2 April 2011 INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai, HarperCollins, February 2011, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-06-196278-3
"In what former President Jimmy Carter calls 'one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history,' the Wallace campaign aired TV ads with slogans such as 'Do you want the Black Block electing your governor?' and circulated an ad showing a white girl surrounded by seven black boys, with the slogan 'Wake up Alabama! Blacks vow to take over Alabama.'"
-- from the section of the Wikipedia article on George C. Wallace that discusses Alabama's 1970 gubernatorial campaign. Wallace (who does not appear or get mentioned in the book) was serving his third term as Alabama Governor in 1975, the year INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN takes place there.
"Choice
Into each pack:
one pair of pants,
one pair of shorts,
three pairs of underwear,
two shirts,
sandals,
toothbrush and paste,
soap,ten palms of rice grains,
three clumps of cooked rice,
one choice.
I choose my doll,
once lent to a neighbor
who left it outside,
where mice bit
her left cheek
and right thumb.
I love her more
for her scars.
I dress her
in a red and white dress
with matching hat and booties
that Mother knitted."
There are many possessions left behind when ten year-old Ha, her mother, and her three older brothers flee South Vietnam aboard a ship in 1975, just prior to the fall of Saigon. Also left behind is Ha's father. Having disappeared years ago during the war, the family does not know if Father is dead or alive.
Fortunately, the crowded ship on which the family escapes is discovered by an American military vessel and everyone is rescued.
Fortunately, after the family is brought to a tent city in Florida, a man who, according to Ha, dresses like a cowboy, decides to sponsor their family.
But when I read that their "cowboy" was from Alabama, I wondered how fortunate it was going to be for Ha -- a great student but unable to speak English -- when she begins attending a public school in 1975 Wallace Country.
It's already bad enough to be a kid in such a position at any time and place...
And then there are the Alabama neighbors...
"Neighbors
Eggs explode
like smears of snot
on our front door.
Just dumb kids,
says our cowboy.
Bathroom paper
hangs like ghosts
from our willow.
More dumb kids,
says our cowboy.
A brick
shatters the front window,
landing on our dinner table
along with a note.
Brother Quang
refuses to translate.
Mother shakes her head
when Vu Lee pops his muscles.
Our cowboy calls the police,
who tell us to stay inside.
Hogwash, our cowboy says,
then spits a brown blob of tobacco.
I repeat, Hogwash,
puckering for the ending of
ssssshhhhhh.
Mother decides
we must meet
our neighbors.
Our cowboy leads,
giving us each a cowboy hat
to be tilted
while saying,
Good mornin'.
Only I wear the hat.
In the house
to our right
a bald man
closes his door.
Next to him
a woman with yellow hair
slams hers.
Next to her
shouts reach us
behind a door unopened.
Redness crawls across
my brothers' faces.
Mother pats their backs.
Our cowboy leads us
to the house on our left.
An older woman
throws up her arms
and hugs us.
We're so startled
we stand like trees.
She points to her chest:
MiSSisss WaSShington.
She hugs our cowboy
and kisses him.
I thought only
husbands and wives
do that when alone.
We find out
MiSSSisss WaSShington
is a widow and retired teacher.
She has no children
but has a dog named Lassie
and a garden that takes up
her backyard.
She volunteers
to tutor us all.
My time with her
will be right after school.
I'm afraid to tell her
how much help I'll need."
The heroes of INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN, the story of Ha's departure from Vietnam and her first seasons in America, are the "cowboy" who sponsors their family, Mrs. Washington, and two of Ha's schoolmates: the red-haired Pam, and the boy of "coconut-shell skin," Steven. I love how author Thanhha Lai, on whose own childhood experience this story is closely based, depicts these heroes and provides readers an example of how one might choose to befriend -- rather than mock, bully, or ignore -- the new kid in town.
Whether you come to it from the historical fiction perspective, from the friendship angle, or how it relates to immigrants in twenty-first century American classrooms, it is wonderful to discover another great verse novel to share -- just in time for National Poetry Month.
Richie Partington, MLIS
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FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he will Pick their books. You can figure that any review was written after reading and dog-earring a free copy received. Richie retains these review copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools and libraries.
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