Inspired by the author's own childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam as a refugee and immigrating to Alabama, this tween novel told in verse is sur...
read full description
reviews
Dec 27, 2011
Wendy
rated it: 
Hey, reviewers? A lot of you are using the word "prose" where you mean "poetry", and I can't take it.
Also, there are actually lots and lots of kids' and YA books written in verse. Thanks.
Anyway, actual review: I find it difficult to review this, just like I found it difficult to review the last novel-in-verse about a Vietnamese refugee in the 1970s that I read, All the Broken Pieces. Like anything negative I might say is me judging the immigrant experi More...
Also, there are actually lots and lots of kids' and YA books written in verse. Thanks.
Anyway, actual review: I find it difficult to review this, just like I found it difficult to review the last novel-in-verse about a Vietnamese refugee in the 1970s that I read, All the Broken Pieces. Like anything negative I might say is me judging the immigrant experi More...
5 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jun 21, 2011
babyhippoface
rated it: 
Read this straight through in one evening. It repeatedly put me in mind of an outstanding teacher at my school, whose family immigrated to the United States when she was about Ha's age. When we had a "Guess That Baby Picture" contest at school, she brought a school photo of herself around the age of 8, because that was all she had. There were no baby photos of her, no visual memories of her early years; they were too poor for photographs. All through this book I kept thinking, "I
More...
0 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Feb 17, 2012
Shannon
rated it:
This novel written in verse is the story of a 10 year old girl's journey from Vietnam to Alabama. Having grown up in a small Alabama town with a significant Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian population, I was interested to read this book and compare it with my own experiences.
I found out so much about Vietnamese culture that I didn't know. It made me sad to realize I never asked my classmates what their home countries were like and I missed out by not expanding my world in that way.
More...
I found out so much about Vietnamese culture that I didn't know. It made me sad to realize I never asked my classmates what their home countries were like and I missed out by not expanding my world in that way.
More...
Feb 16, 2012
Angie
rated it: 
This novel written in verse tells the story of Ha and her family as they flee Saigon and come to America. It is a story of survival and struggle. It is beautifully written and the sparseness of the verse makes the story that much more poignant. In Saigon, Ha's family listens to the bombs fall daily, they wait for a father's return even though they fear he is gone forever. They are smart and capable people in Saigon. Then one day they decide to leave on a Navy ship as Saigon is falling to the Com
More...
Feb 13, 2012
Barb
rated it:
Ha has fled Vietnam and is in America with her mom and three brothers. English words have a ”Sssssssssss” sound that reminds her of snakes: MiSSS WasSShington, MiSSS SScott, hogwaSSSh. Some students make friends with her like Pem (Pam) and SSsi-Ti-Van (Steven) while others bully her by teasing her when she speaks; calling her pancake face, and pulling the hair on her arms. Ha is 10 and was born in Vietnam during the war. Her father disappeared on a mission for the Navy when she was one. When the
More...
Feb 05, 2012
Lisa
rated it:
This is a 2012 Newbery Honor. 10-year old Ha is a refugee from Vietnam. She escaped with her mother and brothers on the eve of the fall of Saigon. Inside Out and Back Again follows her story from living in Saigon, to the evacuation boat, Guam and eventually America. She leaved behind what she loves most, and Ha must learn to assimilate into the strange American culture, so different from what she was used to in Vietnam. The language was "invented by snakes" the food is canned or
More...
Feb 04, 2012
Megan
rated it:
Inside Out and Back Again is a Newberry Honor book for 2012. It is a novel, written in poetry, and I read it in about 1 1/2 hours (due to all of the blank prose space on the pages).
It tells the story of Ha, a Vietnamese girl who flees with her family to America when Saigon falls to communism. The family ends up in Alabama, where they encounter a completely different culture and new challenges. It takes place in 1975, so there was a lot of racism and bigotry in Alabama then.
Ha's voice More...
It tells the story of Ha, a Vietnamese girl who flees with her family to America when Saigon falls to communism. The family ends up in Alabama, where they encounter a completely different culture and new challenges. It takes place in 1975, so there was a lot of racism and bigotry in Alabama then.
Ha's voice More...
Jan 30, 2012
Kelly
rated it:
Ha is a 10-year-old girl living in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Life is hard, obviously---bombs, her dad's missing and her family is poor. Still, it's home. When they escape and end up in Alabama right after the war is over, you may not believe it but life is worse. They still don't have much money and she's gone from being really smart to being viewed as really dumb. She can't speak English well and she doesn't know the culture and customs, either. She's teased at school and she just wi
More...
Jan 24, 2012
Karen
rated it:
Lai writes a novel in poetry form, drawing from her own experience as an immigrant from Vietnam. The novel has three sections:
In section one, Ha' and her family are struggling to keep up hope while they wait for their father to return from the war that has been raging between north and south Vietnam. This section is filled with many sense images about the flora and food of south Vietnam. Lai does a good job showing how the mother, her three sons, and the daughter Ha' respond to the More...
In section one, Ha' and her family are struggling to keep up hope while they wait for their father to return from the war that has been raging between north and south Vietnam. This section is filled with many sense images about the flora and food of south Vietnam. Lai does a good job showing how the mother, her three sons, and the daughter Ha' respond to the More...
Jan 23, 2012
Kermit
rated it:
4.3 stars
I read this book over the weekend because it has been on numerous blogs that were predicting possible 2012 Newbery winners. And then this morning.....it did, indeed, win a Newbery Honor Book Medal. :-)
10-year-old Ha flees from Saigon with her mother and 3 brothers just as Saigon is falling during the Viet Nam War. Her father was drafted in the army and has not been heard from for many years. It is difficult to be on a crowded refugee ship, to have to wait in More...
I read this book over the weekend because it has been on numerous blogs that were predicting possible 2012 Newbery winners. And then this morning.....it did, indeed, win a Newbery Honor Book Medal. :-)
10-year-old Ha flees from Saigon with her mother and 3 brothers just as Saigon is falling during the Viet Nam War. Her father was drafted in the army and has not been heard from for many years. It is difficult to be on a crowded refugee ship, to have to wait in More...
Jan 13, 2012
Terri
rated it:
National Book Award winner, Tanahha Lai, presents here a fictionalized version of her own experiences living in Saigon during the Vietnam War, escaping Vietnam with her mother and three brothers as Saigon falls, surviving several weeks on a boat in the Pacific with other refugees before being rescued, spending time in a refugee camp, and finally arriving in Alabama. "Inside Out and Back Again" is a familiar story ("A Step from Heaven" by An Na, "Home of the Brave" b
More...
Jan 05, 2012
Chris
rated it:
No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.
I must begin by admitting my prejudice against books in verse. My first thought upon opening one is to fight a sense of dismay about all the wasted paper that should be filled with words. Most students, when faced with a page restriction for a paper in school, tend toward seeing if they can make the font and margins a hair bigger so they don't have to write quite as much; I, on the othe More...
I must begin by admitting my prejudice against books in verse. My first thought upon opening one is to fight a sense of dismay about all the wasted paper that should be filled with words. Most students, when faced with a page restriction for a paper in school, tend toward seeing if they can make the font and margins a hair bigger so they don't have to write quite as much; I, on the othe More...
Dec 27, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
Inside Out & Back Again recounts a year in the life of a young Kim Ha, a ten-year-old girl, whose family flees Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon. The story is infused with equal parts sadness and wonder. Despite the horror of war, Ha finds much to love about her country. She is torn by wanting to remain in case her father, missing for nine years, returns home to find them, and wanting to go somewhere where life could be easier for her family. But starting over in the United States is an
More...
Dec 20, 2011
Claudia
rated it:
A beautiful novel in verse, autobiographical, lyrical. I remember these years,but my story was very different. Set from Tet (January 31), 1975 through Tet, 1976, the story follows Ha, the only daughter of a Vietnamese family from Saigon to Alabama. From being one of the smartest children in her class to being the one who understands nothing going on around her.
Ha's father is missing from the South Vietnamese army, and when Saigon falls and all flee, she and her mother and brothers boar More...
Ha's father is missing from the South Vietnamese army, and when Saigon falls and all flee, she and her mother and brothers boar More...
Dec 07, 2011
Chris
rated it:
Purpose: Young Adult Literature (Wide Reading Project)
Genre: YA Literature
Format: Novel in Verse
Grades: Middle School and Up
Subjects/Themes: See the bookshelves above.
School Use: Inside Out and Back Again is definitely a book that should be in a classroom library of middle school students/young adults. It is a quick read but is probably not something that would be read by an entire class, though it would be great for indivi More...
Dec 04, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it:
This is a book I would have assiduously avoided as a child, because it's Poems about a Significant Social Topic, and seems like the kind of thing adults would always be pushing you to read.
So I approached it somewhat suspiciously. And I went into it thinking "how much story can there be, anyway?"
I was surprised by how much story got packed in. Told over a year from Tet to Tet, 10 year old Ha and her mother and brothers decide to leave Viet Nam, get out on the More...
So I approached it somewhat suspiciously. And I went into it thinking "how much story can there be, anyway?"
I was surprised by how much story got packed in. Told over a year from Tet to Tet, 10 year old Ha and her mother and brothers decide to leave Viet Nam, get out on the More...
Nov 30, 2011
Chris
rated it:
Summary:
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Jan. 1, 2011 (Vol. 107, No. 9))
Starred Review* After her father has been missing in action for nine years during the Vietnam War, 10-year-old Hà flees with her mother and three older brothers. Traveling first by boat, the family reaches a tent city in Guam, moves on to Florida, and is finally connected with sponsors in Alabama, where Hà finds refuge but also cruel rejection, especially from mean classmates. Based on Lai’s personal experience, this fir More...
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Jan. 1, 2011 (Vol. 107, No. 9))
Starred Review* After her father has been missing in action for nine years during the Vietnam War, 10-year-old Hà flees with her mother and three older brothers. Traveling first by boat, the family reaches a tent city in Guam, moves on to Florida, and is finally connected with sponsors in Alabama, where Hà finds refuge but also cruel rejection, especially from mean classmates. Based on Lai’s personal experience, this fir More...
Nov 22, 2011
Kim
rated it:
I saw Thanhha Lai read from her book at the National Book Awards Finalists Reading. Before she read, she said that she wrote it in a poetry format because she wanted to mirror the way that people think in Vietnamese. That was fascinating to me because I've worked with many people from different countries and I've found that the way we think is not only determined by our culture, but also by our language. Thought is composed of images and words, so it makes sense.
This insight would h More...
This insight would h More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 05, 2011
Richie
rated it:
2 April 2011 INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai, HarperCollins, February 2011, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-06-196278-3
"In what former President Jimmy Carter calls 'one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history,' the Wallace campaign aired TV ads with slogans such as 'Do you want the Black Block electing your governor?' and circulated an ad showing a white girl surrounded by seven black boys, with the slogan 'Wake up Alabama! Blacks vow to take over Alabama.' More...
"In what former President Jimmy Carter calls 'one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history,' the Wallace campaign aired TV ads with slogans such as 'Do you want the Black Block electing your governor?' and circulated an ad showing a white girl surrounded by seven black boys, with the slogan 'Wake up Alabama! Blacks vow to take over Alabama.' More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 15, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
This moving novel in verse chronicles a year in the life of a young girl who must leave behind all that is familiar for a world where everything is strange and new. It is 1975, and as the war draws closer to her Saigon, Vietnam home, Ha reflects on the whereabouts of her missing father and the family's difficult straits. When they have the chance to flee, the family boards a boat, eventually ending up in Alabama. The book illustrates perfectly many of the struggles immigrants face as they deal w
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 02, 2011
The Vietnam War is raging, and Ha's family is faced with the decision of whether or not to flee their home. Ha's father has been missing for years, and the family feels compelled to stay just in case there's a chance that he may return. But food is really scarce, and the safety of their city is tenuous, at best. Ha's mother takes charge, and makes the decision that the family (which includes Ha's three older brothers) will move to the United States. They endure a harrowing trip on a commande
More...
Sep 11, 2011
Tracey
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 01, 2011
Sarah-Greenbeanteenqueen
rated it:
About the Book: It's 1975 in Vietnam and ten-year-old Kim Ha and her family are praying for her father's safe return. He's been missing for the past nine year and war rages on around them. When the opportunity arises for the family to leave Saigon on a navy ship and come to America, the family decides to take the chance and hopes for a better life.
GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Inside Out and Back Again is a beautifully written novel in verse debut. The book is partly based on the author' More...
GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Inside Out and Back Again is a beautifully written novel in verse debut. The book is partly based on the author' More...
Aug 12, 2011
Felicia
rated it:
Thanhha Lai’s novel “Inside Out & Back Again” not only strummed my heart strings, but played a symphony. In today’s society it is easy to forget about others while we spend so much of our every day lives focusing on ourselves. To be able to escape today’s self centered world and retreat into a beautifully written novel is certainly a delight. This Novel is told through the voice of a child. Thanhha Lai captures the thoughts and feelings of a child wonderfully, so much so that I cried when Kim Ha
More...
Aug 01, 2011
Rikelle
rated it:
This book is beautiful. This is a young adult book that would be easy enough for fourth grade and up. However, it may take a good few pages to get them interested and not many young readers are willing to do that. I am definitely going to try and get my own children to read this book. The book is written in free verse poetry and that instantly turned me off because I was expecting a traditional novel. However, as I continued to read, I became profoundly involved in the story and deeply emotiona
More...
Jul 15, 2011
Eva
rated it:
10-year-old Hà lives in Vietnam in 1975. As the south falls to the communists, her mother manages to get her and her three older brothers out of the country, first to a refugee camp in Thailand and then to Alabama, where they are sponsored by a man Hà thinks of as "the cowboy," though he doesn't ride a horse (to her unending disappointment). Though Ha's father disappeared in 1966, they still hope to be reunited with him one day.
Like many emigrant kids, Hà must deal with lea More...
Like many emigrant kids, Hà must deal with lea More...
Jul 13, 2011
Kathryn
rated it:
This is an amazing debut novel by Thanhha Lai. While I think that you will immediate become engrossed with little Hà's story and the events that bring her to America, the first thing that you will notice is that the book is written as a series of short free verse poems in 10-year-old Hà's journal.
What I really love about this book is the language. Free verse novels seem to be creeping into style (consider Out of the Dust, written by Karen Hesse about the dust bowl in Oklahoma, which More...
What I really love about this book is the language. Free verse novels seem to be creeping into style (consider Out of the Dust, written by Karen Hesse about the dust bowl in Oklahoma, which More...
Jul 10, 2011
Kimberly
rated it:
Beautiful prose and a heartwarming story await you inside the pages of "Inside Out & Back Again."
The story is of HÀ, a ten year old Vietnamese girl who lives in Saigon before its fall in 1975. Her family escape on a boat to Guam, where they find refuge for a time, only to be sponsored by a cowboy and brought to live in Alabama.
Her world now drastically changed, she must not only adapt to her uprooting, a new environment, language and rules, but also to the dark side of sud More...
The story is of HÀ, a ten year old Vietnamese girl who lives in Saigon before its fall in 1975. Her family escape on a boat to Guam, where they find refuge for a time, only to be sponsored by a cowboy and brought to live in Alabama.
Her world now drastically changed, she must not only adapt to her uprooting, a new environment, language and rules, but also to the dark side of sud More...
Jul 06, 2011
Brandy
rated it:
4.5 stars really
This review was originally posted here.
I am not crazy about blank verse poetry. I don't understand why someone would sit down to write a novel and choose that format to tell the story. I don't understand why many readers get all excited about it. I'm sure it is some sort of hitch with my own brain but I usually can't connect with the characters as well and I find the story awkward and stilted. This was not the case with Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha La More...
This review was originally posted here.
I am not crazy about blank verse poetry. I don't understand why someone would sit down to write a novel and choose that format to tell the story. I don't understand why many readers get all excited about it. I'm sure it is some sort of hitch with my own brain but I usually can't connect with the characters as well and I find the story awkward and stilted. This was not the case with Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha La More...
Jun 17, 2011
W.H.
rated it:
A beautiful verse novel about a young girl's move from war-torn Saigon to Alabama in 1975.
I read this right after Dogtag Summer. They are nice companion books, both providing a glimpse into what it was like for children during the Vietnam War. I'll definitely be recommending both to my 4th and 5th grade readers.
Related books . . .
. (The last two aren't about Vietnam, but the themes are similar, and HOME OF THE BRAVE is also written in verse.)
More...
I read this right after Dogtag Summer. They are nice companion books, both providing a glimpse into what it was like for children during the Vietnam War. I'll definitely be recommending both to my 4th and 5th grade readers.
Related books . . .
. (The last two aren't about Vietnam, but the themes are similar, and HOME OF THE BRAVE is also written in verse.)
More...
