Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

This children's book caused quite a stir a few years ago when it came out and immediately started winning awards. It's a semi-autobiographical account of a young Vietnamese refugee and her family who find sponsorship to move to America in 1975.

Ten-year-old Hà is smart, happy, childishly selfish, and obsessed with fresh, juicy papaya from her young papaya tree when she finds herself thrust into unforgiving, White, Alabaman suburbia. Suddenly the intelligence she once took for granted is being mocked by her peers at school and she has to struggle with learning a seemingly nonsensical language. Hà has to find a way to adapt to her new environment, master some new skills, and grow courage to stand up to bullies.

This book is beautiful in theme, content, and style. It's written as free-form verse, and the pithy language and structure is really effective at making you believe you are reading writings from a ten-year-old's journal. I think the beauty and simplicity of the poems and the way they build on one another really make this an appealing story for adults as well as children.

And what better way to share with children that everyone has different roots? Family, culture, experience…You can't take for granted the fact that your childhood was the same childhood that others experienced, and you can learn a lot by inquiring more about others.

~9/10~