Inside Out & Back Again- A Book Review for Children's Literature

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lai, Thanhha.  INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN. New York, NY:  Harper Collins. ISBN 0061962783

PLOT SUMMARY

In this story told in verse, ten year old Ha Ma must leave her home against her wishes to flee a failing country.  She chronicles her journey across the sea, her time in a Florida refugee camp, and what life is like trying to adapt to a new culture in Alabama.  Through it all, Ha Ma shares her experience trying to master the dreaded English.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In this touching story, our narrator, Ha Ma, tells the story of a refugee from a child’s perspective.  The innocence of the character and the simplicity with which she sees the world are shown through the figurative language and humor of Lai’s word choices.  In “First Rule,” Ha Ma complains that learning English is an exercise in “squeezing hisses/ through my teeth” and then muses, “Whoever invented/ English/ must have loved/ snakes.”  Through these lines, the reader giggles even while feeling Ha Ma’s frustration.

While the reader is swept away in the rhythm of the language describing even the most simple events, “Like magic a crepe forms/ to be filled with shrimp/ and eaten with/ cucumber and bean sprouts,” it is the heart of the reader that Lai wins.  It is through our humanity that we want to wrap little Ha Ma in our arms and protect her when she aches, “So this is/ what dumb/ feels like./ I hate, hate, hate it.”  This is the book that everyone should read before they judge an immigrant or say, “they should learn English if they want to come here.”  This is how I know this book is good; it fills me with a desire to want to change the world.

AWARDS AND REVIEWS

*Newberry Honor Book

*National Book Award Winner

*Starred review from Booklist: “Written in accessible, short free-verse poems… readers will be moved by Ha’s sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast.”

*Starred review in Publishers Weekly: “An incisive portrait of human resilience.”

*Starred review in Kirkus Reviews: “An enlightening, poignant and unexpectedly funny novel in verse.”

CONNECTIONS

*Social Studies connection to Vietnam in the 1970s

*Immigration and refugee story to connect with current events

*Also by the author:  LISTEN SLOWLY

*Students can write a poem about their own lives or about a time when they didn’t fit in.

Images taken from www.nationalbook.org