Inside Out & Back Again by: Thanha Lai

No on would believe me
but at times
I would choose
wartime in Saigon
over
peacetime in Alabama.

For all the ten years of her life, Ha has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.

But know the Vietnam War has reached her home, Ha and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Ha discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coolness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.

This is a moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
"Open this book, read it slowly to savor the delicious language. Before closing it, go back to the beginning, this time to let the story of ten-year-old Ha and the year she escaped from south Vietnam, 1975, leaving behind the world she knew and loved, sink in. Read it again to notice how perfect the thin line of the prose itself mirrors the thin line that Ha walks that year. This is a book that asks the reader to be careful, to pay attention, to sigh at the end."
~Kathi Appelt
Reading this book was like eating a satisfying and delicious meal. All you do at the end is get lost in thought and sigh of peace and happiness.
I would recommend this book for ages 8 and up.

Coming of Age, Outcasts Bond: Tears of the Phoenix

Debut novelist Lonnie Beerman convincingly recreates the dark side of a small southern

town in this coming of age story of three young boys who are able to band together as

outcasts in a forbidding world of prejudice and bigotry.

McKinney, TX - Jan 16, 2012 - Author Lonnie Beerman has released Tears of the Phoenix. Beerman's novel is the carefully told tale of three boys moving toward manhood while sorting out their relationships with their fathers and with the sometimes harsh adult world they are wondering how best to enter.

Each of the three young heroes of Beerman's debut novel has found himself an outcast among his peers, isolated by playground taunts and by being the butt of every ill-

tempered joke at school. One day a violent playground assault by bullying boys suddenly brings the three of them together and -- no longer isolated -- they find they now each have someone they can call a friend.

The compressed world of isolation they have been living in opens up for them that summer as their new friendships with each other blossom and they bond happily in the shared adventures of warm vacation days.

Soon old prejudices and bigotries of their small town return, however, and the boys struggle to cope with a once again dark world, despite their new solidarity together. Then one hateful remark reveals a secret that threatens to destroy one of the boy's worlds, and the others must grapple with new questions they find difficult to sort out.

The boys' families have also begun to draw closer together and while personal tragedies change their lives, all draw closer together and all find new shoulders to lean on during these heartbreaks. The boys' mothers, in particular, discover new friendships of their own and begin to discover more about themselves as they watch their sons grow.

Beerman shows how at that age boys are forced to ponder their relationships with their fathers, or the lack of a relationship with one, and the new novelist engages readers well in the tragedies and family secrets that prompt these three boys to wonder what it means to be a man and what it will mean to them eventually to be fathers.

About the author:

Lonnie Beerman is married and is the father of a daughter and a son. He's a dog lover and an avid car enthusiast. In this first novel Lonnie delves into the complexities of family relationships and social bigotries and offers insight into the importance of love, friendship and acceptance.