Vonlai knows that soldiers who guard the Mekong River shoot at anything that moves, but in oppressive Communist Laos, there’s nothing left for him, his spirited sister, Dalah, and his desperate parents. Their only hope is a refugee camp in Thailand—on the other side of the river.
When they reach camp, their struggles are far from over. Na Pho is a forgotten place where life consists of squalid huts, stifling heat, and rationed food. Still, Vonlai tries to carry on as if everything is normal. He pays attention in school, a dusty barrack overcrowded with kids too hungry to learn. And he plays soccer in a field full of rocks to forget his empty stomach.
But when someone inside the camp threatens his family, Vonlai calls on a forbidden skill to protect their future, a future he’s sure is full of promise, if only they can make it out of Na Pho alive.
Hi, everyone! :o) Today's interview is with the beautiful Laura Manivong, author of Escaping the Tiger (HarperCollins, 2010), a treasure for middle graders who want to do some "armchair traveling" and their teachers and librarians who want to integrate literature into a social studies or history curriculum.
The cultural and historical details in Escaping the Tiger feel natural and authentic, and its 1980s setting in Laos and Thailand is never exoticized. At first I was wary of the novel's presentation of America and France as the places of freedom where Vonlai and his family can escape the Pathet Lao and Communist Laos. I am always wary of stories that might portray the West as the "savior" for people in the "exotic" East, and thankfully Laura Manivong does not do this. Escaping the Tiger is nuanced, realistic, and ultimately balanced: while the rule of the Pathet Lao was more often than not cruel, Vonlai was happy in Laos and misses his home; the Na Pho refugee camp in Thailand is simultaneously a microcosm of all that is bad and all that is good in this world; and (spoiler alert!) Vonlai and his family start a very heartening new life in America, but encounter racism there.
While Escaping the Tiger raises social consciousness; teaches empathy and gratitude; and stimulates discussion on the refugee experience, it also a darn good yarn. Most of the story is about Vonlai's years of waiting and waiting and doing almost nothing in Na Pho, but it is never boring, the story has great pace and tension and suspense are nicely built. Young readers will find this an exciting refugee story about hope and strength and HOME.
Welcome, Laura!
What kind of young reader were you? What were your favorite books? Who were your favorite author
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Laos, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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By: Tarie,
on 7/8/2011
Blog: Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Thailand, Laos, the United States, books, reviews, authors, middle grade fiction, historical fiction, children's literature, author interviews, Add a tag
By: Aline Pereira,
on 6/18/2011
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Laos, Week-end Book Reviews, Week-end book review, Mali Under the Night Sky, Youme, Picture Books, Non-fiction, Add a tag
Youme,
Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home
Cinco Puntos Press, 2010.
Age 6-9
In Mali Under the Night Sky, Youme beautifully renders the true story of Malichansouk Kouanchao, who, the flyleaf tells us, “walked from Laos to Thailand when she was five years old.” Bordered watercolor paintings capture the simple beauty of her early life in Laos—napping with her family, catching tiny fish in the rice paddies, making spicy traditional foods with her aunts—with key words translated into Romanized Lao as well as the original Lao script.
“But something was changing where Mali lived…Fighting in neighboring countries was bringing danger to the land and the people. Even the birds were disappearing.” Youme pictures a child at the edge of her house, the wide space beyond empty to the horizon. It’s not safe to stay any longer. After a leave-taking that includes the traditional tying of strings around the wrists of each departing family member, Mali, her parents and siblings cross the broad Mekong, offering ritual flowers and rice with prayers for safety. They are met the next day by soldiers and are imprisoned with other refugees. Things look dark, but the strings on her wrists remind Mali of her home, and when she tells the others her happy memories, “their hearts were safe…soag sai—blessings.”
The real Mali, now a beautiful young woman, is pictured on the front flyleaf along with an introduction to her present work as an artist and anti-war advocate. At the back of the book, one of her paintings is reproduced beside her message to young readers: “…when we share about where we have come from, we all find that our homes are safe in our hearts…” A further statement by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Thavisouk Phrasavath describes the effects of war on children and how books like Youme’s about Mali are a balm to heal those traumas.
Cinco Puntos Press has made a significant contribution in publishing Mali Under the Night Sky. Its tender images and heartfelt words will touch children everywhere. While it ends with Mali in prison, young readers also learn of her subsequent success in life and dedication to healing the wounds of war. The book’s value to Laotian families in diaspora is of course incalculable.
Charlotte Richardson
May 2011
By: Aline Pereira,
on 4/14/2009
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Laos, Hmong, World Literacy, @My Library, Carol Kresge, Luang Prabang, Add a tag
Laos is gorgeous, picturesque, and on the UN Human Development Index it ranks 133 out of 177 nations. It’s a country in which 41% of the population is under the age of fourteen and where per capita income is low. Books are hard to come by for Laos children and says American Carol Kresge, “Books matter.”
Living in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site, Carol ensures that not only are books available for the residents of that city– there is also a library that goes far beyond the norm. @My Library has 1200 books, with 1000 of those checked out every month, and classes in English and Laos typing, computer skills, art, photography and calligraphy. Five different languages are taught, and there is a music room with guitars, keyboards, synthesizers and a recording studio for Laos and Hmong music.
There’s a gallery showing the work of the photography students–if a photograph is purchased, 50 percent of the proceeds go to the photographer and the other half to the library, which is a non-profit institution. There is no charge to check out books, and the classes are free.
@MyLibrary is open six days a week, with 150 users a day, most of them between the ages of 14 and 27. It’s run by Carol and five Laos staff members, with the help of an innovative program called Stay Another Day. This enlists the assistance of travelers, enticing them to serve as volunteer language teachers or sharing their skills with other classes.
The library is a place to find books in the Hmong language, as well as in English and Laos. The most popular book? It’s Malaysian author Billi Lim’s Dare to Fail. And in a culture where perfectionism can hamper effort, Carol Kresge is delighted that in her library, this is a title that is rarely on the shelf.
By: Aline Pereira,
on 11/11/2008
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Children's Books, Young Adult Books, literacy, India, Eventful World, South Africa, The Tiger's Bookshelf, Book Chat, Cambodia, Room to Read, W Authors, L Title, John Wood, Laos, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, Sri Lanka, Zambia, Add a tag
Sometimes the simplest remark can be the most transforming. “Perhaps, sir, you will come back with books,” a Nepalese headmaster said to John Wood, a vacationing Microsoft employee, as they stood in a school library that had twenty books that “were all backpacker cast-offs.” Haunted by the thought of children who might never know the joy of reading, Wood returned home and spent a year gathering children’s books. He went back to the headmaster with 3,000 volumes and a new direction for his life. John Wood decided that bringing books to children who have none was his vocation and Room to Read was born, as he tells readers in Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.
Wood put together an organization with staff who share his dream and his passion, aided by a fundraising network of more than 3,000 people. The core programs of Room to Read are the Reading Room which has built 5,600 libraries, Local Language Publishing which publishes and distributes books written both in English and the local language, the School Room which works with local communities to build schools with 444 in use, the Room to Grow Girls’ Scholarship that enables 4,000 girls to complete their secondary education, and the Computer and Language Room which builds computer and language labs.
Found in India, Sri Lanka, Zambia, South Africa, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, Room to Read is vitalized by donations and volunteers, who have discovered how they can help by going to www.roomtoread.org. All share a common goal—to have built 10,000 libraries by 2010.
Scheduled half-day visits to a Room to Read site are welcome with advance arrangement.
One man, one dream, 3,000 books– one optimistic remark changed a life and consequently thousands of lives are being changed through the power of reading and the joy of literacy, all over the world.