(2) YA In this unflinching dual-perspective coming-of-age story, a California teen who at first loathes being Vietnamese gains pride in her heritage while also coming to terms with her emotionally distant, physically abusive refugee father. It's the summer of 1999, and Jane Vu, seventeen, is about to leave San Jose to attend UCLA. She is excited about college but worries about leaving her seven-year-old brother with their single father, Phúc. In lyrically written chapters that alternate with Jane's narrative, readers follow Phúc's traumatic youth in war-torn Vietnam, including acts of love and of violence within his family, and his harrowing escape by boat on the Pacific Ocean. He survives attacks by Thai pirates and starvation only to lose his final shred of innocence with the titular panda-killing. The twin tales of complicated family love come together when Jane gains sympathy for her father after she learns more about his experiences from cousins at a family reunion, and then later while visiting her grandparents in Da Nang. Hoang does a skillful job in capturing multigenerational trauma with Jane's teenage angst and Phúc's damaging voyage. Pair with the adult graphic memoirs 7Vietnamerica7 by G. B. Tran and The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (illustrator of A Different Pond, rev. 9/17).

Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Thi Bui. Little Mai is close to her father; she loves when they play games and when Papa makes crocodile jaws with his hands ("CHOMP! CHOMP!"). When he leaves their rural Vietnam village in search of a new home for the family, Mai is despondent. But then one night Mama packs a small bag and the two of them set off to join him: walking through rice paddies, fording a river, climbing into a boat's cargo hold crowded with others who are also looking for their families. Despite the harrowing journey, Mai remains brave by remembering playing crocodile with her father. The family is eventually reunited in America (with Papa now sporting a mustache!). Bui's (A Different Pond, rev. 9/17) illustrations emphasize detail and perspective. Mai is often shown being carried in her mother's arms or on Mama's back; though she is physically small, the child's experiences and perspectives loom large. Some double-page spreads show the broader picture on the left-hand side (a ship being tossed in roiling waves, for example) and a detailed closeup on the right (the view from the ship's deck). Krans's focus on the father-daughter bond that is strengthened through play keeps this perilous migration tale upbeat and tender, with moments of lightness.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) 4-6 In this moving, empathetic follow-up to Li's National Book Award–winning and Newbery-honored verse novel Inside Out & Back Again (rev. 3/11), we follow another year of changes for Ha, now twelve, and her family, who are Vietnamese refugees. Li's vibrant first-person poems reflect her protagonist's anxiety and confusion as she's uprooted once again. Her mother moves the family from Alabama to Fort Worth, Texas, for a higher-paying factory job and the dream of purchasing a home. Adolescence looms, too: Ha gets her first period at school, and she's mortified by conversations about boys and kissing. Yet she finds opportunities to grow and navigate her dual identities (what to "Absorb/Ignore"). She becomes more independent, starts a flower-selling business, and even questions the Vietnam War. The 1976 setting--America's bicentennial--reinforces the idea that Ha and her family's experiences are just as American as anyone's. Strongly recommended for fans of the first book and readers interested in realistic, hardscrabble immigrant stories.

Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Jeet Zdung. Chang, the plucky wildlife conservationist from Saving Sorya (rev. 1/22), returns with a new animal-rescue mission near Yok Don National Park in Vietnam. In this volume, Chang and her colleagues rescue and rehabilitate H'Non, a sixty-year-old Asian elephant--voi in Vietnamese. H'Non was captured when young and made to work in an "elephant-riding" business where the creatures are exploited for profitable interactions with tourists (graphic illustrations portray the violent mistreatment that H'Non and the other voi experience). Chang works for a nonprofit foundation that offers an alternative "elephant-friendly" experience where nature-loving tourists can observe rescued elephants in more natural settings. The emotional story of H'Non's recovery is conveyed through detail-packed illustrations: dynamic comic panels; delicate, multipage paintings of elephants; and field notebook style doodles and anecdotes. Chang details her encounters with animals and plants throughout the National Park, the people in her organization and the nearby communities, and the voi, building a complex portrait of the sometimes destructive, sometimes harmonious interactions between humans and nature. Appended notes provide further details.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) YA This graphic memoir begins with the author's earliest memory: trying to quench his thirst with seawater as he and his family flee Vietnam by boat. Thien's perspective as a five-year-old child is relayed through alternating spreads of violence he witnesses and then pitch-black spreads (when he closes his eyes to shut out the terror). After the threat is over, a rice ball with fish saved for him by his mother provides comfort. The food motif continues, with chapters named for foods that accompany his memories, as the family stays at the overcrowded Songkhla Refugee Camp in Thailand until they're relocated to San Jose, California--where the book showcases the diversity of Asian American identities via a dish introduced to Thien by his Vietnamese American crush. Finally, after anti-immigrant rhetoric drives the adult Pham to seek U.S. citizenship, a celebratory meal of rice and fish shared with his family recalls that first memory. Community-building and resilience are central to the story as people from various backgrounds help the family navigate unfamiliar situations. The cartoon style and animated facial expressions in the muted, earth-hued panel illustrations are warm and inviting, matching the earnest and often humorous tone of the book. A nuanced and hopeful graphic memoir depicting moments of hardship and joy with sincerity. Back matter includes photographs and Pham's "interview" with himself.

Reviewer: Kristine Techavanich | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) K-3 At the beginning of the story, a grandson and grandfather stand with their palms pressed together, bowing in reverence to the jungle. Grandfather is hard at work building a new home, planting rice, and fishing, while his grandchild, Ti, wears a timid expression, distracted by the unknowns of the wild. When their boat is caught up in stormy waves, the grandfather imparts a lesson of harmony with nature. "'My voice is so much smaller than the sky's,' I say. Grandfather places a hand on my shoulder. 'But still the sky is singing. You do not have to shout down the storm. Find its rhythm; sing with it.'" Gentle prose recounts a family's humble roots intertwined with an elder's respect for nature to pass on to next generations; the narrative's natural cadence with simple back-and-forth dialogue evokes oral traditions. Vivid illustrations of grandfather and grandson among lush landscapes reflect the cultural heritage and biodiversity unique to Vietnam. Appended notes provide additional details ("in tribute to the very first pioneers to the south of Vietnam") and leave readers with a call to action to spark conversations with parents and grandparents and to consider the importance of conservation.

Reviewer: Kristine Techavanich | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Jeet Zdung. Nguyen's graphic novel "based on a true adventure" tells the story of a girl named Chang, who is an aspiring wildlife conservationist, and her efforts to protect Vietnam's native species and natural environments. Accompanying Chang is Sorya, a sun bear rescued in Laos, who must learn survival skills before she can be safely returned to the forest. Zdung's expressive, expansive comics-style panels depict Sorya's many playful antics moment by moment, as well as the fast-paced tension in more dangerous interactions in the wild. Clever picture-within-picture illustrations from Chang's field-notebook sketches incorporate information on topics ranging from bear species to the many ways humans exploit wild animals for profit. The warmth of the characters' relationship is conveyed with a minimum of anthropomorphism. The conversational narrative is occasionally paused by gorgeous interspersed partial-to-full spreads of Vietnamese rainforest landscapes filled with the heat, moisture, and density of tropical plant and animal life. Sorya eventually returns to the wild, while Chang continues her lifelong efforts to protect the forests and their inhabitants from human exploitation done through development, farming, dams, and the illegal animal trade. Brief author and illustrator notes are appended.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Victo Ngai. A little girl living in an unsafe place watches her grandfather out the window. "The night wished it was quieter," reads the text. With a page-turn: "The bag wished it was deeper," as other family members swiftly pack food. Wishes made by the light, the clock, the path, the boat, the sea, and the sun follow, and it gradually becomes clear that the girl's family is fleeing their home to undertake a perilous journey to a new place. The collaboration between text and illustration is impressive; Văn's lyrical and poetic writing gently propels the story forward, while Ngai's honest and detailed pictures depict the heartbreaking reality of separation and extend the tale beyond its words. The final wish, which is also the only wish made in the voice of the girl ("And I wished...I didn't have to wish...anymore"), is slowly revealed through four double-page spreads that display the final moments of the family's harrowing journey. The changing color palette throughout, including on the front and back endpapers, serves as a powerful, aesthetic representation of the changes that occur over the course of the story--from dark night to brightening sky, from danger to safety, from fear to hope, and most important of all, from the end of one journey to the beginning of another. Back matter includes author and artist notes and reveals the personal connection that Văn has with the story.

Reviewer: Weileen Wang | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(2) YA Seventh grader Justin struggles to cope with the ambiguous circumstances surrounding his Vietnam War veteran father's death and ultimately the unknowability of his intentions. Relying on a small circle of support, including his older brother, his best friend, his bus driver, and a local homeless man, Justin slowly comes to terms with his grief and begins to move toward healing. Chapters are a collection of unconnected but chronologically unfolding scenes, most of which bring the reader directly into the events without preamble. This deliberately disconcerting style conveys a perpetual and profound disequilibrium that mimics the protagonist's inability to cope with his daily life, school, friendships, and family while he grieves internally. Deeper themes of war, conflict, and religion, with quantum physics and local small-town Minnesota history factoring in, add depth to Justin's journey.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

(1) YA In this imaginative graphic novel, thirteen-year-old Vietnamese American boy Tin and his Vietnamese-refugee seamstress mother, Hin, have always loved stories, with the two often reading library books aloud while enjoying time together. Nguyen (a comic artist also known as Trungles) delves into the world of Vietnamese fairy tales, including "Cinderella" and "The Little Mermaid" variants. Themes from these works--parent-child struggles, unrequited love, and the timeless quest to attain one's innermost desires, for example--are reflected in the versions of the illustrated retellings Tin reads and in his day-to-day life at home and school, including his secret crush on a male classmate. Nguyen's artistry radiates elegance on every page. Pastel shades of red, brown, and purple alternate to signify present, past, and imaginative plot segments. While some panels feature characters in pensive curiosity or profound melancholy, others burst with vibrancy, their exquisite portraits spanning an entire page or across multiple panels. Infused with emotional depth and integrity, this coming-of-age story broadens the range of Vietnamese American creative voices in books for young people.

Reviewer: Jerry Dear | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(1) YA On May 4, 1970, four students were killed by the National Guard on the campus of Kent State University during a protest against the Vietnam War and the bombing of Cambodia. Wiles, author of Countdown (rev. 5/10) and other titles in the "documentary novel" Sixties trilogy, recalls the heart-wrenching event in somber free verse. The book's structure is unusual: disembodied voices, differentiated by typeface, representing disparate campus constituencies as well as the "townies" of Kent, Ohio, engage in a passionate imagined conversation. After a concise prelude that summarizes America's involvement in Vietnam, two voices welcome the reader, offering to share "what we remember / so it won't happen again." They are revealed to be two former Kent State students, and are soon joined by a local couple angry at the "commie hippie pinko" student agitators; members of the National Guard; and others. All bicker and lay blame, but eventually sincerely wish that the murdered students "rest in peace." Notable among the voices are the weary members of the Black United Students group, who are sadly familiar with white authoritarian violence; and the Guard's volunteer soldiers, many of whom were just teenagers themselves. The ­format ­effectively captures the pain, confusion, and conflicting perspectives of the time while also making direct connections to current acts of gun violence and governmental overreach. The equally absorbing author's note, full of fascinating research forays and information about 1960s protest songs, should not be skipped.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

(1) YA This companion verse memoir to Enchanted Air provides a glimpse into Engle's teen years in Los Angeles and early adulthood. Engle addresses head-on the impact of the Vietnam War; the injustices prevalent in society at the time; the resistance of students and workers; and black and brown solidarity. The poems display Engle's customary sincerity and reflect the parallels and divergences between her two worlds--her Cuban and American heritages.

Reviewer: Sujei Lugo | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) YA During the 1975 fall of Saigon, twelve-year-old Hắng and her brother impersonate orphans to join Operation Babylift, but the refugee workers take only five-year-old Linh. Six years later, after a horrific boat trip (revealed in tense flashbacks), Hắng arrives in Texas to find her brother. Lại represents Hắng's English words phonetically, forcing the reader to become both listener and decipherer, an equally engaged but sometimes frustrated partner in her quest for "mai bờ-ró-đờ [my brother]."

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(2) 4-6 In 1985 Tennessee, Lyndie and her parents move in with her grandparents after her alcoholic, Vietnam War–vet father loses his job and her mother develops recurring headaches. But Lyndie's grandmother has a firm idea of what a "nice Southern family" should look like and vehemently tries to force Lyndie into that mold. The well-developed characters in this moving, fast-paced story contain a realistic mix of charm and flaws, which makes their progress and setbacks feel especially affecting.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) YA Recent high school graduate Lucas doesn't think beyond his next acid trip or the upcoming Woodstock festival. The narrative is related in a first-person voice that cleverly shifts to the third person to portray Lucas's LSD trips as out-of-body experiences. Letters from his motivated girlfriend and a friend serving in Vietnam, newspaper headlines, and draft board notices provide ballast to Lucas's self-centered perspective; eventually, he steps outside of his own experience to see Vietnam as a "working-class war."

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) YA This pared down version of Townley's adult book Defiant focuses on Jeremiah Denton, one of the "Alcatraz Gang," a group of American POWs held captive by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. This memorable, well-written book about his life before and after, his daily struggles and gruesome torture for refusing to cooperate, and how he survived includes black-and-white context photographs throughout. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Jack Forman

(2) YA Sixties Trilogy series. Wiles's weighty, innovative trilogy (Countdown; Revolution) concludes in the summer of 1969. Fourteen-year-old Molly and her seventeen-year-old cousin Norman journey from South Carolina to San Francisco in search of Molly's brother, who left home after arguing with their father over the Vietnam War. The experience challenges their comfortable white upbringing. Wiles continues the documentary-novel format: scrapbook sections of photographs, which induce a powerful sense of immediacy, are interspersed with the main text. Reading list.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) YA Fourteen authors representing a range of races and ethnicities reflect on this tumultuous year's historic events, including the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, anti–Vietnam War demonstrations, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, etc. The contributors incorporate personal memories, interviews, archival material, and scholarship when presenting their stories chronologically. An excellent, timely contribution considering today's political and cultural upheaval.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(4) 4-6 Gormley's admiring profile follows McCain through his childhood and the U.S. Naval Academy before detailing his resistance and resilience while imprisoned and tortured by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. The remainder of the book, which ends too abruptly, deals with McCain's political career and terminal illness and how his strong character and erratic temperament affected his personal and political lives. Timeline. Bib.

Reviewer: Jack Forman

(3) 4-6 In a short and poignant narrative, Ho tells how, at age four, she was left behind in Vietnam while her family fled to Canada in 1981. Decidedly anti-communist, the tale is filled with details about school, hard work, hunger, and the sorrow Ho felt until being reunited with her family when she was eight. Appended are family photos, a coauthor's note, and interviews with Ho and her parents.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee