Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai’s first book, is a book about a 10-year-old girl, Kim Ha, escaping the Vietnam War in 1975. Ultimately, Ha reaches a town in Alabama, where she begins her new life. It describes hope in a bottomless pit of despair and war.

The style of the book makes it a more emotional story. The book is written from a first-person angle. This makes the story line more personal and somewhat more relatable to an individual. A nostalgic feeling persists through most of the book. A yearning for home is proven with Ha stating that she would choose war in Saigon over peace in Alabama. The formatting of the book – verse – makes it a relatively quick read. In other words, you can have a better story in less time. Styling is usually the key to perfection – something this book does seemingly effortlessly.

The pages of this book are filled with literary devices. Imagery is relied on heavily by Thanhha. This is evident from when the author describes pieces of chicken with golden crusts that smell perfect. Onomatopoeia is also used. Sounding happens mainly on pages 173 and 185, and there are the S’s in Mrs. Washington’s name emphasized as MiSSSisss WaSShington. Metaphors and similes are also plentiful in this book. Examples of the metaphors and similes include: “smelling like the sun”, “explode like thunder”, “gaunt like bark”, and “crinkles like paper on fire”. These devices make the story much more descriptive and interesting.

The content is deep and requires some thinking while being read. The ideas are easy to understand but difficult to imagine. A new doorway is opened – into the life of a refugee, a life most of us have never known, never experienced. This book provides a bridge into the real world, with realistic tensions between governments. The descriptions in the book expand and enhance the concepts to emphasize differences between life in Vietnam and life in America. Ha’s words revolve mainly around descriptions of snacks like papayas, coconuts, corn, pineapples, fried dough, and many other dishes of Vietnamese cuisine. With this book, a gateway is unlocked with the key of knowledge and experience.

Overall, Inside Out and Back Again is a great read for anyone who can understand the subject matter. Thanhha Lai has managed to amass her experiences, as poems, into an amazing book.

This book was a great read-out-loud book for my kids. It is written in verse and each poem had a different feel to it. All the poems came together to make a beautiful story about a young girl striving to find a place in a new land after war displaces her family. It makes you laugh and cry. A great story to build an understanding of other cultures.

Inside Out and Back Again is the story of Ha and her family being forced to move to the United States because the Vietnam War had reached their home, and it was no longer safe. They board a navy ship and flee.Upon spending a couple months at a refugee camp, they end up moving to Alabama. There she struggles with learning English and bullies, including Pink Boy, at her new school. Hà has once said, "No one would believe me but at times know I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama."[4] Eventually, she has pushed through those hard times with the help of their next door neighbor—Miss Washington—and the support of her family. In the beginning of the book, it mentions that Hà's father-a soldier in the Vietnam war-left when she was only a year old. In the end, Hà's family figures out that fortunately, the father isn't dead and is living in New York City. Hà then gets used to living in the U.S and her family celebrates the new year. She prays for good things to happen to her and her family.

Inside Out and Back Again is the story of Ha and her family being forced to move to the United States because the Vietnam War had reached their home, and it was no longer safe. They board a navy ship and flee.Upon spending a couple months at a refugee camp, they end up moving to Alabama. There she struggles with learning English and bullies, including Pink Boy, at her new school. Hà has once said, "No one would believe me but at times know I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama."[4] Eventually, she has pushed through those hard times with the help of their next door neighbor—Miss Washington—and the support of her family. In the beginning of the book, it mentions that Hà's father-a soldier in the Vietnam war-left when she was only a year old. In the end, Hà's family figures out that fortunately, the father isn't dead and is living in New York City. Hà then gets used to living in the U.S and her family celebrates the new year. She prays for good things to happen to her and her family.

This is the story of a young girl named Ha who is forced to move with her family to America because of the Vietnam War that has reached her homeland. They start a new life in Alabama that Ha finds challenging because she does not fit in with the culture around her. Eventually, with the help of her teacher, Ha finds herself and begins to enjoy her new life in Alabama.

This story is about Ha` and her family being forced from her home in Vietnam to move to the United States because of a war. Ha` and her family moved to Alabama to start over. Although, Ha` and her three brothers were bullied and taunted by the children at school and their neighbors, they found hope in each other and one of their neighbors Miss Washington.

“No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.” Ha has known both in her life, actually. Born in Vietnam during the war, Ha lives with her mother and three older brothers. Her father disappeared years ago on a navy mission when Ha was just one. Today the family doesn’t even know if he’s alive, but when the chance comes to flee Saigon and make a new life in America, Ha’s mother doesn’t hesitate. Once they’re settled in Alabama, Ha has a whole new set of problems ahead of her. She’s homesick, mad that she’s no longer the smartest girl in class, and tormented after school by some of the boys. Yet the solution, it seems, is not to become someone different but to take what she is already and find a way to make her new life work.