Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again is a novel in free verse. In February 1975 Hà and her family celebrate the new year in South Vietnam while the search for her father, a soldier missing in action, goes on. As Saigon is about to fall they flee on a navy ship and are sheltered in a refugee camp on Guam.

From there they are flown to the United States, where a sponsor takes them to his home in Alabama. Thanhha Lai based the book on her own first year in America as a ten-year-old who spoke no English.