6) Inside Out and Back Again-Thanhha Lai

Ha is a young girl growing up during the Vietnam War in Saigon. She knows that things are turning sour, but she could never imagine a life outside of the city that provides her with open markets, friends and family, familiarity and her own papaya tree. As things start to unravel, Ha realizes that she might very well have to leave Saigon. When the time comes to flee on a navy ship, she is terrified that she will never feel like she belongs wherever she ends up; as if she will lose herself entirely by assimilating into new territory. 

Once her family arrives on the shores of Florida, family after family is matched with a sponsor while Ha's family remains in one of the refugee camps. Her mother finally realizes that those that say they are Christians are getting sponsored faster and changes their religion. A man from Alabama comes and asks for a single boy who would be capable of working on cars. One of Ha's older brothers says that he is, but refuses to leave his family. The "cowboy" agrees and takes them all in. What's it like once they reach Alabama? Does the town fully accept them? Or do they get the cold shoulder because they're from the country that America has been fighting and are therefore unwelcome? How does she learn to keep the balance between the Ha she was and the Ha she must become in the states? How much can one's world spin in a year?

I thought this was an incredible book. It reminded me a lot of Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen, despite that one being nonfiction and this one being fiction. They both told stories of what it was like to live in Saigon during the Vietnam War and what it was like to escape the conflict. Both revealed what it was like to wait and wait for a sponsor and hope that they would be able to strike a balance between their old lives and their new ones. As I said, this story is fiction and written in verse. I liked that it was written in that style. It was something different and refreshing from what I normally read. Plus, it didn't get so detail or dialogue heavy that you lost the story entirely. By writing it in a sort of fragmented way, you really get a feeling for what she's feeling or trying to say. Definitely recommend.