POETRY - Inside Out & Back Again

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lai, T. 2011. Inside Out & Back Again. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN: 9780545447850


PLOT SUMMARY


This captivating story is set in 1975 in Vietnam, during the time of the war. Ha is ten years old and doesn’t quite understand why things are not as they always have been. Her everyday life as she knows it begins to take a turn as the Vietnam War gets closer to her home.  Her father disappeared when she was a baby during a military mission and they have had to live without a father in the house since then. Her mother is a strong-willed woman and had to work extra hard to provide for the family since her father’s disappearance. The family decides it is best to flee Vietnam with the war approaching them. Ha’s uncle is able to secure them a passage on one of the navy ships bound for Thailand. The journey across the sea is not an easy one with issues that involved rationing, spacing, and hygiene. As they come closer to being under attack, they are finally rescued by an American ship and sent to a refugee camp.  Finally, they are sent on their way to start a new life in Florida in the United States. Ha’s journey to understand America, learn the new language, keep her culture alive while learning a new culture is all experienced in this book. Despite the hardships of having others pick on her and her family as they learn English, she is able to come to terms with her new life in America.


CRITICAL ANALYSIS


This story was extremely intriguing and even more so when I read about the author. This novel in verse is almost like an autobiography of the author and what she endured as a child. Lai uses the first-person point of view which highlights the emotions that Ha experiences having to leave her home in Vietnam and start a new life in America. She does a fantastic job to demonstrate some humor from Ha despite her conditions in life at that time. 


The flow of her journal entry style pages brings the reader straight into how Ha’s daily emotions are, what she is going through, and makes it feel like you are there with her through this journey. Her simplistic vocabulary makes the reading level of this text a great option for younger readers; however, the concepts behind some of the events could easily intrigue an older reader.


As I finished reading this book, I just wanted to hug Ha and let her know she isn’t alone in this big old world.


REVIEW EXCERPT(S)


Booklist: “ 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, Hà’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 Hà’s sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast who spends lunchtime hiding in the bathroom … The elemental details of Hà’s struggle dramatize a foreigner’s experience of alienation.”

 

Horn Book Guide: “Recounting events that resemble her own family's 1975 flight from Saigon, Lai pens a novel in vividly imagined verse. Spare language captures the sensory disorientation of changing cultures as well as a refugee's complex emotions and kaleidoscopic loyalties.”

 

Kirkus Review: “An enlightening, poignant and unexpectedly funny novel in verse is rooted in the author's childhood experiences.”

 

Publishers Weekly: “The taut portrayal of Ha's emotional life is especially poignant as she cycles from feeling smart in Vietnam to struggling in the States, and finally regains academic and social confidence. A series of poems about English grammar offer humor and a lens into the difficulties of adjusting to a new language and customs. An incisive portrait of human resilience.”

 

CONNECTIONS


This book would be great to use in a social studies classroom during their studies of the Vietnam War.


Great recommendation for an ELL student who is feeling alone in a new place.


Of course, this would be a fantastic book to read to students and then have them complete a personal poem, such as an “I Am” poem or a “Selfie” poem, where they relate to an event in their life that helped shape them the way they are today.


Other books by Thanhha Lai:

  • Lai, T. Butterfly Yellow. ISBN 9780062229212 

  • Lai, T. Listen, Slowly. ISBN 9780062229182


Other books about immigration:

  • Choi, Yangsook. The Name Jar. ISBN 9780756916305

  • Gravel, Elisa. What is a Refugee? ISBN 9780241423202

  • Morales, Yuyi. Dreamers. ISBN 9780823440559

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