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    The Children's Book Review

    Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai | Review

    Bianca SchulzeBy Bianca Schulze3 Mins Read Ages 9-12 Award Winners Books with Girl Characters Chapter Books Cultural Wisdom Poetry & Rhyme
    Inside Out and Back Again by Thanna Lai
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    The Children’s Book Review | April 26, 2011

    Book by Thanhha LaiInside Out & Back Again

    by Thanhha Lai

    Reading level: Ages 8-12

    Hardcover: 272 pages

    Publisher: HarperCollins (February 22, 2011)

    Source: Publisher

    Award: 2011 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

    What to expect: Vietnamese Americans, Emigration and immigration, Immigrants, Vietnam, Alabama

    How much do we know about those around us? This is the question that debut novelist Thanhha Lai challenges her readers with.

    Based on Lai’s own personal experience as a Vietnamese refugee, Inside Out & Back Again is a poignant story divided into four parts using a series of poems that chronicle the life of 10-year-old Hà, a child–refugee from Vietnam, during the year 1975—the Fall of Saigon. Along with her mother and three brothers (her father has been missing in action for nine years), Hà travels by boat to a tent city in Guam, is moved to Florida and then finds herself living in Alabama sponsored by an “American cowboy” and his wife. In Alabama, the family are treated as outcasts and forced to integrate quickly through language, food, and religion, to be accepted as a part of the community.

    Adjustments to Hà’s new life are delivered through smells and tastes and touch. In “Part One: Saigon,” a verse titled “Two More Papayas” gives Hà’s delectable description of her most cherished fruit. In “Part Three: Alabama,” a verse titled “Not the Same,” which is followed by “But Not Bad,” showcases the bitter differences between the comfort of her precious birth city and the emotional challenges of her new home in Alabama, combined with the acceptance of change.

    Two More Papayas

    “…Middle sweet
    between a mango and a pear.

    Soft as a yam
    gliding down
    after three easy,
    thrilling chews.”

    Not the Same

    “Three pouches of papaya

    dried papaya

    Chewy

    Sugary

    Waxy

    Sticky

    Not the same

    at all.

    So mad,

    I throw all in the trash.”

    But Not Bad

    “… I wake up at faint light,

    guilt heavy on my chest.

    I head toward the trash can.

    Yet

    on the dining table

    on a plate

    sit strips of papaya

    gooey and damp,

    having been soaked in hot water.

    The sugar has melted off

    leaving

    plump

    moist

    chewy

    bites.

    Hummm …

    Not the same,

    but not bad

    at all.”

    Told with pure honesty, emotions run freely from verse to verse and page to page. Hà’s voice is clear, allowing readers to make a leap from sympathy to deep seeded empathy by experiencing her joy, pain, anger, frustration, loyalties, challenges, loss, and determination. The clarity of Hà’s self-awareness and development toward self-actualization is reminiscent of Susan Patron‘s character Lucky, also a 10-year-old girl, from the Newbery winner (2007) The Higher Power of Lucky (2006). Both characters suffer loss, make mistakes, struggle through emotional challenges, and, through sheer determination, intrinsically blossom.

    Lai has created an emotionally powerful novel inspired by her own memories and each word is to be savored, pondered, experienced, and felt. Beautiful!

    Add this book to your collection: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

    If you have been moved by the Inside Out and Back Again book written by Thanhha Lai as much as us, take a look at the Newbery Medal winner and honor books that joined Inside Out and Back Again in 2012.

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    Alabama Emigration and immigration H?? Immigrants Poignancy Refugees Thanhha Lai Vietnam Vietnam War Vietnamese Americans Vietnamese Refugees
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    Bianca Schulze
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    Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

    4 Comments

    1. P. Vreeland on April 27, 2011 8:39 am

      Wonderful review. Wonderful book. Hopefully, Thannha Lai will encourage other children’s authors to write in verse.

      Reply
      • Bianca Schulze on April 27, 2011 10:30 am

        I hope so!

        Reply
    2. claudia on June 23, 2011 4:23 pm

      Just read it yesterday and loved it! I plan to tie it in with other books about the challenges of immigrating to a new country. I would also recommend Home of the Brave 😉

      Reply
    3. justin bieber on February 7, 2013 4:08 pm

      this book is awsome i would recommend this book to other poeple

      Reply

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