2011 Newberry Honor Book & National Book Award Winner
Based upon the author’s own childhood experiences, Inside Out & Back Again is the story
of 10-year old Ha and her family’s heart-wrenching journey from war-torn Saigon
to America and their subsequent settlement in Alabama. Told through poems, Ha’s story relates her dealings
with intolerant and sometimes antagonistic community members, exposure to new
food and the difficult curiosities of American language and culture. Ha finds
that her excellent marks in Vietnamese school leave her poorly equipped to deal
with American school and she struggles to apply her previous knowledge to the
new culture. Slowly, Ha finds allies at school and in the community who assist
her in becoming comfortable in her new life.
I really enjoyed the first-person narrative and the perspective of a young girl. So many of the stories of that time are told from the perspective of an adult or boy, so it is refreshing to see it from Ha's point of view. This book would be a wonderful read for upper elementary kids for either a social studies or poetry unit. Jocelyn mentioned in her book review that this would be a great pairing with The Wednesday Wars, which I think is a fabulous idea. I think that kids would really get a lot out of seeing the war from a Vietnamese vs American viewpoint.
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