Tag Archives: Thanhha Lai

Listen, Slowly: an interview with Mijha Godfrey

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Podcast #077

For my seventy-seventh Dream Gardens children’s books podcast, I interviewed Jambo Book co-founder Mijha Godfrey about the middle grade novel Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai. Mai resents leaving her beloved California Beaches to travel to her family’s home in Vietnam, a place she’s never been to and never wanted to visit, to find out what happened to her grandmother’s husband during the Vietnam War. What she finds out about the country, her grandmother, and herself, will make it a special summer to remember.

Mijha Godfrey is co-founder of Jambo Books, a muliticultural book club service. You can find Mijha’s website at www.jambobooks.com.

Podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Please link, share, comment, write a review or subscribe. Let me know what you think! And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author John David Anderson about the middle grade novel The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain #1)by Lloyd Alexander. It will be published on Monday, June 1st, 2020.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai: an interview with author Rebecca Caprara

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Podcast #046

For my forty-sixth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Rebecca Caprara about her favorite children’s book, the middle grade verse novel Inside Out and Back Again  by Thanhha Lai.

Originally published in 2011, and both a Newbery Honor recipient and winner of the National Book Award, Inside Out and Back Again  by Thanhha Lai is the semi-autobiographical story of a young girl named Ha who with her family is forced to flee Saigon in 1975 when the war finally reaches the city. As a refugee in Alabama, she must learn to deal with a new and strange language as well as the bigoted taunts of bullies who do everything they can to make her feel unwelcome in this new land. It isn’t easy, especially with her father missing, but Ha,with the help of her family and a few new friends, will try to make a home here as best as she can. Told in a series of free verse vignettes,
Inside Out and Back Again  by Thanhha Lai is a book that is that is funny and wise and heartbreaking, and as timely as ever.

Rebecca Caprara is author of The Magic of Melwick Orchard, which was published September, 2018.  You can find Rebecca’s website at www.rebeccacaprara.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and now Spotify. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author Jill Weisfeld, talking about the classic middle grade novel Charlotte’s Web, written by E. B. White. It will be published on January 16th.