Inside Out and Back Again Audiobook By Thanhha Lai cover art

Inside Out and Back Again

 Preview

$0.00 for first 30 days

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Inside Out and Back Again

By: Thanhha Lai
Narrated by: Doan Ly
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $9.45

Buy for $9.45

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

National Book Award, Young People's Literature, 2011

Vietnam-born author Thanhha Lai bursts onto the literary scene with Inside Out & Back Again—her National Book Award-winning debut. Written in rich, free-verse poems, this moving tale follows a young Vietnamese girl as she leaves her war-torn homeland for America in 1975. With Saigon about to fall to the communists, 10-year-old Hà, her mother, and brothers are forced to flee their beloved city and head to the United States. But living in a new country isn’t easy for Hà, and she finds adapting to its strange customs ever challenging.

©2011 Thanhha Lai (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC Fiction Historical Fiction Heartfelt Tearjerking
Heartfelt Storytelling • Cultural Authenticity • Soothing Narration • Emotional Depth • Historical Perspective
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
The best book I ever had played overall I love it the book tells about a real person

Best story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was a good story. I was expecting more out of it and it just ended suddenly. It stinks that it doesn’t let you know that it is one of many to finish the story.

Good story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narration was very soothing to listen and I really enjoyed the story and it's more poetic than prose style of convening a child's perspective of war, loss and determination.

War from a child's poetic perspective

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great listen. Good for me because I'll annotate while reading instead of just listening first.

This book was added to my 8th grade curriculum.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully composed and thoughtfully narrated, a powerful memoir about a family immigrating from Vietnam to America during the war.

A Beautiful Memoir about Immigration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Vietnam had an impact throughout the world and life as we knew it will never be the same. Our story concerns one family who left their motherland to plant new roots in America.

Wars and Life Changes

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a great reality-based story. This is such a great knowledgeable book for young readers to be exposed to. Excellent storytelling by Thanhha Lai, and excellent narration of little Ha by Doan Ly.

All Readers Listen!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story is important. We as Americans do not know these intimate details of immigrants from war torn countries. It makes you more aware, wish you could do something.

very real

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a very awesome book that is so true. I liked it a lot, hopping it would end happy, and it did a little bit, except when I listened and read that it was a true story. I feel so sorry for you, for your family, for your father, and your country.

So good that i almost cried.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What made the experience of listening to Inside Out and Back Again the most enjoyable?

Many students in the United States know the pain and loneliness of being the “new kid” at a school. But most Americans move from one city to another, or one state to another—not one country to another, and one culture to another. But reading allows children to learn about experience they’ve never had. And really good books allow children to feel the feelings described. Inside Out And Back Again is one of those tales. One can’t read it without changing as a person because the reader truly feels the feelings of Ha, the main character.

The story begins in Saigon, Viet Nam just before the city falls in the early 1970’s. Ha, her mother and brothers flee the country and are sponsored by an American family in Alabama. The first half of the story takes place in Viet Nam and the second half takes place in the US.

What did you like best about this story?

Ha goes through are real human emotions as she navigates the types of things all kids must endure when they are thrust into a new situation, only Ha experiences them a much greater extreme.

This is a wonderful story, well written, emotionally tight. Fifth through seventh graders will enjoy it.

Who was the most memorable character of Inside Out and Back Again and why?

Ha suffers the prejudice and crulty of the children at her school. She suffers the confusion of not knowing the language. And she muddles through the difficulties of having to eat unfamiliar foods and missing the treats she enjoyed in her native land. She also experiences the kindness of neighbors and learns the wonder of building new friendships.

The experience of a refugee in America

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews