Newbery Challenge Mini-Reviews
It's only March, and I've read four of the six books I selected for the Newbery Reading Challenge. I reviewed Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming last month. Here are mini-reviews of the other three Newbery books I've read so far: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai This novel, based on the author's own experiences, follows 10-year-old Hà as she and her family flee Saigon during the Vietnam War, ultimately ending up in the United States, in Alabama. This is a child's perspective of not only a complex political situation and humanitarian crisis, but a family crisis as well: Hà's father was missing, so they had to leave Saigon without him. Hà talks about the painful process of learning English: She…