Lai, T., & Lai, T.
(2011). Inside out & back again. New York: Harper.
Reading level: Not levelable
Interest level: Grades 6 - 9
Poetry; historical fiction
I used to like
making the girl
who shared my
desk cry.
She tilts her head.
I know, Mother,
I know, very bad.
She nods.
Now they make
me cry.
Will I be
punished forever?”
Written in verse in the perspective of a young
Vietnamese girl, “Inside Out and Back Again” describes the trials of Mii, who
must move to Alabama after Saigon falls. Like many immigrant children, Mii
resents America, which is so foreign from her vibrant, beautiful home country.
Mii also has a secret – she’s worried she caused the bad luck that forced them
from their home country, because she touched her toe to the floor on the
Vietnamese New Year, spreading her girl luck (bad) across their home before her
brother’s lucky feet could bless the home. Reading this book, immediately thought
of the immigrant students I’d taught in a Pasadena ISD ESL class. Most of them didn’t
want to leave their home country, which was filled with their friends and the familiar.
“Just wait, you’ll see.” Mii’s mother
says, but waiting is unbearable for a teenager, when the days stretch on
forever. “I don’t want to wait. It’s
awful now.” I would recommend this book to a level 3 ESL student about to
transition to general English classes – at a high level language wise, but
maybe still needs some help acclimating to their new reality.
