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Task 21: Read a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability
By Book Riot · 79 posts · 1590 views
By Book Riot · 79 posts · 1590 views
last updated Sep 25, 2022 09:27AM
What Members Thought
Um... Why did I wait so long to pick up this book? Thanhha Lai puts readers right into the story with her vivid prose poems about wartime Vietnam and one family's flight and struggle to acclimate as American immigrants. The audiobook is nicely done, with narrator Doan Ly treasuring each carefully chosen word. Vietnamese pronunciations are said precisely and with emphasis to set them apart from the English text (as if they're italicized, which they probably are in the print book).
This was a list ...more
This was a list ...more
In verse. Very beautiful writing, very powerful, very emotional. In my opinion, the best novels written in verse make you forget that they're written in verse. You're just absorbing the story until you encounter some particularly beautiful language and then you're jolted back into the verse. This book does that. Two of my favorite entries:
One Mat Each
We climb on
and claim a space
of two straw mats
under the deck,
enough for us five
to lie side by side.
By sunset our space
is one straw mat,
enough for us ...more
One Mat Each
We climb on
and claim a space
of two straw mats
under the deck,
enough for us five
to lie side by side.
By sunset our space
is one straw mat,
enough for us ...more
Newbery Honor, 2012
I found many things to like about this book, especially the narrator's voice. My thought is that young readers would need lots of background knowledge about the Vietnam War to get started with this book. I'm interested to hear how kids like this one. ...more
I found many things to like about this book, especially the narrator's voice. My thought is that young readers would need lots of background knowledge about the Vietnam War to get started with this book. I'm interested to hear how kids like this one. ...more
10 year old Ha and her family are forced to leave their home in Vietnam and immigrate to Alabama in 1975. I see what people mean about how it feels like verse was the only way this story could be told - definitely the right form. A fast read, interesting characters and I liked it way more than I thought I would. I can see it's distinguished qualities and why it's a Newbery contender (and National Book Award winner).
...more
Dec 28, 2015
Julianne Dunn
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2016-read-harder
Written in short verses, this story of Ha and her family as they live through the fall in Saigon, immigration to the States, and adjusting life in Alabama. I enjoyed Ha's voice and her way of describing the life around her. It almost feels like a story of loss childhood.
It's very short and I wish I could have a little more story. I wanted to know what happens with her three brothers, the friends she was separated from, her continuing struggles in school, and her mother's transition. ...more
It's very short and I wish I could have a little more story. I wanted to know what happens with her three brothers, the friends she was separated from, her continuing struggles in school, and her mother's transition. ...more
Read Harder 2016 - Book by author from Southeast Asia
(Also a novel in verse - which was way better than it sounds! - assuming you're like me and poetry isn't necessarily your thing...) ...more
(Also a novel in verse - which was way better than it sounds! - assuming you're like me and poetry isn't necessarily your thing...) ...more
Beautiful book!
Second reading. First 2012. Second 2021. Beautiful free verse about a young girl who leaves wartorn Vietnam in 1975 for the US and specifically Alabama. This might have been one of the first free verse books I ever read. It’s great there have been so many more published for kids in the last several years. A format I really like. Compelling lovely verse.
“No one would believe me/ but at times/ I would choose/ wartime in Saigon/ over/ peacetime in Alabama.”
“No one would believe me/ but at times/ I would choose/ wartime in Saigon/ over/ peacetime in Alabama.”
I love Thanhhà Lại but this is my least favorite of her three books for tweens & teens. I’m just not a fan of novels in verse. I was hoping that listening to the audiobook would help it seem to flow more like prose, but Le read it in a rather choppy style (to simulate the verse I guess).
Nov 02, 2012
Lynne
marked it as to-read-historical-fiction
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult,
books-by-women
Dec 26, 2017
Kate McCartney
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2018,
friendship,
jfiction,
award-winners,
historical-fiction,
novels-in-verse,
set-globably
Wonderful
Mar 26, 2021
Sarah
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
young-adult
