Listen, Slowly

All high-achieving 12-year-old Mai wants is to hang out at home in Laguna Beach with her best friend and her crush-that-shall-not-be-named: "This is the summer I've been waiting for my whole life," she explains. Instead, she is forced to accompany her father and her grandmother (Ba) to Vietnam to determine whether her grandfather (Ong) might still be alive. (He disappeared during "THE WAR," as Mai thinks of it, and has long been presumed dead.) Mai's self-interested annoyance gives way to fascination as she becomes swept up in her Vietnamese heritage, helps find out what happened to Ong, befriends a headstrong girl named Ut, and enjoys a deepening relationship with Ba. As she did in her National Book Award-winning Inside Out & Back Again, Lai offers a memorable heroine and cultural journey--ones that are clever near-opposites of those in that book, as Lai trades verse for prose and an immigrant's story for one of a girl fully immersed in American culture. The story capably stands on its own, yet considered alongside Inside Out, it's all the more rewarding. Ages 8-12. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Feb.)

Gr 5-8--The summer before she turns 13, Mai is planning to spend her time going to the beach and finally talking to her secret crush. She's less than thrilled when her parents make her escort her grandmother to Vietnam instead. New information may have surfaced about her long lost grandfather, who disappeared over 40 years ago in "THE WAR." Mai doesn't know the culture or speak the language, and everything she knows about Vietnam is from a PBS documentary on the Fall of Saigon. While her parents are excited for her to learn more about her roots, the teen doesn't even know the details of her own parents' escape because "random roots are encouraged, but specific roots are off-limits." Stuck in a village with limited internet access, a sulky Mai slowly makes friends due to lack of better things to do and bonds with her grandmother, with whom she was very close as a small child. Mai's character growth is slow and believable, coming in small increments and occasionally backsliding. The sights, smells, and tastes of Vietnam's cities and villages come alive on the page, without overwhelming a story filled with a summers-worth of touching and hilarious moments, grand adventure, and lazy afternoons. With a contemporary time setting, this compelling novel shows the lingering effects of war through generations and how the secrets our parents keep can shape us.--Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington CountyPublic Libraries, VA