Inside Out & Back Again

June 30, 2017

Inside Out and Back Again was written by Thanhha Lai and published in 2011. This book has won the Newberry Honor Award and National Book Award. Lai lived in Vietnam until the end of the Vietnam War. Her family fled to the United States and settled in Montgomery, Alabama. She had to relearn how to be successful in this new country and learn English. She captured the feelings she had during this time period with her book Inside Out and Back Again. Currently, she resides in Kansas with her family.

Lai created the character Ha in order to capture what she felt and saw during this one year period of her own life. Ha is a stubborn ten year old girl living with her mother and brothers in Vietnam. Her father is missing in action and the North is encroaching into the South. The people are terrified of the communist government and fleeing the country. Ha’s family is given an opportunity to leave the country on naval ships. They spend several weeks on a ship waiting to see if they are captured or rescued. Finally, Americans find them and take their boat to Guam.

In Guam, her mother must chose where to go. She decides that America will give her and her children the best opportunity to succeed. They are taken to Florida and then sponsored by a man that takes them to Alabama. They have to readjust to the new culture, religion and language with resistance from the local people. Eventually, everyone finds a place for themselves; Mother works at the sewing factory, Brother Quang works at a car dealership, and everyone else starts school. At school Ha has to learn how to survive being the new kid and viewed as dumb. The other students make fun of her. Things begin to change when she meets Mrs. Washington, her new tutor.

Mrs. Washington intervenes and has the teacher introduce two students to Ha that become her friends. She continues to be bullied by a boy, but her brothers help her escape the torment. She learns if she acts like she doesn’t care, then the other students won’t care. She soon begins to prove she is smart in school and gains more social acceptance. In the mean time, her mother accepts a sign that her father has passed on and he will never come join them. Her brothers all decide on careers and begin to work toward their goal. Their life in America is beginning.

Lia creates a narrative poem to tell her story. It is rich with figurative language and descriptive words. This helps the reader understand at an emotional level what is happening to her and her family as they are displaced out of one country and taken to a new one. She describes things to items she knows from Vietnam, “No longer pink/ he’s red,/ blood-orange red/ like a ripe papaya.”. (pg.220) Also, Lai does not correct what Ha hears and how she pronounces words. Instead of calling her friends Pam and Steven, she refers to them as “Pem” and “SSsi-Ti-Van” the same goes for her teachers. Ha is using phonetical spelling because she does not hear all the sounds we make in English during this time. Lai keeps Ha as authentic as she can for the reader to understand what she is going through.

I would use this novel in a small group for upper elementary, middle and high school students. I know that not every student would be able to connect to this story and would not find it enjoyable. I would focus on how the author used poetry to tell her story and elements of poetry she used. I would include supplemental informational text on the Vietnam War and immigration. It is a subject that would take more maturity that I do not think all of my 5th grade students could handle. It would be easy to use this novel as an example of how one can write a story with as few words, but as many descriptive words you can think of.

I would use this book to expand students’ knowledge on immigration and refugees. This story is told in first person for Ha’s perspective, it would make it easier for a reader to understand what she is going through. Inside Out and Back Again would give some one understanding of what other students might have endured to get to America, or what other kids around the world are currently going through as they try to escape their homeland and leave everything they know behind.

What roles do women and girls have — based on their own intelligence or initiative or on good looks/relationships? how are problems presented, conceived, resolved?

The women from this culture are supposed to be obedient and it appears as if males are supposed to be higher in society, but Ha challenges this idea. She pouts when told she cannot touch the floor first on Tet and only a male can bring good luck, so she “…decided/ to wake before dawn/ and tap my big toe/ to the tile floor/ first.” (pg. 2-3) On her birthday she wishes she “could do what boys of/ and let the sun darken my skin,/ and scars grid my knees.” Ha even mentions how she will not follow her mother’s orders and how it must be hard to have her for a daughter, “Other girls/ must be made/ of bamboo,/ bending whichever way/ they are too.”. (pg. 73- 74) This shows that there women are not equal to men in this culture, but Ha is challenging this idea.

Who or what was included and who or what was left out of the scope of the book?

The reader was only given Ha’s perspective. There were so many other voices left out of the story. The reader could inference what her brothers or mother thought, but it would have have been interesting to know how they were coping. There were parts in the story where I wanted to know more. What did the people think about Ha’s family converting to Christianity? Also, what did the African-American students think about Ha? It was mentioned how “On one side/ of the bright, noisy room,/ light skin./ Other side,/ dark skin.” (pg.143) She never interacted with African-American students in the story? Were they somewhere else or she just never had a relationship with one of them? Other than this one line, they were left out of the story all together.

How are family relationships depicted?

This family was close and helped each other. Their mother always expected the best from them, she did not accept moving countries, losing everything and not knowing a language as an excuse to not finish school and go college. The mother loved her kids and that was shown through the book. The brothers helped in any way they could. Brother Quang translated and worked to bring in money. Brother Vu helps teach Ha self defense and Brother Khoi took her to school and picked her up to help protect her from bullies.