Inside Out  Back Again, Thanhha Lai
Inside Out  Back Again, Thanhha Lai
12 Rating(s)
List: $10.99 | Sale: $7.70
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Inside Out & Back Again

Author: Thanhhà Lai

Narrator: Doan Ly

Unabridged: 2 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/10/2012


Synopsis

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.

For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by … and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.

But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape … and the strength of her very own family.

This is the moving story of one girl’s year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

“Open this book, read it slowly to savor the delicious language. Before closing it, go back to the beginning, this time to let the story of ten-year-old Hà and the year she escaped from South Vietnam, 1975, leaving behind the world she knew and loved, sink in. Don’t close the covers yet. Read it again to notice how perfect the thin line of the prose itself mirrors the thin line that Hà walks during that year.

This is a book that asks the reader to be careful, to pay attention, to sigh at the end.”—Kathi Appelt, bestselling author of the Newbery Honor Book THE UNDERNEATH
National Book Award
Newbery Honor Book

About Thanhhà Lai

Thanhhà Lại is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award and Newbery Honor–winning Inside Out and Back Again; the celebrated Listen, Slowly; the teen novel Butterfly Yellow; and the picture book Hundred Years of Happiness. She was born in Việt Nam and now lives in New York. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on January 27, 2019

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama. I'd been saving this for when my kids got a little older so we could read it together, but when Helen Hoang mentioned it in the author's note for The Bride Test, I knew I couldn't wait that long. No matter......more

Goodreads review by Sandra on May 08, 2012

{This review originally appeared on Clear Eyes, Full Shelves.} I now understand when they make fun of my name, yelling ha-ha-ha down the hall when they ask if I eat dog meat, barking and chewing and falling down laughing when they wonder if I lived in the jungle with tigers, growling and stalking on all f......more

Goodreads review by Moe on January 20, 2014

Let me tell you something. If I wasn't forced to write so many essay's about this stupid book, then I might have enjoyed it more. Maybe if we didn't have to analyze every sentence discussing every little detail until I accidentally tear one of the papers out because we had to flip back so many times......more

Goodreads review by babyhippoface on June 21, 2011

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......more

Goodreads review by Betsy on March 03, 2011

Thinking about the most memorable of children's novels, one trait in all of them has to ring true in order for them to click with their readers. The books must contain some kind of "meaning". Even the frothiest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-type offering isn't going to remain long in the public'......more