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 have been valuable as I was reading. Unfortunately, I had already read the book before the reading. I ordered it on my kindle and I recommend actually getting the book form because of the images and different font due to the occasional Vietnamese words. So, I clicked to the first page and thought, oh no, a whole book in this format that I don't usually like. First thought - boring. However, I kept reading because I bought the book and I didn't want to waste money. I'm glad I did. It's amazing how entrancing this book is and how you don't actually notice you're reading stanzas after a while.

Thanhha Lai hits every emotional button and you really feel like this girl and her family are in jeopardy along the way and you keep reading to find out what will happen to them. Even better is that it is based on her own life. Wonderful. If I could give it 4.5 stars, I would. I reserve 5 stars for books I want to read again and again, but this was great and certainly deserved the National Book Award.