War, through the eyes of a child

Thanhha Lai’s ‘Inside Out & Back Again’ follows a young Vietnamese refugee building a new life in a foreign land.

‘Inside Out & Back Again’ is an award-winning middle-grade novel, told in a free-verse poetic style, that follows the life of Hà, a little girl, amidst the Vietnam War—a war that disrupted many lives. Author Thanhha Lai creates a story through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl. We feel the destruction of war through the perspective of a child, both innocent and observant. Yet her innocence provides the author with the opportunity to reveal the most intimate details of what it means to be a refugee.