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The Language Inside

by Holly Thompson (Goodreads Author)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 50 ratings · 10 reviews

A nuanced novel in verse that explores identity in a multicultural world.

Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.

Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins t...more A nuanced novel in verse that explores identity in a multicultural world.

Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.

Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother's urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena's poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.

“With beautiful language and deep sensitivity, Holly Thompson explores the courage it takes to find your own voice.” —Patricia McCormick, author of National Book Award finalist Never Fall Down

“Thompson’s eloquent novel speaks to us, carrying us along with Emma as she embarks on a life-altering journey from Japan to America. But it’s Emma’s inner journey that’s the true adventure—pulsing with pain and passion, with humor, heart, and hope.” —Sonya Sones, author of What My Mother Doesn’t Know and To Be Perfectly Honest

“[Emma] is driven to help in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and readers will cheer her on as she faces the challenge of contributing to relief efforts from a distance. Her longing for Japan will also resonate with those familiar with the country and its culture, as Thompson captures perfectly the feeling of belonging elsewhere. A sensitive and compelling read that will inspire teens to contemplate how they can make a difference.”—School Library Journal, Starred

“Thompson nimbly braids political tragedy, natural disaster, PTSD, connections among families, and a cautious, quiet romance into an elegant whole. This is an artistic picture of devastation, fragility, bonds and choices.”— Kirkus Reviews

“Thompson, working in a free-verse style that becomes a seamless piece of a world imbued with poetry, weaves [the plot strands] together skillfully. The result is a touching portrait of Emma working through loss and opportunity as Lowell becomes not just “not-Japan,” but the site of new connections and a possible romance.”— Publisher’s Weekly

“Thompson keeps the many plot elements cohesive, and the vivid imagery in the lyrical free verse lends immediacy to Emma’s turbulent feelings. Readers will finish the book knowing that, like Zena, the Cambodian refugees, and the tsunami victims, Emma has the strength to ‘a hundred times fall down / a hundred and one times get up.’”— The Horn Book Magazine
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Hardcover, 528 pages

Published May 14th 2013 by Delacorte

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May 10, 2013 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is honestly unlike anything I've ever read before. Wow. This book is written in verse, which I'm pretty sure the last time I read a book in verse was in elementary school, so I was really hesitant going in. In the end, I enjoyed it so much more than I ever thought I could.

Emma has lived in Japan her entire life, so when her family has to move back to America because her mom has breast cancer, Emma is devastated. But her mother needs them, so she holds her head high and does the best she ca...more This is honestly unlike anything I've ever read before. Wow. This book is written in verse, which I'm pretty sure the last time I read a book in verse was in elementary school, so I was really hesitant going in. In the end, I enjoyed it so much more than I ever thought I could.

Emma has lived in Japan her entire life, so when her family has to move back to America because her mom has breast cancer, Emma is devastated. But her mother needs them, so she holds her head high and does the best she can. The worst part about leaving is not only that they miss their friends and an entirely different culture, but some of their friends were devastated by the tsunami that just hit Japan, destroying entire lives, so Emma feels like she's deserting her country at its greatest time of need. To keep herself busy, Emma volunteers at a care center to help a woman with locked-in syndrome write poetry, and that's where she meets Samnang, another volunteer helping out two older Cambodian men. Emma starts to really care about her life in America, so if the time came, would she choose to go back to Japan?

Wow, this book is just so complex for being a book written in verse. I'm not sure how I thought it would turn out, but the language was so powerful and beautiful and really easy to follow along. Emma has to deal with such heavy stuff, from her mom's cancer and Zena's locked-in syndrome to Samnang's patients who are survivors of the Cambodian genocide. Add on top of that the fact that she had to leave behind a country she loves so much for America, which has such a different way of life than Japan. Identity is a huge issue in her life and you just want Emma to be okay in the end and comfortable in her own skin.

The emotions in this book were amazing too. I felt like I was actually inside Emma's head, listening to how she felt about everything in such a fluid, beautiful way. This was a really quick read as well. While it's over 500 pages, I finished this in one day because it was so fast paced and the story was just too good to stop reading.

To read this book, you definitely have to be open minded about reading a novel in verse and prepared for an emotional, serious story. Once you start it, though, you'll be pulled into to a whirlwind of emotions and you won't want to put it down. (less)

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Jan 28, 2013 Sps rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle, character, historical-fiction, poetry

Improbably likeable and satisfying. Possibly 3.5 stars. This book is the runt (despite its hefty size), the underdog, the dark horse, the long shot for making me like it because I do not care for books that layer on the themes like a Dagwood sandwich. And The Language Inside does just that: Japan, belonging, duty, poetry, the 2011 earthquake/tsunami, moving and adjusting to living with grandparents, family member with cancer, Japanese folk dance, Cambodian folk dance, Cambodian bloody history, t...more
Improbably likeable and satisfying. Possibly 3.5 stars. This book is the runt (despite its hefty size), the underdog, the dark horse, the long shot for making me like it because I do not care for books that layer on the themes like a Dagwood sandwich. And The Language Inside does just that: Japan, belonging, duty, poetry, the 2011 earthquake/tsunami, moving and adjusting to living with grandparents, family member with cancer, Japanese folk dance, Cambodian folk dance, Cambodian bloody history, teen alcoholism, migraines, first love...I'm probably forgetting a few. It's an issues book inside an issues book inside an issues book. But somehow it works; it's clever but it's grounded; it's got lovely language and it feels friendly.

For some reason the verse works for me, because her point of view is fractured, emotional, interior, and the narrator is indeed a poet. So it doesn't feel like a gimmick. In places like p. 173 (of the ARC) where Emma feels the onset of a migraine, it even feels like a wonderful union of visual, text, subject, and style:

at first I think it's just the irregular line breaks
the space the poet made tween words
but I look up
at the sh lves
at t librarian
and the spot fo lows

grows

The free verse form, and Emma's interest in poetry, allows the text to use poetic imagery in a way that would be seem out of place in conventional teen prose, e.g. "when a plastic bag/turned into a jellyfish/we scrambled out, showered/then walked to the end of the beach" (71-ARC).

The integration of Japanese words worked smoothly and felt like a way of knowing Emma better. Her Japanese best friend tells her "but inside you're Japanese.../using the word nakami--filling/for inside" (73)

This read middle-school to me, from the cover shot to the content, though it's marketed as teen. My guess is that it will end up on our juvenile shelves and I'll happily give it to sixth graders and above.

Other notes: I'm calling it historical fiction because it's very much set in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan.
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Mar 12, 2013 Meg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, ya

Where does culture lie? In our language? Our heritage? Our speech? Or is it bound in our geography? When Emma leaves Japan for an extended stay in her father's hometown (near Lowell, MA) she finds that she cannot express herself in English as well as she could in Japanese. She searches for a connection to this unfamiliar place and the new routines of her family life. Her work with a handicapped poet opens up a new world of communication and thought. This beautiful, lyrical novel is one of the be...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Mrs. Mcguire rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction, poetry

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Mar 14, 2013 Amanda (Born Bookish) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Author, Holly Thompson uses free verse to weave together a great multi-cultural story about family, friends, love, hardship, and what to do when the language inside doesn’t match the language outside.

The main character, Emma, and her family move from Japan (the only home Emma’s ever known) when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. The family moves to Massachusetts to stay with a relative so that her mom can be treated in Boston.

Her mother’s breast cancer, the move - it all leaves Emma wi...more Author, Holly Thompson uses free verse to weave together a great multi-cultural story about family, friends, love, hardship, and what to do when the language inside doesn’t match the language outside.

The main character, Emma, and her family move from Japan (the only home Emma’s ever known) when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. The family moves to Massachusetts to stay with a relative so that her mom can be treated in Boston.

Her mother’s breast cancer, the move - it all leaves Emma with a lot of stress and she starts to suffer from severe migraines. Emma also experiences a lot of guilt having left Japan right after it was struck by the tragedy of a Tsunami. She feels she should be there with her friends to help clean up the destruction and start rebuilding.

Her grandmother signs Emma up to volunteer at a long-term care facility while she’s in town. She is there to help a patient named Zena , who suffers from locked-in syndrome, write poetry. The only way Zena can communicate is with her eyes. Emma has to hold up an alphabet board organized by row and color, reading each one out until Zena looks up to select a letter. I found this dynamic of the story to be very heartwarming as we get to watch Zena and Emma’s relationship grow as they connect with one another through their mutual love of poetry.

There is also a small romance aspect to the story between Emma and Samnang, a fellow volunteer at the care facility. It’s a sweet relationship that develops slowly throughout the story but at times it was frustrating too because they weren’t even going out but Emma would get all worked up and upset if he hung out with another girl *insert eye roll*.

“I look at him
and he looks straight back at me
into me
and there’s a calm
between us

we are just sitting, breathing,
and I think we are smiling
with out eyes.”

As you can see, this book deals with a lot of different issues; breast cancer, locked-in syndrome, post traumatic stress disorder, and migraines, to name some, but it does so effortlessly, weaving them together into one coherent and touching story about one girl’s journey to find herself.
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Mar 30, 2013 (Sara) Through the Looking Glass rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Language Inside is a meaningful contemporary novel in verse. I wasn’t blown away by it, but Emma’s narrative resembled stream-of-consciousness style, and I liked that. This story about a Japanese girl who moves to Massachusetts for her mother’s cancer treatment is one of love and newfound understanding.

Emma is pretty depressed and homesick at the beginning of the story. She is worried for her mother, restless that she can’t help her friends in Japan recover from the earthquake, and she miss...more The Language Inside is a meaningful contemporary novel in verse. I wasn’t blown away by it, but Emma’s narrative resembled stream-of-consciousness style, and I liked that. This story about a Japanese girl who moves to Massachusetts for her mother’s cancer treatment is one of love and newfound understanding.

Emma is pretty depressed and homesick at the beginning of the story. She is worried for her mother, restless that she can’t help her friends in Japan recover from the earthquake, and she misses all of the little things about her home.

I felt like I could connect a lot with Emma’s character. The narrative quality was amazing, I must say. However, the novel was in verse, and I found that a lot more could be said than was. It did have a minimalist quality that I didn’t really like or not like. Novels in verse usually aren’t my thing, but I’m happy that I tried out The Language Inside. It was a pleasant surprise and I liked it more than I usually like verse novels.

There is a lot of focus on family and resilience in tough times in The Language Inside. Emma’s family is dealing with her dad being gone for huge amounts of time for work and also her mom battling breast cancer. I felt like Emma as a a character could have been more developed, but I admired her resilience through her family’s hard times.

Of course, there is a boy too. I really liked Samnang. He is a dancer and is really fascinated and loves his Cambodian culture. He and Emma bond over the diversities of Japanese and Cambodian culture and they are amazing together. They both volunteer at a sort of assisted living center, which is how they meet. Emma works with a woman named Vera, who has locked-in syndrome. I loved Vera! Even though she was limited in ways of expressing herself, she was so expressive and I loved every scene with her in it!

Overall, The Language Inside was a worthwhile read. I liked the focus it had on never losing where you come from and family. There was so much rich culture references and dancing and Samnang!
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Apr 12, 2013 Catherine Linka rated it 4 of 5 stars

I guarantee you haven't met these characters before.

Emma's displaced--she's been moved from Japan to Massachusetts. Lonely and lost, she takes a volunteer job that connects her to Zena, a poet who must blink out her poems, and she meets Samnang, a young Cambodian man.

This is a story of connection and voice, and I appreciated the richness of emotions and how Emma's world included young and old, multiple ethnicities and degrees of disability.

I hope it is nominated for the Schneider Award.

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May 19, 2013 Payton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel-in-verse

Written in verse, this is unlike all other books I've read before. Emma was raised in Japan But then her mother gets breast cancer. This is all about Emma's journey in the United States and the Tought roads and descisions she must make. Holly Thompson did a great job with the emotional side of this story.

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Feb 05, 2013 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

Loved Orchards--like this one even better. The verse novel with its poetry within the verse is fabulous.

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Mar 15, 2013 Dianna marked it as to-read

Shelves: love-the-title

May? Are you kidding me? This book sounds/looks awesome!!

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Apr 21, 2013 Ashley marked it as to-read

Sounds good but the cover model isn't Japanese...

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May 12, 2013 Amanda Snow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, 2013-may, young-adult, review-copy

Review to come.

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May 13, 2013 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars

So far, so good! The description of the migraine made me think I had one! As usual, Holly's few words are written with such thought and description that I am immediately transported into the setting and characters completely.
Great story. Great characters. Highly recommend for high school and older middle school.

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Jan 28, 2013 Angelhorn marked it as to-read

Shelves: verse-novels-2012-2013, verse-novels

Success! I got an ARC of this at ALA!

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Shelves: novels-in-verse, multicultural

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About Holly Thompson

Holly Thompson was raised in New England, earned her B.A. in biology from Mount Holyoke College and her M.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing/fiction from New York University. Long-time resident of Japan, she is a lecturer at Yokohama City University, where she teaches creative writing, academic writing, short stories and American culture.

Holly's fiction is often set in Japan.

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Books by Holly Thompson

Tomo: Friendship through Fiction: An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories

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