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Inside Out & Back Again
by Thanhha Lai
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 individual students, potentially ELLs or those who have moved into a new school and feel like an outsider. There are a lot of powerful themes (life and death, racism, the power of language, etc.) that could merit interesting discussions with older students.
Review: Inside Out and Back Again just recently won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and it's easy to see why when examining the heartbreaking story of 10-year-old Ha and her family, which had to flee from South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in the mid-seventies. The language in Ha's poetry is short and sweet, though this shouldn't be misrepresented as lacking meaning or perception. A lot of feelings that Ha is experiencing are present in her poetry, and author Thanhha Lai does an incredible job as an adult of conveying her childhood experiences in an authentic and genuine manner. This book about culture shock is highly recommended, though it requires a few reads to truly grasp its power.
by Thanhha Lai
Chris Maynard's review
bookshelves: age-level-ms, age-level-ya, autobiographical, ci-546-wide-reading-project, multicultural-literature, poetry, subject-asian-american-culture, subject-being-a-teen, subject-female-relationships, subject-immigrant-experience, subject-language-barriers, subject-life-and-death, subject-poverty, subject-racism, subject-relocating, subject-school, theme-dangers-of-stereotypes, theme-discovery, theme-family, theme-freedom-vs-captivity, theme-hope, theme-humanity, theme-identity, theme-inequality, theme-loneliness, theme-longing, theme-loss, theme-love, theme-oppression, theme-separation, theme-tolerance-intolerance
Dec 07, 11
bookshelves: age-level-ms, age-level-ya, autobiographical, ci-546-wide-reading-project, multicultural-literature, poetry, subject-asian-american-culture, subject-being-a-teen, subject-female-relationships, subject-immigrant-experience, subject-language-barriers, subject-life-and-death, subject-poverty, subject-racism, subject-relocating, subject-school, theme-dangers-of-stereotypes, theme-discovery, theme-family, theme-freedom-vs-captivity, theme-hope, theme-humanity, theme-identity, theme-inequality, theme-loneliness, theme-longing, theme-loss, theme-love, theme-oppression, theme-separation, theme-tolerance-intolerance
Read in November, 2011
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 individual students, potentially ELLs or those who have moved into a new school and feel like an outsider. There are a lot of powerful themes (life and death, racism, the power of language, etc.) that could merit interesting discussions with older students.
Review: Inside Out and Back Again just recently won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and it's easy to see why when examining the heartbreaking story of 10-year-old Ha and her family, which had to flee from South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in the mid-seventies. The language in Ha's poetry is short and sweet, though this shouldn't be misrepresented as lacking meaning or perception. A lot of feelings that Ha is experiencing are present in her poetry, and author Thanhha Lai does an incredible job as an adult of conveying her childhood experiences in an authentic and genuine manner. This book about culture shock is highly recommended, though it requires a few reads to truly grasp its power.
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