From the Bookshelf of Mock Newbery 2026

Inside Out & Back Again
by
Start date
June 1, 2011
Finish date
June 30, 2011
Discussion
What We Are Reading This Month
Why we're reading this
This is our first book for the 2012 Newbery. Our runner up book was Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming. If yo…more

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Group Discussions About This Book

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What Members Thought

Richie Partington
Nov 05, 2011 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: fiction
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.'"
-- from the sect
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Courtney
This novel is verse is an interesting look into one Vietnamese girl’s experience emigrating to the US during the Vietnam War. Her descriptions of Vietnam were very evocative and I loved each of her brothers so much. Her insight into what it’s like to go from being smart in your native language to being dumb because you haven’t yet learned the language in the country where you are a refugee was heartbreaking. (3 hours)
Benji Martin
Aug 31, 2011 rated it really liked it


Awesome book. It deserves all the hype is has gotten.
Jennifer
An emotionally stunning book, perhaps because as a verse novel, the reader is able to rush through all the experiences in a brief period.

No, this story would be just as emotional (but likely less beautiful) had it a typical word count. Within just a few pages, the author had me choked up with worry over the fate of an unripe papaya, even while I was too emotionally invested to recognize the papaya as representing the main character.

And what a wonderful main character Ha is, her voice familiar wh
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Mari Anne
Sep 18, 2012 rated it really liked it
Shelves: mg-ya
An absolutely beautiful semi-autobiographical novel about a young girl ripped from her life in 1970s vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Written entirely in verse, it is lyrical and poignant while at the same time remaining interesting and entertaining. While this book is probably aimed at about grades 3 - 6, I am afraid this story and format may appeal more to adults than its intended audience. A great read none the less (and I can now say I DO read poetry!)
Dolores
Dec 10, 2011 rated it it was amazing
A beautiful way for the author to choose to tell her own story. Any one who has ever moved and been "the new kid" will be able to identify and empathize with the main character as she and her family try to adjust to their move to America. ...more
Emily Rozmus
Oct 30, 2012 rated it really liked it


Book on verse about a young girl's journey from Viet Nam to Alabama in the course of a year. Hopeful.
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Nate Balcom
Nov 26, 2011 rated it liked it
An interesting read and good example of free-verse. Not on the top of my Mock Newbery list for 2012.
Pamela
Jan 30, 2012 rated it liked it
Interesting story told in verse about a young girl's experience leaving Vietnam at the end of the Vietnamese war and coming to the US with her family. It is a fast, easy read through which upper elementary students could experience coming to a new land with a new language and new customs. It may help them empathize better with ESL students in their own schools and neighborhoods, always a good thing. ...more
Claire
I love how free verse distills ideas and images. So succinct.
Kim Ha tells us in clipped phrase vivid impressions of her life in Viet Nam after her dad disappears in the war, when the Americans leave, her family's flight from Viet Nam, her mother's grief, adjusting in Alabama, and finally settling.


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Deanna Day
Jun 13, 2011 rated it it was amazing
Beth
Aug 13, 2011 marked it as middle-grade-to-read
Cecelia
Oct 05, 2011 rated it it was amazing
Becky
Oct 09, 2011 rated it really liked it
Melissa
Nov 22, 2011 marked it as to-read
Paul
Nov 29, 2011 marked it as to-read
Tracy
Dec 13, 2011 rated it really liked it
Shelves: poetry, middle-grade
Annette
Jan 02, 2012 rated it really liked it
Tricia
Jan 24, 2012 rated it really liked it
Sallie
Jan 24, 2012 rated it it was amazing
Chantelle
Jan 30, 2012 marked it as to-read
Sheila Welch
Feb 04, 2012 rated it liked it
Chantelle
Feb 22, 2012 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Alice
Sep 09, 2012 rated it really liked it
Mallory
Jan 07, 2013 marked it as to-read