Listen, Slowly
by Thanhha Lai
Published by HarperCollins
on February 17, 2015
Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction / Contemporary
Length: 272 pages
Ages: 8 - 12 years
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Synopsis:
A California girl born and raised, Mai can't wait to spend her vacation at the beach. Instead, though she has to travel to Vietnam with her grandmother, who is going back to find out what really happened to her husband during the Vietnam War. Mai's parents think this trip will be a great opportunity for their out-of-touch daughter to learn more about her culture. But to Mai, those are their roots, not her own. Vietnam is hot, smelly, and the last place she wants to be. Besides barely speaking the language, she doesn't know the geography, the local customs, or even her distant relatives. To survive her trip, Mai must find a balance between her two completely different worlds.
My Thoughts:
Mai wants nothing more than to spend her summer break on the beach with her best friend, Montana, and Him, the boy of her dreams, but instead has to accompany her grandmother to Vietnam to meet with a detective that has tracked down someone who may have answers about why Mai's grandfather disappeared during the Vietnam War. Having grown up in Los Angeles, California, Mai is a stranger to almost everything about Vietnam, from the language to the food to the customs, but the longer she is there, the more she learns, and the closer she and her grandmother get to their answers.
I previously read Inside Out & Back Again from this author and really enjoyed that it was written in verse and thought this one might be as well. Instead, it is a full-length middle-grade novel filled with all the things that make middle-grade contemporaries worthwhile.
Mai is plagued with thoughts of what her friends are doing back home while trying to get on in an entirely new environment. She starts out not wanting to be there, but the place and the people start to grow on her and she even makes some friends.
This is a beautiful story that helped open my eyes to Vietnamese culture, the war, and more. I especially loved all the food descriptions and have added quite a few of them to my 'want to try' list!
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