This novel was no doubt one of my favorites that I read. The book is about a young Vietnam girl named Ha. She has lived in Saigon for most of her life but she ends up having to flee to America because of the Vietnam War. The book really touches on the sadness of this young girl having to leave behind the memories, the smells, and the places she has loved her whole life. The reader is able to empathize with her and feel a small part of her sadness in having to be completely uprooted from the only home that she has known. Her family ends up moving to Alabama and this is quite a culture shock for young Ha. She has to become accustomed to Southern culture and talks about school in this new home. Her parents put a lot of pressure on her to do well in school and so she deals with that on top of trying to make friends. Her mother always reminds her of her goal: college. She also is dealing with the stress of not knowing if all of her distant family members are safe from the war. Basically, the book goes through a year in the life of this girl. The writing is so honest, mostly because many of the events happened to the author.
This book is written in the form of poetry. As someone who loves poetry, I would be excited to use this in my class as a way to talk about different forms of literature. I would want the students to write about a time of change in their own life and how that made them feel.
T
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