Book Review: "Inside Out and Back Again"

    For our second group reading assignment, I chose to read Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. This novel is written in verse and follows the story of a young Vietnamese refugee girl named Ha as she navigates her new life away from her homeland during the Vietnam War. The novel begins in Vietnam with Ha's family going through their daily routine while patiently waiting for word of Ha's father, who's been missing for the past 6 years. Eventually, the situation in Vietnam becomes so dangerous that Ha's family makes the difficult decision to leave and follow other refugees fleeing the war to America.
    This is a very well-known time in American history, viewed from the perspective of a child. I was wary about the novel being in verse at first, but eventually I got used to the format and it ended up working for me. My favorite parts of this book were the ones where Ha was working on her English and her vocabulary; she was constantly picking at and making fun of how complicated our language was compared to hers and it was hilarious. I don't think that we ever really think about how awful our language is to learn because it's already ingrained in our systems, so we don't think about the complexities of learning it. I also really enjoyed the imagery and metaphors the author used when narrating in Ha's voice. I thought it made sense for a child's mind to think in terms of personifying inanimate objects and other things. Another thing we don't really think about a lot, as Americans, is the fact that there have been many instances where there have been refugees and/or concentration camps set up for foreigners in this country more than once. I think it's important to reflect on how we, as a country, have treated others, especially immigrants, and how we can change that and make it better moving forward. I thought this book was very timely in regard to that message.