Inside Out & Back Again

Description

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama. For all the ten years of her life, HÀ has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. HÀ and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, HÀ discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

About the Author

Please contact my website with messageswww.thanhhalai.comThanhhà Lại was born in Vietnam. At the end of the war, she fled with her family to Alabama. There, she learned English from fourth graders and then spent the next decade correcting her grammar. Starting her writing life as a journalist, she worked at The Orange County Register. She switched to fiction, leading to an MFA from New York University and short story publications in various journals and anthologies. Then cameInside Out & Back Again, a National Book Award and Newbery Honor-winning verse novel based in part on her childhood as a refugee in Alabama. Next wasListen, Slowly, another middle grade novel featuring a young Vietnamese-American girl.Butterfly Yellowis her first YA novel. Her debut picture book isHundred Years of Happiness, illustrated by Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien.Her latest book isWhen Clouds Touch Us, the long-awaited sequel to Inside Out & Back Again. When Clouds Touch Us is out May 9th, 2023.Thanhhà lives with her husband, daughter and a little white dog just north of New York City.To stay updated about Thanhhà's writing, visitwww.thanhhalai.comand follow her on social media:Twitter:twitter.com/ThanhhaLaiInstagram:instagram.com/thanhha_lai