I love visiting Half-Price Books whenever there is a store nearby. I head directly for the clearance stash to see what unknown treasures await me there for less than $3. This time, I visited a store in Oklahoma City and stumbled upon Inside Out and Back Again. The description grabbed my attention and the price sealed the deal that I would give this short novel a shot. I’m so glad I did!
Inside Out and Back Again tells the story of Hà, a 10-year-old girl living in war-torn Saigon in February, 1975 — the height of the Veitnam War. She lives with her three brothers and mother in a small house not far from the docks. Her father was a naval officer who went to fight for his land and has not returned. As things become more and more dangerous in South Vietnam, Hà and her family are forced to flee Saigon near the end of April aboard dilapidated boats hoping to reach Thailand. Hà and her family are among the boat people.
Their boat is met by U.S. sailors who take the refugees to Guam. As the family struggles to find stability in their temporary setting, they are forced to decide where they will immigrate. Hà and her family settle on the United States and ultimately land in Alabama.
In the American South, Hà is no longer seen as the intelligent student she has always been. Rather she spends much of her time feeling stupid. School becomes a place of ridicule and bullying. In order to gain acceptance in their new community, the family feels as though they must abandon their Buddhist faith and accept Christianity. What was promised as a land of opportunity and hope presents Hà with unimaginable challenges as she navigates a foreign land with very few friends and less understanding of the world around her.
Beautifully written in poetic form, Inside Out and Back Again is largely based on the experiences of the book’s author. Its gripping accounts of the feelings of a child in a war-ravaged land as well as the frustration of learning a new language are some of the hallmarks of this delightfully written novel. One of my favorite passages comes near the end of the book. Hà has begun after-school tutoring with a retired teacher, Miss Washington. In the poem entitled “Start Over,” Hà recounts a valuable lesson she has learned from her tutor.
MiSSSisss WaSShington says/ if every learner waits/ to speak perfectly,/ no one would learn/ a new language.
Being stubborn/ won’t make you fluent./ Practicing will!/ The more mistakes you make,/ the more you’ll learn not to.
They laugh.
Shame on them!/ Challenge them to say/ something in Vietnamese/ and laugh right back.
Inside Out and Back Again, 253-254
Inside Out and Back Again was published in 2011 by HarperCollins Children’s Books. The following year, Thanhha Lai’s work was listed as a Newberry Honor Book by the American Library Association.
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