Thanhha Lai author page

Thanhha Lai biography

Thanhhà Lai is a children’s and young adult author whose debut novel, Inside Out & Back Again, was published by Harper/HarperCollins on 22 February 2011. The novel is written in verse and is rooted in the author’s childhood experiences. It follows 10-year-old Kim Hà in Saigon in 1975, her family’s escape after the fall of Saigon, and their new life in Alabama.

Inside Out & Back Again won the 2011 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The book was published by Harper and centres on Hà, whose life changes when the Vietnam War reaches Saigon and her family leaves for Alabama.

Lai has written for middle grade readers and young adults. Listen, Slowly was published by Harper and follows 12-year-old Mai, who travels to Vietnam with her father and grandmother to learn what happened to her grandfather during the Vietnam War. Butterfly Yellow, published by HarperCollins on 3 September 2019, was Lai’s first young adult novel and follows Hằng, a Vietnamese refugee searching in Texas for her younger brother.

Lai returned to Hà’s story in When Clouds Touch Us, a sequel to Inside Out & Back Again. Harper/HarperCollins published When Clouds Touch Us on 9 May 2023; the verse novel follows 12-year-old Hà after her family considers moving from Alabama to Texas.

Thanhhà Lại teaching resources

• Thanhhà Lại’s official website provides a biography and information about her picture books, middle-grade novels and young adult fiction, including Inside Out & Back Again, Listen, Slowly and Butterfly Yellow.
• Thanhhà Lại’s school-visits page provides booking information for school, library and book-club appearances in communities reading her work, together with workshops on writing picture books, middle-grade fiction and young adult fiction.
• HarperCollins’ Inside Out & Back Again discussion guide is a two-page PDF with 15 discussion questions and extension activities involving Tết research, poetry, plant journals, representations of Vietnam and family interviews about war and displacement.
• Reading Is Fundamental’s Inside Out & Back Again resource page provides materials for grades 3-7, including a discussion guide, anticipation guide, figurative-language organizer, printable word search and interactive Criss Cross activity.
• The National Education Association’s Butterfly Yellow page links to an educator guide and classroom resources about immigration, Vietnamese refugee children and Vietnamese American history, with themes including courage, culture, family and friendship.