1. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Before you begin, read the Author’s Note on pp and then turn the page to the extras and read the interview with Thanhha Lai on pp 3-6 and writing poetry tips on p 9. After finishing the book, the group could consider the discussion questions on p 10.

2. Part 1 Saigon pp 1-69 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7geet54LVU
Read the poems in this section noting lines you especially like that you can share with the group.
I’ll share mine on the next couple of slides.
Then let’s summarize what has happened from
February 11 through April 30 in South Viet Nam
and in Kim Ha’s family.

3. FYI Remember that the / signifies a line break
FYI Remember that the / signifies a line break. I’m using this in all the excerpts I share to save space.
Can you guess why I like these lines even before I tell you?
No one can sweep,/for why sweep away hope?/No one can splash water,/for why splash away joy? (p 1)
An old angry knot/expanded in my throat (p 2)
I can’t make my brothers/go live elsewhere,/but I can/hide their sandals (p 5)
I would still be standing there/crying and waving to nothing/if Brother Khoi hadn’t
come/to take my hand (p 11)
From now on/Fridays/will be for/happy news No one has anything/
to say. (p 18)
Two More Papayas p 21. Write a food poem modeled on this

4. Brother Quang says,/One cannot justify war/unless each side/flaunts its own/blind conviction./Since starting college,/he shows off even more/with tangled words. (p 25)
Everyone’s future changed/upon learning the name/Ho Chi Minh. (p 27)
pp 30-31, Birthday Wishes begins with “Wishes I keep to myself…” Try writing your own list poem beginning with the same line and consisting of your wishes. Or model a list poem on Left Behind on pp
Her brows/twist like laundry/being wrung dry. (p 37)
No matter what Mother decides,/we are not to leave./I must protect my chick/and you your papayas. (p 46)
I love her more/for her scars. (p 55)
But our family sticks together/like wet pages. (p 61)
Everyone knows the ship/could sink,/unable to hold/the piles of bodies/that keep crawling on/
like raging ants/from a disrupted nest (p 63)
Then he adds/what no one wants to hear:It’s over/Saigon is gone.(p 69)

5. Part II At Sea pp
Continue your reading with poems in this section noting lines you especially like that you can share with the group.
I’ll share mine on the next couple of slides.
Then let’s summarize what has happened from May 1 through August 8 during the perilous migration

6. We must consider the shame/of abandoning our own country/and begging toward the unknown/where we will all begin again/at the lowest level/on the social scale. (p 79)
A flattened chick/lies crooked,/neck dangling/off his palm (p 84)
and I smile,/but I regret/not having my doll/as soon as the white bundle/sinks into the sea (p 86)
Mother says,/People share/when they know/they have escaped hunger. Shouldn’t people share/because there is hunger? (p 93)
Someone catches/a sea creature/puffy and watery/like a cucumber. (p 100)
My head whirls/and my breath stinks/for days/ I do not mind. (p 102)
What’s the point.../if you lose the last/tangible remnant of love?
I don’t understand/what he said/but I agree (p 104)
Mother can barely eat,/while Brother Quang/picks at the skin at his elbows…
Just like that/Mother amends our faith,/saying all beliefs/are pretty much the same. (p 108)

7. Part III Alabama pp
Continue your reading noting lines you especially like that you can share with the group. Let’s do this together in sections within Part III since so much is going on. I’d love for anyone who is a good performance reader to read aloud too
pp Cowboy’s house and grammar rules
pp Adjusting, school, bullies
pp Neighbors, Miss Washington, church, longings, more
grammar, friends
pp life goes on, new discoveries, ups and downs
pp emotions explode, escape
Then we’ll summarize what has happened from August 15 through December 21 in this longest and emotionally impacting section, and share why we think this part may have hit us hardest.

8. The poems in Thanhha Lia’s (Ha’s) book truly tell a powerful story.
Part IV From Now On pp
Let’s read this short section and share our final feelings. I’ll share some lines I focused on, although it occurs to me that many of the lines I’ve highlighted throughout the book are more philosophical than poetically musical as the poems from Home of the Brave, Out of the Dust, and other books in this group were.
The poems in Thanhha Lia’s (Ha’s) book truly tell a powerful story.
I almost scream/because the doll/with long black hair/is so beautiful. But I whisper, Thank you (p 239)
I can’t think of anything/but can’t let my brothers best me,/so I blurt out,/What if/Father is really gone? (p 240)
I look down/at the tiny blue flower/barely stitched on./I rip it off./Nightgown no more. (p 245)
...propelled by Mother’s/wild eyes and/pressed mouth,/frightened of what/her expression would be/if…(p 249)
Father won’t leave/if we hold on to him./If you feel like crying,/think/at least now/we know...
At least/we no longer live/in waiting (p 252)
Being stubborn/won’t make you fluent/Practicing will!/The more mistakes you make,/the more you’ll learn not to. (p 253)
Our lives/will twist and twist,/intermingling the old and the new/until it doesn’t matter/which is which (p 257)
This year I hope/I truly learn/to fly kick,/not to kick anyone/so much as/to fly. January 31, Tet (p 260)

9. Let’s share adjectives that describe the main characters, especially Ha, her mother, and Miss Washington.
Put yourself in Ha’s place if you can. How would you have handled all this?
How can you become one of the people who welcome, unify, understand, show love and patience toward an “outsider”?
Are you a more “aware” person than you were before? Again, and always, what is the value and power of language and the written word?

10. https://www. youtube. com/watch
Let’s listen to parts of the book that Thanhha Lai chose to share. After my earlier comments on finding more philosophy than poetry in this book, I may amend my views after hearing this. Poems should always be heard aloud.