Comment

Jul 02, 2019DBRL_IdaF rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The birth of Thi Bui's child triggered a strong desire to learn and share more of her family history. She illustrates how each of her parents grew up and how they met in Vietnam, including a bit of background history of the country itself. They started a family there before fleeing as refugees when Thi was a very small child, and her mother was 8 months pregnant. We see them adapting, and sometimes failing to adapt, to life in the United States, and the evolution of family dynamics over the years. The author, now a mother herself, comes to realize how both her parents' and her own early trauma have informed her life, even as she comes to an understanding of what little control adults sometimes have over their own circumstances. She comes to see her parents as human beings. It's a story both unique and universal. The drawings and text perfectly complement each other to evoke the feeling of each event.