Author Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai is the wonderful author of our September book, Inside Out & Back Again!  I was fortunate enough to hear her speak when she visited Rhode Island for the Kids Reading Across Rhode Island event back in June.  She was delightful, funny and very interesting.  Inside Out & Back Again is her first novel.  It won the 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and a 2012 Newbery Honor - not bad for a first book!  Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Find out more about Thanhaa Lai and read her letter to you, the reader! 

Learn the correct pronunciation of her name and see her read from her book at the 2011 National Book Award finalists reading:

Kids Reading Across Rhode Island

Kids Reading Across Rhode Island is back!  The kick-off celebration will be held on Saturday, June 1st from 1:00pm - 4:00pm at the Rhode Island State House in Providence.  The 2013 book is... Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai!  M. Lai will give a presentation and sign copies of the book. Crafts and activities will be available from Rhode Island libraries.  In addition a youth dance group from Worcester, MA will perform two Vietnamese dances.  Each family in attendance will receive a free copy of the book.  This event is for kids in grades 3 – 6.

 












Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.