![]() ![]() ![]() Both titles together, by the way, make for illuminating companion texts in exploring the post-Vietnam War refugee immigrant experience.Īs the lunar new year of 1975 begins, 10-year-old Hà rises early to be the first to “tap my big toe / to the tile floor / first.” She realizes she’s disobeying her mother who warned the night before that one of her three older brothers “must rise first / this morning / to bless our house / because only male feet / can bring luck.” That decision will haunt the rest of her year, one filled with momentous changes both wrenching and redeeming.Īs Saigon falls, Hà’s family boards an old navy ship and leaves their homeland forever, eventually arriving in the U.S. The pink and purple background, the spindly, cartoonish figure of the little girl, her right hand upraised just so … we both readily agreed that the other novel-in-verse about the 10-year-old Vietnam War survivor (how many could there be?) was much better packaged: all the broken pieces by Ann E. Our verdict on said cover in the most neutral terms (other words were exchanged) was that it was incongruous with the contents. We had just finished sharing our shock over the recent fiasco surrounding the one-too-many finalists for the 2011 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature ( Chime, not Shine), and what came up almost immediately after was this cover … Half-way through reading this debut autobiographical novel-in-verse, I had a lively conversation about the cover with a delightful new friend who happens to be a bonafide kiddie-book expert. ![]()
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