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Thanhhà Lại

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.thanhhalai.com

Twitter

ThanhhaLai

Genre

Fiction, Children's, Young Adult

Member Since

February 2015

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/thanhhalai

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Please contact my website with messages www.thanhhalai.com

Thanhhà Lại was born in Vietnam. At the end of the war, she fled with her family to Alabama. There, she learned English from fourth graders and then spent the next decade correcting her grammar. Starting her writing life as a journalist, she worked at The Orange County Register. She switched to fiction, leading to an MFA from New York University and short story publications in various journals and anthologies. Then came Inside Out & Back Again, a National Book Award and Newbery Honor-winning verse novel based in part on her childhood as a refugee in Alabama. Next was Listen, Slowly, another middle grade novel featuring a young Vietnamese-American girl. Butterfly Yellow is her first Y ...more

5 posts
Thanhhà Lại's Blog

When Clouds Touch Us is out May 9th!

"Hà and her family have worked hard to make a life for themselves in the US, but it hasn’t come easy. Hà has only just started to feel settled when Mother decides that the family will move to Texas for a new job.

Hà knows how hard starting over is and doesn’t want to have to do it again. But sometimes even an unwanted change can bring opportunity, new friends, and a place to call home."

My upcoming Read more of this blog post »

5 likes · Like • 1 comment • flag

Published on April 04, 2023 15:05

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Combine Editions
Thanhhà Lại’s books

Average rating: 4.08 · 79,556 ratings · 11,160 reviews · 10 distinct works • Similar authors

	Inside Out & Back Again 4.12 avg rating — 66,464 ratings — published 2011 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Listen, Slowly 3.89 avg rating — 6,916 ratings — published 2015 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Butterfly Yellow 3.84 avg rating — 3,559 ratings — published 2019 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	When Clouds Touch Us 3.72 avg rating — 1,244 ratings — published 2023 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	True Stories by Jon Scieszka, Jim Murphy, Elizabeth Partridge 3.70 avg rating — 610 ratings — published 2014 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hundred Years of Happiness by Thanhhà Lại (Goodreads Author), Nguyen Quang (Illustrator), Kim Lien (Illustrator) 4.17 avg rating — 406 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Our Story Begins: Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids by Elissa Brent Weissman (Goodreads Author), Kwame Alexander, Tom Angleberger (Goodreads Author) 4.01 avg rating — 296 ratings — published 2017 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thanhha Lai Young Readers' Collection: Inside Out and Back Again and Listen, Slowly 4.18 avg rating — 87 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El año del Gato really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lại (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Thanhhà Lại…

Series by Thanhhà Lại

Inside Out and Back Again (2 books)
by

Thanhhà Lại (Goodreads Author)

4.11 avg rating — 67,695 ratings

Ellen Oh is an award-winning author of middle grade and young adult novels such as Spirit Hunters, The Dragon Egg Princess, and A Thousand...

Polls

Which book should be our December group read?

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

3 votes, 60.0%

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

1 vote, 20.0%

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

1 vote, 20.0%

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

0 votes, 0.0%

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

0 votes, 0.0%

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

0 votes, 0.0%

5 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Mock Newbery 2026: Starting Over	72	305	Jul 26, 2011 09:02PM
Literary Fiction ...: Jesmyn Ward and Nikki Finney Win National Book Awards	5	52	Jan 03, 2012 08:47AM
Mock Newbery 2026: Newbery 2012	2	114	Jan 11, 2012 07:50AM
Reading with Style: WI 11-12 Completed Tasks	1093	413	Feb 29, 2012 08:44PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2011: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2866	790	Feb 29, 2012 09:03PM
Mock Newbery 2026: * Newbery 2012 Awards	26	346	Mar 16, 2012 01:16PM
Wild Things: YA G...: Reading Challenge #11 - Report Points Here	163	160	Apr 11, 2012 05:36PM

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Thanhhà’s Quotes

“Y'all have a song?'

H nods. 'Bất-tơ-phơ-lai de-lồ.'

'Butterfly yellow? You mean yellow butterfly.'

H starts to explain but pulls out her notebook. The most prepared notetaker on earth.

Bướm = butterfly, vàng = yellow.”
― Thanhha Lai, Butterfly Yellow

tags: butterfly, historical-fiction, immigrants, language-learning, refugees, song, texas, vietnamese, yellow, young-adult

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“The gray guilt had grown heavy, refusing to pause its relentless infusion into her joints and marrow. After all, it was her fault her brother was taken.”
― Thanhha Lai, Butterfly Yellow

tags: guilt, historical-fiction, operation-babylift, refugees, siblings, vietnam, vietnamese

1 likes

“Should 'sleep' be plural? No, sleep is an idea, like love, no s. So many decisions in a single simple sentence. Exhausting, this elaborate dance of words.”
― Thanhha Lai, Butterfly Yellow