Book Review (Poetry): Inside Out and Back Again

Bibliography
Lai, Thanhha. 2011. INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN. Harper: New York, NY. ISBN 9780061962783

Summary
Ha is a ten-year-old girl that is forced to leave her home in Saigon, Vietnam in 1975. Ha and her family travel as refugees aboard a ship with squalid living conditions, and arrive in America to face even greater challenges.

Critical Analysis
In Inside Out and Back Again, Lai delivers a touching story of a young girl as she learns to adjust to a new country. This verse novel perfectly uses free verse poetry to convey young Ha's feelings and emotions. It also delivers a history lesson about Vietnam and the struggles that refugees face in coming to America. The rhythm of the poems is like thoughts coming straight out of the mind in brief snippets, but flow naturally when read aloud to form beautiful poetry. Each word is carefully selected to convey meaning in a concise manner, which delivers clear imagery to the reader or listener's mind. For example, Ha's favorite food is the papaya, and in the description of the papaya, the reader can almost see, feel, smell, and  taste the fruit. Through the language of the poems, Lai takes the reader on an emotional journey that leaves an imprint on the heart of the reader. And even though the book takes place in 1975, the universal theme of acceptance still resonates with all readers. The suggested age range for this book is ages 8-12, but  older readers will still be able to learn and grow because of this book.

The structure of the book also allows Lai to convey meaning in a concise manner. There are four different parts of the book: Saigon, At Sea, Alabama, and From Now On. Within each part, the author has a title for each poem that sequentially takes the reader through Ha's experience over the course of a year. This structure allows for Lai to guide the reader in a clear way so the poems can deliver the meaning and story, without becoming encumbered by details.


Review Excerpt and Awards
After her father has been missing in action for nine years during the Vietnam War, 10-year-old Hà flees with her mother and three older brothers. Traveling first by boat, the family reaches a tent city in Guam, moves on to Florida, and is finally connected with sponsors in Alabama, where Hà finds refuge but also cruel rejection, especially from mean classmates. Based on Lai’s personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee’s struggle with rare honesty. Written in accessible, short free-verse poems, Hà’s immediate narrative describes her mistakes—both humorous and heartbreaking—with grammar, customs, and dress (she wears a flannel nightgown to school, for example); and readers will be moved by Hà’s sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast who spends lunchtime hiding in the bathroom. Eventually, Hà does get back at the sneering kids who bully her at school, and she finds help adjusting to her new life from a kind teacher who lost a son in Vietnam. The elemental details of Hà’s struggle dramatize a foreigner’s experience of alienation. And even as she begins to shape a new life, there is no easy comfort: her father is still gone. Hazel Rochman, Booklist

John Newbery Medal Honor Book, 2012
National Book Award Winner: Young People's Literature, 2011

Strengths and Weaknesses
The strength of this novel is how the author masterfully draws the reader into an emotional tale of a young girl by using poetry. Each word is carefully selected to make the reader feel deeply and experience Ha's life as if they are right with her. One of the weaknesses of the book is that the reader is left wanting to know more about Ha and her future. Through the Author's Note, the reader is able to inference what possibly happened, but it is left at that.

Personal Response and Connections
Even though I was never a refugee, nor faced most of the challenges that Ha faced, I still felt connected to her. I remember being ten and how important it was to be accepted by my peers. One of the struggles Ha faces is learning the nuances of the English language. One of the stanzas in the book sums up the book in a nutshell:

Would be simpler
if English
and life
were logical.

Everybody questions why things happen, and there isn't always a good reason for why things happen as they do. I often think life would be better if things happened for logical reasons. In the end, I was deeply moved by Ha's story, I loved how the poetry told the story in a concise way, but I was still able to feel the emotions, sights, sounds, and feelings of Ha. This book moves and makes the reader feel deeply.

This poetry book is a terrific springboard for acceptance and tolerance lessons for students. Through Ha, students can feel what it is like to not be accpeted for who you are, and how to appreciate differences.