Review - Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I saw this book was told in prose format, I thought I was going to hate it.  But I didn't.  It was a good story, told in prose format.  I have to give a lot of credit to the author for telling a compelling story in that format. 

This would be an excellent book for a reader reluctant to read poetry.  It's beautifully written yet told in a way that is interesting and makes you want to read the whole story.  It could be read in one sitting very easily.

This was another nominee for the Utah Beehive Book Award for Children's Fiction.

Plot (from Goodreads.com): 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.

Now I am reading Zita, the Spacegirl, Book one.