Press enter after choosing selection

Inside out and Back Again

Lai, Thanhha. Book - 2011 R Newbery Honor 2012, Y Fiction / Lai, Thanhha None on shelf 1 request on 4 copies Community Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Cover image for Inside out and back again

Sign in to request

Location & Checkout Length Call Number Checkout Length Item Status
Downtown Kids Reference
0-week checkout
R Newbery Honor 2012 0-week checkout Library Use Only
Downtown Kids Books
4-week checkout
Y Fiction / Lai, Thanhha 4-week checkout In transit
Downtown Kids Books
4-week checkout
Y Fiction / Lai, Thanhha 4-week checkout Due 04-14-2024
Downtown Kids Books
4-week checkout
Y Fiction / Lai, Thanhha 4-week checkout Due 04-02-2024

Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Likely Won't Remember This in a Year submitted by Caser on February 9, 2012, 4:09pm The year is 1975. The place, South Vietnam. Ten year old Ha lives with her mother and two brothers in the rapidly deteriorating Saigon, with military forces from the North moving imminently toward the South. Her father, a military member, has been missing for years. Ha and her family flee their native country on a Navy ship and find themselves living in Alabama, sponsored by a family there. She must learn English and adjust to American culture very quickly.

Ha's experience is captured in a series of "poems" from her point of view, with each poem serving as one chapter. The language is often beautiful and sometimes quite moving. I particularly liked the line, "No one would believe me / but at times / I would choose / wartime in Saigon / over / peacetime in Alabama".

The one thing that will keep me from remembering and recommending this book to others in the future is that so much of the book is about Ha's feelings and responses to people around her that it's not always clear what the other people and places she's in look, sound, and act like. The focus is so heavily internal that I had a hard time imagining the external, so there aren't many images of scenes that linger in the mind.

I did enjoy the read, but it's not one that invites re-reading.

Struck a Chord with Me submitted by sdunav on July 2, 2012, 4:46pm I really enjoyed this little volume of free verse about a 10 y.o. girl whose family leaves Saigon in the tumult of 1975 and starts a new life in a small town in Alabama. I think my 10 y.o. daughter and older kids should like it, too, especially girls. It combines a lot of big happenings (the evacuation, desperation on a ship, refugee camp, racism) with personal issues (Ha's annoyance at her older brothers, friends and bullies at school, her thoughts about American food).

Hi submitted by maria.wyche on June 15, 2019, 10:19am Good

Poetic and moving submitted by NhuDo on August 30, 2019, 3:54pm This book was a beautifully written memoir-like story written in verse. It made me laugh, cry, and connect with the transformative immigrant story.

Inside out and Back Again submitted by Varshini on August 30, 2019, 9:47pm I still remember reading this book, even though I read it almost 6 years ago. Inside Out And Back Again is a great historical fiction book for elementary school children.

Good submitted by zmclaugh on June 16, 2023, 9:39am This was a well-told immigrant story. It leaves you with a good deal to consider.

Cover image for Inside out and back again

SERIES
Newbery Honor book - 2012.



PUBLISHED
New York : HarperCollins, 2011.
Year Published: 2011
Description: 261 p.
Language: English
Format: Book

READING LEVEL
Lexile: 800

ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780061962783
9780061962790

SUBJECTS
Novels in verse.
Vietnamese Americans -- Fiction.
Emigration and immigration -- Fiction.
Immigrants -- Fiction.
Vietnam -- Fiction. -- 1971-1980
Alabama -- History -- 1951- -- Fiction.