Welcome to Litsy!

Six years after the end of the Viet Nam War Hang makes a journey to Texas to look for her long lost brother that she put on a child adoption transport six years earlier. Once she finds him she soon realizes more than miles have separated them. Now they must overcome being raised in different cultures to find one another again. Middle grade. 3 stars.

Read in September 2022 ...
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In the final days of the Việt Nam War, Hằng takes her little brother, Linh, to the airport, determined to find a way to safety in America. In a split second, Linh is ripped from her arms--and Hằng is left behind in the war-torn country. Six years later she arrives in Amarillo in search of Linh. That‘s where Hằng and LeeRoy, a wannabe cowboy, cross paths. Adorably cute YA novel.

Thank you so much Karen @Texreader I have been wanting to read this for a long time. I try to read books that have been awarded O'Dell and Newbery. I appreciate you so much and your support. I know it took me a long time to open, but I needed to get out of the depression. You were right, I was also grieving an end of a friendship. Thank you for understanding me.

17-year-old Hang travels from Vietnam in search of her little brother who was torn away from her six years ago at the end of the Vietnam War and sent to America. Upon reaching Texas, Hang meets LeeRoy, an aspiring rodeo cowboy and unlikely ally in her quest to win back the affection of her brother, who has forgotten her. Painful memories of Hang‘s harrowing journey from Vietnam gradually unfold, and yet this story also has hope.🏮#mayreads2021

My Archeology magazine this month (I‘m a geek) had this article, which is coincidentally about the same area in Texas where the tagged book is set. I wish the history and archaeology of the area were treated a bit differently in the book—it could have played a much bigger role. #foodandlit #readingasia2021 #Vietnam @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB @Butterfinger @Catsandbooks

Two naive (to an irritating extent) 18-year-olds cross paths, one a female Vietnamese “boat people” survivor & a rodeo-obsessed kid from Austin, & end up in Amarillo. She‘s looking for her younger brother whom she accidentally “gave away” to Americans fleeing #Vietnam at the end of the war (not a spoiler, it‘s on the cover blurb). The pair slowly mature working at a ranch during a hot Texas summer, as we slowly learn about the girl‘s trauma ⬇️

“Then maybe he can talk her into going with him to that restaurant in Amarillo where anyone who can finish a seventy-two-ounce steak in an hour gets a free meal.”

A few years back I flew to Amarillo every few months to help a client with a large project. And every time I drove from the airport to downtown, I‘d drive by this restaurant. Fun to see it in this book. The book describes the very flat and yellow Amarillo area accurately.

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Only one week left for #foodandlit #Vietnam and I‘ve got plans. For French class, my son has to make a traditional dish in a French-speaking country and bless his heart, he picked Vietnam. So this week we will be trying homemade pho (is it homemade if I use premade broth?). Daughter and I combed bookstores today in our glorious sunny weather and I got the tagged book to try to fit in this week.

I gave all of my students LOVE-ly bookmarks for Valentine‘s Day. I especially liked this quote... much of what makes a book good is that we are reading it at the right time for us. The finest work, wrongly scheduled can leave us cold; the most mediocre may with an emotional tailwind, change our lives. It‘s true...BOOKS change lives! ❤️

I loved this book so much! It‘s beautiful and heartbreaking and funny and tender. It may be my favorite book this year.

Set in the 1980s it follows 18 yr old Vietnamese refugee, Hang, as she searches for the younger brother she lost 6 yrs earlier. Ever since that fateful day Hang and her family have put all their energy toward finding Ling. No matter how bad things get Hang never gives up. #diversebooks

A teenage girl is separated from her younger brother during the Vietnam war. When she gets to America she will stop at nothing to find him and be with him, even if he doesn‘t remember her.

I‘m trying to parse out how much of not loving this book was just the audiobook narrator not working for me. The audiobook narrator sounds like she‘s reading a picture book—everything occurs as infantile even when it‘s profound trauma being described. When I reflect on the plot and characters, I feel moved and like it more than I did while listening to it, but the characters still feel a little underdeveloped and the plot disjointed to me.

Told in alternating POV of Hang and LeeRoy, two 18-year-olds in Texas, Lai‘s artful prose balances the trauma of refugee‘s boat journey from Vietnam with the humour of an always-hungry wannabe cowboy. The print edition uses Vietnamese syllables to portray Hang‘s struggle with English pronunciation; in the #audiobook, narrator Lulu Lam makes it easy to hear what Hang sounds like. #YA for anyone who likes moving stories with remarkable characters.

Seen on my #audiowalk to the library yesterday. Frost has killed and flattened the vines, revealing some rather large pumpkins in this front yard.