Inside Out & Back Again
Bibliography
Lai, Thanhha. 2011. INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN. New York, NY: Harper. ISBN 9780061962783
Plot Summary
Thanhha Lai's Inside Out & Back Again, covers one year in young Ha's life when her family flees Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War and travels to America. Her journey is filled with confusion, wonder, heartbreak, strength, and self discovery. Told in free verse, this story based on Lai's own life shows a young girl's thoughts, emotions and reactions to the extreme changes to her family, her beliefs, her happiness and to her life.
Critical Analysis
A year in someone's life can bring lots of change, good and bad. Inside Out & Back Again shows the good and the bad that happens in the year of a young Vietnamese girl, Ha's, life, after her family's escape from Saigon in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Author Thanhha Lai expertly utilizes free verse poetry to capture the thoughts and reflections of Ha and her experiences with her new home and the memories of her old one.
Each poem is unique in its delivery; some are short and some are long, some are filled with happy and positive thoughts and some are confused and lost. Lai knows her audience; children that know what it feels like to be somewhere new and different like Ha; adults that might have lived through similar experiences dreaming of a better life for their children like Mother. Each word in each poem hold weight, no word is there to fill in.
What makes the story even more moving is how close it resembles Lai's life and the lives of other children displaced by war and conflict. Lai's book resonated then and still resonates now and is a work of literature that all should experience.
Review Excerpts
National Book Award for Young People's Literature 2011
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."
Publishers Weekly Starred: "Narrating in sparse free-verse poems, 10-year-old Ha brings a strong, memorable voice to the immigrant experience as her family moves from war-torn South Vietnam to Alabama in 1975... An incisive portrait of human resilience."
Connections
More by Thanhha Lai: Listen Slowly
Butterfly Yellow
Hundred Years of Happiness
Vietnamese Young Adult Authors: Loan Le- A Pho Love Story
Trang Thanh Tran: She Is A Haunting
Jamie Jo Hoang: My Father, the Panda Killer
Activity: In the book, Ha and her family try fried chicken for the first time! Write a free verse poem about an interesting and new experience you have had.
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