{"id":37927,"date":"2015-07-08T13:12:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T17:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=37927"},"modified":"2015-07-31T16:26:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T20:26:39","slug":"listen-slowly-thanhha-lai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/listen-slowly-thanhha-lai\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen, Slowly by Thanhh\u00e0 L\u1ea1i"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen,<\/a>“They’re his<\/em> roots, not mine,” Mia insists as she seethes on a flight bound to Vietnam with her father. “I’m a Laguna Beach girl who can paddleboard one-legged and live on fish tacos and mango smoothies. My parents should be thanking the Buddha for a daughter like me: a no-lip gloss, no-short shorts twelve-year-old rocking a 4.0 GPA and an SAT-ish vocab who is team leader in track, science and chess.” [I’d claim this\u00a0kid any time, too!]\n

But instead of resting on her laurels, least of all relaxing\u00a0that grand brain over summer vacation, Mia’s parents are forcing her to accompany her grandmother and father back to the ancestral homeland. “[M]ost of what I know about Vietnam comes from PBS,” she admits. But no documentary will reveal what happened to Mia’s grandfather during the Vietnam War, and now a detective has contacted her family\u00a0with the hope that he might even be alive. What if that were true …?<\/p>\n

While Mia might look like her Vietnamese relatives, she barely speaks the same language. She is \u2013 who wouldn’t be? \u2013 more than okay with the\u00a0local\u00a0food, but getting to know her extended family is no small feat. Being that\u00a0Laguna Beach-girl-with-so-much-spunk will initially get her in\u00a0more trouble than not\u00a0\u2013 the thong incident is just so wrong, although\u00a0you can’t help but laugh, oh no! \u2013 but eventually, her ingenuity and courage will also help her and her family towards much-needed understanding. Somewhere along the way, Mia will learn to “listen, slowly<\/em>,” even when she can’t comprehend\u00a0every word.<\/p>\n

The tone of Listen<\/em>,\u00a0Thanhh\u00e0\u00a0L\u1ea1i<\/a>\u2019s follow-up to her\u00a02011 National Book Award-ed<\/a>\u00a0debut,\u00a0Inside Out & Back Again<\/a><\/em>, couldn’t be more different. While Inside<\/em> is an\u00a0evocative novel-in-verse about a 10-year-old surviving the fall of Saigon and beginning a new life in an intolerant new country, Listen<\/i> is a chatty, light, fast read \u2013 with a few poignant moments gently added \u2013 about cultural exploration with 21st-century, tween attitude (audible listeners: narrator Lulu Lam<\/a> does spot-on spunk!). Inside<\/i>‘s\u00a0H\u00e0 struggles to become American; decades later,\u00a0Mia is quintessentially\u00a0American, almost too much so\u00a0for her relatives on the other side of the world. What a difference a single generation can make …<\/p>\n

Similarly, what a difference a major award can make: the cover of\u00a0<\/a>Inside<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>shows L\u1ea1i\u2019s name without diacriticals, as simply Thannha Lai, almost as if erasing any markings that might make the name seem too foreign. Now that L\u1ea1i is a bona-fide literary celebrity with her NBA-stamp-of-approval, her second cover reveals her fully ‘dressed’ name with diacriticals reclaimed: Thanhh\u00e0 L\u1ea1i. Interesting, no?<\/p>\n

Whichever L\u1ea1i title you choose first, know that reading both books\u00a0together is\u00a0an excellent choice for closing that generation gap \u2013 in oh so many ways.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Middle Grade<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“They’re his roots, not mine,” Mia insists as she seethes on a flight bound to Vietnam with her father. “I’m a Laguna Beach girl who can paddleboard one-legged and live on fish tacos and mango smoothies. 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