection, especially from mean classmates. Based on Lai's personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee's struggle with rare honesty. Written in accessible, short free-verse poems, Ha's immediate narrative describes her mistakes both humorous and heartbreaking with grammar, customs, and dress (she wears a flannel nightgown to school, for example); and readers will be moved by Ha's sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast who spends lunchtime hiding in the bathroom. Eventually, Ha does get back at the sneering kids who bully her at school, and she finds help adjusting to her new life from a kind teacher who lost a son in Vietnam. The elemental details of Ha's struggle dramatize a foreigner's experience of alienation. And even as she begins to shape a new life, there is no easy comfort: her father is still gone. Grades 4-8
Rochmand, Hazel. (January 201). [Review of the book Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai]. Booklist, 107(9).
From Kirkus Reviews
An enlightening, poignant and unexpectedly funny novel in verse is rooted in the author's childhood experiences. In Saigon in 1975, 10-year-old Kim Ha celebrates Tet (New Year) with her mother and three older brothers; none of them guesses at the changes the Year of the Cat will bring. (Ha's father's been MIA from the South Vietnamese Navy for nine years.) On the eve of the fall of Saigon, they finally decide they must escape. Free verse poems of, usually, just two to three pages tell the story. With the help of a friend, the family leaves, and they find themselves trapped at sea awaiting rescue. Only one of her brothers speaks English, but they pick America as their destination and eventually find a sponsor in Alabama. Even amid the heartbreak, the narrative is shot through with humor. Ha misunderstands much about her new home: Surely their sponsor, who always wears his cowboy hat, must have a horse somewhere. In a school full of strangers and bullies, she struggles to learn a language full of snake's hissing and must accept that she can no longer be at the head of her class...for now. In her not-to-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven't found themselves in a strange new country. 2011, Harper/HarperCollins, 272 pp., $15.99. Category: Historical fiction/verse. Ages 9 to 12. Starred Review. © 2011 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Kirkus. (January 2011). [Review of the book Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai]. Kirkus Reviews, 79(2).
From Booklist
Starred Review* After her father has been missing in action for nine years during the Vietnam War, 10-year-old Ha flees with her mother and three older brothers. Traveling first by boat, the family reaches a tent city in Guam, moves on to Florida, and is finally connected with sponsors in Alabama, where Ha finds refuge but also cruel rejection, especially from mean classmates. Based on Lai's personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee's struggle with rare honesty. Written in accessible, short free-verse poems, Ha's immediate narrative describes her mistakes both humorous and heartbreaking with grammar, customs, and dress (she wears a flannel nightgown to school, for example); and readers will be moved by Ha's sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast who spends lunchtime hiding in the bathroom. Eventually, Ha does get back at the sneering kids who bully her at school, and she finds help adjusting to her new life from a kind teacher who lost a son in Vietnam. The elemental details of Ha's struggle dramatize a foreigner's experience of alienation. And even as she begins to shape a new life, there is no easy comfort: her father is still gone. Grades 4-8
Rochmand, Hazel. (January 201). [Review of the book Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai]. Booklist, 107(9).
From Kirkus Reviews
An enlightening, poignant and unexpectedly funny novel in verse is rooted in the author's childhood experiences. In Saigon in 1975, 10-year-old Kim Ha celebrates Tet (New Year) with her mother and three older brothers; none of them guesses at the changes the Year of the Cat will bring. (Ha's father's been MIA from the South Vietnamese Navy for nine years.) On the eve of the fall of Saigon, they finally decide they must escape. Free verse poems of, usually, just two to three pages tell the story. With the help of a friend, the family leaves, and they find themselves trapped at sea awaiting rescue. Only one of her brothers speaks English, but they pick America as their destination and eventually find a sponsor in Alabama. Even amid the heartbreak, the narrative is shot through with humor. Ha misunderstands much about her new home: Surely their sponsor, who always wears his cowboy hat, must have a horse somewhere. In a school full of strangers and bullies, she struggles to learn a language full of snake's hissing and must accept that she can no longer be at the head of her class...for now. In her not-to-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven't found themselves in a strange new country. 2011, Harper/HarperCollins, 272 pp., $15.99. Category: Historical fiction/verse. Ages 9 to 12. Starred Review. © 2011 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Kirkus. (January 2011). [Review of the book Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai]. Kirkus Reviews, 79(2).
Value to the Library
Elementary School Library
When the school librarian does a book talk on verse novels and poems, Inside Out and Back Again can be one of the choices that he or she reads aloud. Or it can be introduced during Multicultural Month for food, customs, and beliefs. The three verse entries on English grammar can also be used start discussions on grammar rules to help students think about their use of English. Parts of this book can also be used to talk about newcomers and bullying.
Elementary School Library
When the school librarian does a book talk on verse novels and poems, Inside Out and Back Again can be one of the choices that he or she reads aloud. Or it can be introduced during Multicultural Month for food, customs, and beliefs. The three verse entries on English grammar can also be used start discussions on grammar rules to help students think about their use of English. Parts of this book can also be used to talk about newcomers and bullying.
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