INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lai, Thanhha. 2011. INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN. New York, HarperCollins Children’s Books. ISBN 9780062574022
PLOT SUMMARY
Based on the author’s own experiences, Ha is 10 years old and is living in Saigon during the VietnamWar, and must flee with her family from war-torn Vietnam by boat in 1975, where they are eventually relocated to Alabama. Narrated in free verse poetry, the reader follows Ha’s story as she describes in personal detail the joys and frustrations in how she must learn the ways of a new culture, learn a difficult new language, deal with and confront bullying from her classmates, and face the blatant racism from both her classmates and people in her new home. Through all of this in a new country, Ha records daily of her struggles and grief, such as her yearning for her lost home and missing her POW father who went missing in action years ago by being captured by Communists nine years before. With her endurance and tenacity, Ha shares humorous moments of her learning the English language with her witty and humorous thoughts on English grammar and its detailed rules of being illogical. Through her challenges, frustrations, and personal battles, Ha’s unique voice tells her story through words of hope, humor, and authenticity.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
While originally written for 8-12 year olds, this historical fictional tale of a ten year old immigrant during the Vietnam War has the power to capture and draw in readers of all ages 8 years old and above. Currently, there are not many well-known middle grade books that are from the perspective of a child from Saigon, Vietnam anytime during the twenty year-long war, but Ha’s story provides a fictional perspective, based on the author’s own life, that encourages readers to find more books from the perspectives of characters other than those of Americans living in the US during historical wars.
Themes that touch on the immigrant experience, growing up in a wartime environment and being seen as an “other” or “different” due to culture, ethnicity, physical characteristics, and features, as well as overcoming bullies who seek to torment and further differentiate her from others are sure to touch the heart of any reader who reads Ha’s emotional yet enduring journey.
Thanhha Lai divides Ha’s story into four parts: “Saigon,” “At Sea,” “Alabama,” and “From Now On.” To help illustrate the passing of time, Ha adds the daily date and time of day in each of her entries, which eventually shows the length of her journey, from the day of Tet (the New Year) in 1975, to the last day of 1975 on January 31st. The dates and parts Ha organizes her story by helps readers follow the passage of time in Ha’s journey, from her time in Saigon, the journey as a refugee while at sea, and her journey in her new home in Alabama.
Powerful sensory words are used in this free-verse tale, used by Ha to describe memories, scenes, sounds, tastes, and her feelings, all in which better immerses the reader into the character herself, as well as better understand the imagery in the scenes and emotions of her daily life that describes her year of transition. Ha chooses words that are vivid, powerful, and expressive that gives the reader startling accurate imagery that creates a clear mental picture of her life and experiences, as well as her feelings and reactions to those experiences.
Whether it was comparing the taste of fresh food from home in Saigon to the bland and watery fast food of Alabama, readers are invited into each of Ha’s moments of joy and humor when she reflects on the colorful, sweet, and delicious food of her homeland. However, Ha uses powerful descriptive metaphors and personification in an attempt to describe the unimaginable scenes she bears witness to when fleeing her war-torn country, and readers are brought to watch along with her of what war and fear was like for a young girl during the Vietnam War. To describe the war approaching Saigon, in a poem titled “Early Monsoon” Ha tells readers of the impending terror:
We pretend the monsoon has come early/ in the distance bombs explode like thunder, slashes lighten the sky, gunfire falls like rain. / Distant yet within ears, within eyes./ Not that far away after all. /
This short poem describes with powerful imagery of what the onset of the Communists sounded like, acknowledging how they pretended it was a natural force of weather rather than dwelling on the fear and violence raging very close by.
While on the boat that is trying to leave Saigon due to the war and violence now close by, Ha describes in the poem “One Mat Each” of the densely overcrowded ship they are trying to escape in before the ports close, and the terror and urgency of all the people feel while fleeing their home:
Bodies cram every centimeter, below deck, then every centimeter on deck./ Everyone knows the ship could sink, unable to hold the pile of bodies that keep crawling on like raging ants from a disrupted nest. / But no one is heartless enough to say stop because what if they had been stopped before their turn?/
Readers are immersed into this terrifying moment with Ha and her family, in what is similar to what one would find in a nightmare, not being able to escape the terror that is close, trying to save your loved ones, and the urgency for life, even at risk of drowning in their attempt to flee.
Finally, while in her Alabama classroom, in the poem titled “War and Peace”, Ha describes how Americans see the Vietnam War, and the narrative they choose to show:
Misss SScott shows the class photographs/ of a burned, naked girl running, crying down a dirt road/ of people climbing, screaming, desperate to get on the last helicopter out of Saigon/ of skeletal refugees, crammed aboard a sinking fishing boat, reaching up to the heavens for help/ of mounds of combat books abandoned by soldiers of the losing side/ She’s telling the class where I’m from./ She should have shown something about papayas and Tet. / No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.
While witness to these very real examples of the fear and despair that Ha, her family, and the people of Saigon live through, readers are also invited into understanding the unique character of who Ha is, and how she expresses her emotions, thoughts, feelings, and dreams while both in Saigon and Alabama. Her unapologetic beliefs, her love for fresh food, and her unadulterated loathing for English grammar and how illogical its rules are, all are all key to the tenacious and enduring child she is.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Booklist
“…Based on Lai’s personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee’s struggle with rare honesty.Written in accessible, short free-verse poems, Hà’s immediate narrative describes her mistakes—both humorous and heartbreaking—with grammar, customs, and dress (she wears a flannel nightgown to school, for example); and readers will be moved by Hà’s sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast who spends lunchtime hiding in the bathroom…The elemental details of Hà’s struggle dramatize a foreigner’s experience of alienation. And even as she begins to shape a new life, there is no easy comfort…”
School Library Journal
“…Told in verse, each passage is given a date so readers can easily follow the progression of time. Sensory language describing the rich smells and tastes of Vietnam draws readers in and contrasts with Hà's perceptions of bland American food, and the immediacy of the narrative will appeal to those who do not usually enjoy historical fiction. Even through her frustration with her new life and the annoyances of her three older brothers, her voice is full of humor and hope…”
CONNECTIONS
Awards;
2011 National Book Award: Young People’s Literature- Winner
2011 Newbery Honor Book
Similar Books:
Novels in Verse-
Fictional and Memoirs: Immigration Experiences
Engle, Margarita. ENCHANTED AIR: TWO CULTURES, TWO WINGS: A MEMOIR. ISBN 9781481435239
Faruqi, Reem. UNSETTLED. ISBN 9780063044722
LaRoca, RED, WHITE, AND WHOLE. ISBN 9781432897338
Russel, Ching Yeaung. HOUSE WITHOUT WALLS. ISBN 9781499808759
Salazar, Aida. THE LAND OF THE CRANES. ISBN 9781338343809
Warga, Jasmine. OTHER WORDS FOR HOME ISBN 9781432878962
Activities:
Book Club : Book Talks and Book Tasting
For Middle Grades and Junior High book clubs - Book talk multiple novel in verse books whose themes are about immigration experiences. Afterwards, book club members can browse tables filled with fictional and nonfiction books with subjects about immigration, to peruse and/or check out.
use books mentioned above, as well as the library collection development tool, EBSCO NoveList Plus to find similar books to fill Book Tasting book examples.
Library Book Display: Fiction and Nonfiction books about immigration experiences. Include novel in verse books
use books mentioned above, as well as the library collection development tool, EBSCO NoveList Plus to find similar books to fill display
Virtual Author visit: schedule a video visit with an author of one of the books above, if available. Prices for author visits may vary depending on the author’s availability, pricing, or current schedule concerning COVID-19 procedures, etc.
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