The Impossible Knife of Memory, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: The Impossible Knife of Memory
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Year: 2010
Pages: 391
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: War, Family, PTSD, Suicide
Age Range: 9th-12th Grade

Summary: 
Hailey Kincain and her father Andy have been on the road for the last five years, trying to outrun Andy's post-traumatic stress disorder, Andy, a Gulf War veteran, has had trouble reintegrating into society since he came home from Iraq. Now that Hailey is in high school,  he's decided that it's time to stop moving, and they return to their hometown so Hailey can go to proper school.  While Hailey desperately wants a normal life, every day brings the constant fear that her father will fall victim to the demons that he's carried around with him since his time in the war. When she meets Finn, a hot boy from school who actually seems to like her, she dares to hope that maybe things are turning in her favor. But being home doesn't seem to be helping her dad recover from his PTSD, and when he starts using drugs and alcohol as a way to cope, Hailey worries that his terrible memories from the war will finally push him over the edge.

Review:
This young adult novel is a beautiful, heartbreaking, harrowing tale of the consequences of war on the people who fight it; consequences that affect not just them but everyone who loves and cares about them. Hailey-smart, mature for her age, forced to grow up before anyone should have to-is the caretaker of her little family. She spends so much time worrying about and caring for her father and his emotional symptoms that she really has no normal teen-age experience. She's constantly vigilant, attuned to every nuance of her father's behavior, prepared to do whatever it takes to keep him safe from himself. What she has to learn, and what Finn helps to teach her, is that her wanting him to be safe is not enough; he has to be willing to ask for and accept help to recover from his PTSD.

I think this novel will speak volumes to any young person who has personal experience with family members who have mental illness, especially PTSD. Hailey feels responsible for her father in a way no teenager should feel responsible for a parent. This is a fairly common theme in young adult literature, especially books that deal with issues of substance abuse, addiction, or mental illness-a theme which Anderson handles with her usual finesse. Anderson is a master at getting the reader to put themselves in the shoes of her characters, and she handles difficult subject matter with dignity and heart. You feel empathy, rather than sympathy, for Hailey, and for her father. Anderson portrays Andy in a way that shows how mental illness affects those living with it, and those living with those living with it, in a way that is non-judgmental and non-stereotypical.

There is a ton of fodder for discussion in this novel-but there are also a ton of possible triggers for people who have experiences like those in the book. If this book is used in a classroom setting, it's important to be clear with students and parents what the topic and themes are, and to make sure that students for whom these issues are raw and emotionally challenging have support. But I wouldn't dissuade anyone from using this book in class-I think it is very important to our culture for everyone, young and old, to understand the harm that is visited on soldiers and their families when they are sent off to war.

Okay for Now, Gary D. Schmidt

Title:  Okay for Now
Author:  Gary D. Schmidt
Publisher:  Clarion Books
Year:  2011
Pages:  360
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction
Themes:  Child Abuse, the Effects of War, Dealing with Loss, Learning Disabilities
Age Range:  5th-8th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

Review:
Gary Schmidt is well known for his Newbery honor books, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars.   His books explore the unlikely friendships that can develop when seemingly incompatible people find common ground.  He returns to the world of The Wednesday Wars for this novel, making bad boy Doug Swietack the focus of Okay for Now.

Things in Doug's life are pretty tough-an abusive father, a bully of a brother, and another off fighting in Viet Nam.  His one bright spot at home is his mother, who does everything she can to mitigate his father's rages, but who is just as likely to fall prey to them.  Things aren't much better at school.  He never learned to read, and his teachers decide before they even meet him that he is probably the same kind of trouble maker his older brothers were.  Things don't improve when his father loses his job and moves the family to a new town looking for work.  When stores start getting robbed, the entire town assumes it must be one of the Swietacks, and sentiment turns against them pretty quickly.

Doug is saved by a quirky cast of characters who help him discover new parts of himself.  Lil Spicer, the boss's daughter, pushes him to be a better person than his father or brothers; an elderly librarian who encourages his drawing talent, and a reclusive writer who helps him discover the power of words.  This is not always an easy story to read, because Schmidt does not shy away from describing, though not in great detail, the father's alcoholism and rough treatment of the family.  Doug doesn't always make the best choices, but he strives to be a better person throughout the book, and mostly he succeeds.  In this way I think that a lot of students, especially those who have also been misjudged or who have faced similar situations at home or school, will really be able to relate to Doug.  There is also plenty of meat here for discussion, making it good to use for guided reading or as a book club selection for upper elementary or middle school kids.

Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai

Title:  Inside Out and Back Again

Author:  Thanhha Lai
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Year:  2011
Pages:  272
Genre:  Poetry
Themes:  War, Family, Immigration
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.
But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.

Review:
The story of Ha and her family is told through a series of free verse poems.  The story moves from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war, to Guam, to Alabama, where Ha and her family are sponsored by an American man and his reluctant, cold wife.  Lai does a beautiful job evoking what life in Saigon was like right after the Americans left, creating a sense of foreboding an uncertainty that is unsettling.  Things don't really improve when Ha and her family finally board the ship for Guam...it is overcrowded, with no privacy and very little food.  When they finally reach the safety of the American naval base, their relief is quickly replaced by more uncertainty about their future.  Only families that are sponsored by an American are allowed to relocate in the US, and Ha's family has to wait until someone comes forward.

Ha's family reacts in different ways to their leaving Vietnam.  One brother is angry and hostile towards the move, one is looking forward to going to living in Bruce Lee's homeland.  One takes a very Zen approach, not really appearing to care.  Ha's biggest worry, one shared with her mother, is that their father, who has been missing in action for three years, will never be able to find them if he tries to come home.  But Lai makes it pretty obvious that the family really had no choice-if they wanted to survive, and not just survive but have a chance to thrive, they had to leave Vietnam.

Lai also does not shy away from showing us just how ugly the American attitude was towards Vietnamese refugees was in the weeks and months following America's exit from Southeast Asia.  People in the small town where Ha and her family land were indifferent and best, and downright mean at worst.  Ha's frustration over feeling dumb in American schools is palpable, and for good reason.  Her inability to speak English gets in the way of even the most basic human transactions, and as a result people can take advantage of her and her family.  Luckily one of her brother's speaks English, and the family is able to communicate their basic needs to their sponsor, but that doesn't help Ha make friends, or her mother find work.  Even when people think they are being kind, Ha and her family have such a different perspective on life that they don't always take the gestures in the way people intend.  Fortunately for Ha, their sponsor introduces them to a former teacher who tutors Ha in English, despite the fact that her son was killed in Vietnam.  This book provides a great opportunity to teach poetry as a narrative form, and there are lots of chances for cross-curricular connections in social studies.

The Always War, by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Title:  The Always War
Author:  Margaret Peterson Haddix
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Year:  2011
Pages:  256
Genre:  Dystopian Science Fiction
Themes:  War, Fear, Society
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary:  
Fifteen year old Tess has always lived in a world of war.  The war that her country is fighting has been going on for over 75 years, and there appears to be no end in sight.  The war has led to shortages of everything, and so many decades of living in a constant state of deprivation has led the people to be depressed and hopeless.  The only bright spot is the occasional ceremony honoring a citizen of their community as a war hero.  But the ceremony for Tess' childhood friend Gideon does not go as planned.  When they attempt to give Gideon his medal, he freaks out, insisting that what he did does not deserve anything but scorn.  Soon, Gideon disappears, and the once bright future that awaited him is replaced with constant surveillance by the government for his "mental" problems.  Tess is sure that something else is going on, and when he escapes into the night, she follows.  Soon she finds herself on a plane, flying into enemy territory.  Gideon is looking for redemption, and the only way he can see to get it is to admit his wrongdoing to the very people he hurt-the enemy.  But what Tess, Gideon, and a young stowaway named Dek discover when they reach enemy territory calls into question everything they thought they knew about the 75 year long war.

Review:
As usual Haddix does an excellent job creating a dystopian society.  Like in her Shadow Children series, there is a sense of desperation and despair that just cries out for someone to do something to make a change.  The Always War also has elements of Ender's Game in it, in that the people "fighting" the war are doing it remotely, without having to see the results of the bombs they drop.  Unlike Ender's Game, however, the young "pilots" in this war know that they are fighting a real enemy-but are they?  Haddix also threw in a little bit of "War Games", that classic Matthew Broderick movie of the 80s, by creating a sentient computer that calculates the odds of winning the war.

For the first 80% of the book I was sure that this was the beginning of another series.  The story moved along at a decent clip, but there were still so many things that needed to be resolved that I was sure that there were a couple more books in the works.  Then, in the last 25 pages or so of the book, it appears that everything gets resolved very quickly-and not terribly satisfactorily, if truth be told.  After spending so many pages describing the wartime society that Tess lived in, and then describing in great detail the journey that the young people took, the resolution seemed to happen in a flash.  The big reveal about the war was not a surprise, but once it was done the war ended and the people accepted it in a flash, something that just did not feel very realistic.  It might seem strange to use that word to describe a story about a supercomputer that pretends to fight a war so that humanity doesn't annihilate itself, but until the very end I was totally caught up in my own suspension of disbelief.

That said, there are a lot of good things that can be pulled from the story for discussion.  Turns out the war was about water-that is a very timely topic.  Also, the way that citizens were encouraged to sacrifice their joy and hope for the war effort is also something that has parallels in both our recent and not-so-recent past.  If you are a Haddix fan, then this is a book that you should read, just for the sake of being able to put it in the context of her other work.  If you've never read Haddix before, I suggest you start with Running Out of Time, or Among the Hidden, or Found before trying this one.

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien

Title:  The Things They Carried
Author:  Tim O'Brien
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Year:  1990
Pages:  273
Genre:  Historical/Realistic Fiction, Memoir
Themes:  War, Survival, Courage
Age Level:  10th Grade and Up

While I sometimes share reviews I've written of young adult novels on my adult book review blog (Book Addict Reviews), I have never posted the other way.  But when my daughter recommended I read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien after reading it in her junior level English class (my daughter, whose last recommendation to me was Twilight when she was 13), I figured I'd better read it.  And she was right-this book says things that need to be said about war and courage, and I think that those things should be said to our youth.  So, you'll find my review below, not in the usual format, but here all the same.

Summary and Review:
I was born in 1970.  So while my life overlaps briefly with the Viet Nam War, I have no real memory of it.  What I do remember is going to downtown Chicago with my granny, and later with my parents, and seeing the faces of the homeless vets that were begging on the streets.  Wild-eyed, or blank-stared, the memories of their faces color everything that I have heard, read, or seen about the war since.  And I have heard, read, and seen a lot.  Stories from the fathers of friends who fought in the war, lessons from school, movies like Full Metal Jacket and Platoon-from these sources I have cobbled together a picture of that hot, wet, chaotic, horrific place and time.

But I am not sure that I have truly felt that I had even the faintest understanding of what it might actually have been like.  Not, that is, until I read Tim O'Brien's stunning book The Things They Carried.  Neither entirely fact nor entirely fiction, O'Brien uses a series of short stories and vignettes to tell the tale of Alpha Company, a group of soldiers based, in part, on the real men that O'Brien served with during the war.  The stories meander from stateside to the jungles of Viet Nam, from childhood to middle age, detailing how each experience prepares or informs or explains the person that Tim was or is or may yet become.

I will admit to having some difficulty at first with the non-linear narrative, and with the fact that I was never sure what was true and what was made-up.  But the genius of this work is that you soon realize that it doesn't matter.  In fact, the way that the book is put together and the inability to tell fact from fiction ends up doing a better job describing what living through that experience was like than any straight forward telling could.  O'Brien and his fellow soldiers lived a reality that most of us will never experience, and can never truly comprehend, where time was skewed, day and night traded places, where extraordinary circumstances became ordinary, and where the ordinary world as most of us know it became a dream that you couldn't let yourself believe in.

My favorite section of the book (if favorite is even the right word) is the story of how O'Brien almost ran away to Canada rather than go to war.  Part of O'Brien's extreme talent is an ability to use words to paint not just a visual but an emotional picture for the reader, and I was able to feel how deeply terrified he was at the prospect of war.  I felt his ambivalence about running away, about choosing the possibility of death over the certainty of shame and embarrassment.  But the thing I found most stunning, and the line I would consider the most "controversial" of the whole piece, is this, "I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Viet Nam, where I was a soldier, and then home again.  I survived, but it's not a happy ending.  I was a coward. I went to war."
Given the hyper-patriotism of the US since 9-11, and our unquestioning assumption that every soldier is brave and heroic,  this simple statement stopped me dead in my tracks.  It felt almost sacrilegious.  Are we allowed to say that not going to war is more courageous than going?  What does that say about us as a society, that we are find ourselves so often in armed conflicts?  Is it bravery and strength, or is it because we don't want to be judged as wanting by the rest of the world?  What would happen if our young men and women, en masse, simply refused to go the next time we try to send them into harm's way?  Would it be courageous or cowardly?  Regardless of where any one of us comes down on that particular idea, what O'Brien's work has done is illustrate for those of us that weren't there that nothing is as simple and straightforward in war as those of us sitting at home watching it on our televisions thinks it is.

Teaching Resources:  
National Endowment for the Arts Teaching Guide 
ReadWriteThink Lesson Plans 
Web English Teacher Lesson Plans 

Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool

Title:  Moon Over Manifest
Author:  Clare Vanderpool
Publisher:  Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Year:  2010
Pages:  368
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Themes:  Family, Finding a Home, Community,War, Xenophobia
Age Range:  5th through 8th Grade

Summary: (from School Library Journal)
It's as if readers jump off the train in Manifest, KS, in 1936 with Abilene Tucker, 12, the feisty, likable, and perceptive narrator. She is there to live with Pastor Shady Howard, her father's friend, while her father works on the railroad back in Iowa. An equally important story set during World War I is artfully intertwined. Since her mother went off on her own 10 years earlier, Abilene and Gideon have been alone. Though their life together is unsettled, their bond is strong. Shady's place is shabby, but he is welcoming. The mystery about Manifest and Gideon unfolds after Abilene finds a box filled with intriguing keepsakes. It includes a letter dated 1917 to someone named Jinx from Ned Gillen that has a warning, “THE RATTLER is watching.” This starts Abilene, with the help of new friends Ruthanne and Lettie, on a search to learn the identity of the pair. The story cleverly shifts back and forth between the two eras. Abilene becomes connected to Miss Sadie, a “diviner” who slowly leads her through the story of Ned and Jinx. Though the girl is lonely, she adjusts to her new life, feeling sure that her father will come for her at summer's end.

Review:
This book won the Newbery Prize for children's literature last year, giving some indication of the quality of the writing in this book.  The narrative structure is interesting and engaging, and the story within a story device works well in this setting.  In many ways this book reminded me of books like Because of Winn Dixie-small town, spunky girl, eccentric older woman, slightly shady older man-but what makes this book unique is the focus on how the immigration question affected the midwest during the first part of the 20th century.  Not many people know that the Ku Klux Klan targeted immigrants as well as blacks, nor do most people truly understand the hold that the mining companies (and other large manufacturing companies) had on the workers and their families.  Throw in a short lesson on Prohibition and a long look at World War I, and this novel is a rich source of historical content for discussion and extension activities.

Teacher Resources:
Moon Over Manifest on eNotes 
Moon Over Manifest on Bookrags

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

Title:  Ender's Game
Author:  Orson Scott Card
Publsiher:  Tor Science Fiction
Date:  1985 (Original)
Pages:  352
Genre:  Science Fiction
Age Range:  7th Grade and Up

Summary (from Goodreads):
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Review:
This novel, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards, has been on my to-be-read list for a while.  As a science fiction fan, I felt that I needed to read it just to say I had.  I didn't expect to enjoy it-the premise of turning children into soldiers did not appeal to me one whit, especially given that there are actual children being conscripted as child soldiers all over Africa and Asia today.  But it is one of the classics of science fiction, so I finally agreed to give it a chance.

I should have known my fellow science fiction fans wouldn't have steered me wrong.  Ender's Game is gripping and intense.  There is violence from the very beginning, when Ender is attacked by some bullies at his school, but despite the violence the whole thing feels very controlled and rational, almost cold.  None of the characters are easily pigeonholed, as the usual good vs evil dichotomy doesn't really apply here.  All of the characters have flaws, pretty major ones for the most part, but it is hard to judge them too harshly.  How much can you blame a person for acting in a certain way when they have been genetically manipulated to be predisposed that way?   

Ender himself commits some pretty horrific acts, but is kept from the knowledge of their consequences so that he will continue to train, to "play the game".  I will admit to being as surprised as Ender to find that the final battles he fought were real, at least partly because I knew there were other books in the series, so I was expecting a continuation of the war.  But imagine the discussions you could have with students about what was done to Ender.  He was manipulated into xenocide, blithely sending what he thought were fake fighters into battle, only to kill them in real life.  What would that do to a person?  What reasons would make it OK for a person to be manipulated that way?  Would it have made a difference if Ender had been an adult?  This novel has a lot of  social commentary in it that makes it a great read with high schoolers.

Teacher Resources:
Unit Plans and Study Guides 
Character Lesson Plan 
Web English Teacher Plans 

Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title:  Chains
Author:  Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Antheum
Pages:  320
Year:  2008
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Age Level:  6th Grade-10th Grade


Summary:
As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.(from Goodreads)


Review:
Laurie Halse Anderson does an excellent job in Chains painting a picture of just what freedom means, to a country and to an individual.  Perhaps there are other novels that combine the issues of slavery with Revolutionary War history, but if there are I doubt they do it as deftly as Anderson does.  Isabel's story provides a depth to the story of the start of the Revolutionary War that few other books, with their focus on the Patriots as good guys and British as bad guys, achieve.  Told from the slaves' perspective, the fact becomes clear that what "liberty" and "freedom" meant to the Patriots was not something that was extended to women, or to Africans.  In Madam Lockton, Anderson creates a truly despicable villian, and her malice towards Isabel creates a tension and suspense that makes the novel fly.  This is a great read for students studying the American Revolution-as a companion to non-fiction texts on that period in history I can see it leading to many interesting discussions with students.

Teaching Resources:
E-Notes for Chains 
Simon and Shuster Reading Guide 
Interview with Laurie Halse Anderson-ReadWriteThink  

The Mailbox, by Audrey Shafer

Title:  The Mailbox
Author:  Audrey Shafer
Publisher:  Yearling
Pages:  192
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Range:  5th-8th Grade




Summary:
Gabe is an 11 year old boy who has seen a lot in his short life.  After his mother died when he was two, he was bounced around from foster home to foster home until his Uncle Vernon, a reclusive Viet Nam veteran, was located when he was nine.  Two years later, Gabe comes home from his first day of sixth grade to find his uncle dead.  Wracked with grief and unsure what to do, Gabe does not report the death, and leaves for school the next day as if nothing has happened.  When he returns home at the end of the day, his uncle's body is gone, and there is a mysterious note in the mailbox that says, "I have a secret".  Thus starts a mailbox correspondence between Gabe and the mysterious stranger-and a journey towards finding the one person who needs him as much as he needs them.

Review:
I picked up this book on an impulse from the book fair at school, and I am so glad that something told me to check it out.  The story is compelling, and the characters are complex and flawed in a way that just begs discussion.  Uncle Vernon's misanthropic veteran is a gruff old man with many, many scars.  It is fair to say that most of him never came out of the jungle.  Gabe is a confused, frightened boy with scars of his own.  All of the more minor characters are completely believable and well-written. 

This is the first middle grade novel that I have seen that deals with any aspect of the war in Viet Nam, and it does so with a real sense of compassion for the veterans who fought there, while at the same time highlighting how war damages those who participate in it.  Not one of the veterans who is featured in the book has been able to entirely leave the experience behind them-and Uncle Vernon and the mysterious stranger are perhaps more damaged than most.  The book also deals with the foster care system and the effects on children who are bounced around from home to home.  Gabe himself had been through a sort of war before he came to his uncle, and he was also scarred by the experience.  It explains why he told no one about his uncle's death-he did not want to go back to not ever being secure in where he would lay his head that night.   

There is some raw language (though no actual swear words) and mature subject matter in this novel, but the readability is pretty low, so I'd say this book would be good for mature 5th and 6th graders, average middle schoolers, and high schoolers who need high-interest, low readability.


Teacher Resources:

The Mailbox Classroom Guide


William Allen White Book Awards Discussion Guides

Escape from Saigon, by Andrea Warren

Title:  Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became and American Boy
Author:  Andrea Warren
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages:  128
Genre:  Non-Fiction
Age Level:  5th-9th Grade



Summary:
In the terrifying days at the end of the Vietnam war, a young boy named Long was airlifted out of Saigon and taken to the United States in what became known as Operation Babylift.  Hundreds of war orphans were brought to the United States and adopted by loving families.  Long became Matt Steiner, and went on to become a valedictorian, athlete, and doctor with a family of his own. While this tale has a happy ending, one might not have predicted it based on his harrowing early years.  Long barely remembers his American father, but he vividly remembers his mother's suicide.  His devoted grandmother tried as best she could to take care of him, but when she became unable to support him any longer he was sent to live in an orphanage operated by Holt International Children's Services.  This agency housed him, provided schooling, and later made it possible for him to be adopted in the United States.  Finally returning to Vietnam in 1995, Long was amde to understand the sacrifices that his grandmother had made for him.

Review:  
Warren has reason to be interested in this story of survival and triumph-her own daughter was also a child rescued in Operation Babylift.  And a very personal story it is.  Warren uses Long's memories, along with interviews and research regarding other adopted Vietnamese children, to craft a story that is powerful and engaging.  This is a story of a child at war, a child struggling to find his identity in his new land, a child who mourns the loss of his family while going on to become a success in his new home.  This story also details the challenges that Long had coming to terms with his mixed heritage, a theme that could speak to many biracial children in our school, who often don't see themselves represented in mainstream media.  The action is written in a gripping, engaging style that leaves the reader feeling as though they too have witnessed tragedy and incredible acts of heroism.  The passages detailing the airlift are especially gripping, and should grab the attention of even the most reluctant of readers.

Teaching Resources:
This book would make an excellent text to use in any study of immigration.  It is also a good book for teaching about the diversity of the American experience, as Long's journey is very different from most children in America.  Below I've listed some websites where you can find more ideas and specific lesson plans. 

Louisiana Reader's Choice Awards

Bookwizard-Scholastic

Immigration and Diversity Lesson Plans