Mary Quattlebaum (Children's Literature)
This month, families can celebrate Asian American Month by delving into Tangled Threads, a novel by Pegi Deitz Shea about a Hmong girl's journey from a Thai refugee camp in 1994 to Providence, Rhode Island. After ten years in the camp, 13-year-old Mai and her grandmother can join the family of her uncle, who helped American soldiers during the Vietnam War. Mai longs to taste pizza and ride in fine cars, but the America she experiences can be a confusing blur. Her Hmong girl cousins sport American names and clothing. Grandma refuses to learn English and relies on Mai to shop and deal with welfare agents. Then Mai discovers the great lie Grandma has told her. The only thing that seems to bind the two any more is their pa'ndau, the Hmong narrative story cloths they stitch. A poignant novel that turns on a child's ability to forgive and move forward with hope. 2004, Clarion, $15.00. Ages 10 up.

Caroline Haugen (Children's Literature)
Mai Yang has lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for the majority of her life. She and her grandmother have been waiting for ten years to join the rest of their family in Providence, Rhode Island. Mai has lived through her cousin's letters from America and she looks forward to their new life, even though her parents have died. Most of the story takes place once the two have finally reached the United States. Mai is torn between what she has learned as Hmong girl and what this new country is telling her to do. Mai's cousin has rebelled against the family and it has caused problems for everyone. Their new life is not exactly how Mai had pictured it. Shea gives an excellent perspective on the problems a young immigrant could face. Mai's grandmother has significant problems adjusting to new customs, and this frustrates her family. Generational difficulties are quite common among immigrating families. The children are struggling to adopt a totally new culture while the adults are struggling to hold on to their traditions. Mai, even though she is young, helps the reader understand how important the balance is between these two attitudes. Mai learns to be an extremely strong Hmong-American of whom her family is proud. This book would be of special interest to children with immigrant friends or those interested in different cultures. 2003, Clarion/Houghton Mifflin, $15.00. Ages 11 up.

Phyllis Kennemer, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Mia was only three years old when she and her grandmother had escaped from Laos leaving her dead parents behind. They had been living in a tiny hut in a refuge camp in Thailand for ten years, eating meager rations of worm infested food and stitching pa'ndau (story cloths). Mia longs for the day that they will be able to leave and join their family in Rhode Island. When their names are called, she is so sick she is afraid they will be turned down. They are approved. The travel across the jungle is difficult and Mia barely escapes being raped in the transition camp. At last she is rejoined with her uncle's family. She is amazed at the changes in her cousins. A few years older than Mia, they have taken American names and seem to be only interested in boys. Mia adjusts well to her new school and makes Hmong friends, attempting to blend her traditional customs with the strange ways of this new place. Grandmother does not fare so well. She feels uprooted and disoriented. Mia becomes the strong one taking Grandmother to appointments, translating for her, and making important decisions. A sensitive story about both the pleasures and the problems of settling into a new land and culture. 2003, Clarion/Houghton Mifflin, $15.00. Ages 12 to 16.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2004)
Thirteen-year-old Mai has spent most of her entire life living with her grandmother in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand. Life in the camp is hard, and she dreams of joining her uncle and cousins who immigrated to Providence, Rhode Island, five years earlier. When she and her grandmother finally get the chance to resettle in the United States, they find that life in America has its own challenges: there's a new language, a new way of life, and it's unbearably cold. Grandma has such a difficult time adjusting and is so terribly homesick that Mai feels obliged to take care of her as best she can. One of the ways she can do this is by helping stitch and then sell pan dau storycloths and other traditional Hmong embroidery, at which both Mai and her grandmother are skilled. Mai has her older cousins, Heather and Lisa, to teach her the customs of American teen life, but she soon begins to suspect that Heather's disrespect for her elders goes way beyond what's acceptable for American teens. Based on extensive research, Pegi Deitz Shea has written an absorbing coming-of-age story that deals realistically with the hardships faced by Hmong refugees both in Thailand and in the United States. CCBC categories: Fiction for Young Adults; The Arts; Understanding Oneself and Others; Contemporary People, Places, and Events; Historical People, Places, and Events. 2003, Clarion, 236 pages, $15.00. Ages 12-14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2003 (Vol. 71, No. 17))
After ten years in a Thai camp as Laotian refugees, 13-year-old Mai Yang and her grandmother finally leave for the US. Mai's thrilled: transition classes have helped her learn English and to familiarize herself with the American way of life, and she'll be reunited with relatives in Providence. Despite the privations and casual rapes by brutal soldiers that were commonplace in the camp, tradition-bound Grandmother is less overjoyed. Once Mai has met her Americanized relatives, though, she has cause to be doubtful herself-and then appalled when her cousins reveal a shocking secret. Shea's text successfully portrays the turmoil, excitement, and heartbreak that come with repatriating. Adjusting to a new country and culture is never easy; the ideal is to blend the best of old and new, as Mai seems on her way to doing by the satisfying conclusion. 2003, Clarion, $15.00. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 14. © 2003 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, September 2003 (Vol. 37, No. 5))
Thousands of Hmong people came to the U.S. from Laos as political refugees in the 1980s, and this story is about one teenager who spent ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand before coming with her grandmother to settle in Providence, Rhode Island. The Hmong women are known for their careful needlework, the stories of their lives sewn into small murals. (I have one on the wall of my office in front of me, showing people leaving their villages, swimming across the Mekong, and entering a new life on the other side of the river.) This is Mai's story, essentially, except the threads of her family's life are tangled. Mai's parents were killed in their village when Mai was a toddler, and her elderly grandmother cared for her on the escape to Thailand and in the long years in the camps. This grandmother has taught Mai the ways of her people, and she knows it will be hard to keep the traditions once the family relocates in America. When Mai and her grandmother come to Rhode Island and live next to relatives who came five years before them, it's clear that the Hmong children have a difficult time adjusting to the new life and at the same time keeping the traditional customs. Mai's teenage cousins are breaking all the rules and getting into trouble. Mai does meet other Hmong girls at school who seem to be able to negotiate the two worlds slightly better, and through them Mai joins a dancing troupe that will perform Hmong dances. Shea has many friends among the Hmong community and she has absorbed their stories as well as read about other Hmong experiences: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is listed in the bibliography, for instance--the best-selling book about a true situation in California when a Hmong child was sick and her parents and the American doctors were totally in disagreement as to how the child should be healed. Another book listed is I Begin My Life All Over: the Hmong and the American Immigrant Experience--both these books have been reviewed in KLIATT. Shea tells Mai's story well, in a way that will appeal to other immigrant teenagers caught between two cultures, and all readers who are interested in other cultures. There are many emotional scenes, and Mai's experiences are filled with hardship and challenge. A Thai soldier tries to rape her at the camp in Thailand, for instance, and she finds a way to escape him, though her best friend wasn't so fortunate. This friend returns to Laos and leads a traditional Hmong life while Mai is starting anew in America--her letter to Mai tells of an arranged marriage to a much older man who already has several wives. In fact, arranged marriages are the norm for Hmong people, and this is one of the major conflicts in Americanized families: the girls don't want to be married so young (usually at about 15), and they certainly want to be free to choose their husbands--and perhaps their choice won't be a Hmong boy. Shea tells all these basics well in the novel, and she creates in the character of Mai a smart, determined young woman who is trying to figure out how to live in the new world. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Houghton Mifflin/Clarion, 236p. bibliog., $15.00. Ages 12 to 18.

Ingrid Seitz, (The ALAN Review, Spring/Summer 2004 (Vol. 31, No. 3))
Thirteen-year-old Mai and her grandma were able to escape Laos following the massacre of her parents, but the Thai refugee camp where they have lived for the past 10 years has hardly been a refuge. They have endured the pangs of hunger brought on by too little food for the tens of thousands of people living there, the brutality of the soldiers who watch their every move, as well as separation from their only remaining relatives. But now, they are finally able to join Mai's uncle and his family in America. The adjustment to life in a foreign country, its new language, strange culture, food, and religious practices, however, threaten to break the spirit of Grandma Yang, while causing hope, excitement, and confusion for young Mai. Their story is preserved on the fabric of pa'ndau, the ancient Hmong art of embroidery skillfully stitched by Grandma and lovingly passed on to Mai. It serves as the common thread that sustains their memories of the past and Mai's hopes for the future. Category: Immigration. YA--Young Adult. 2003, Clarion Books, 236 pp., $15.00. Ages young adult.Manhattan, KS

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2003 (Vol. 57, No. 4))
After ten years in an overcrowded refugee camp, Mai and her grandmother are finally leaving to join what is left of their family in America. Upon arriving in Providence, Rhode Island, Mai threads a delicate path through a maze of ambivalent feelings toward Hmong customs and American opportunity. Her way becomes harder when she realizes that her grandmother could have brought her to America five years earlier, but refused. Angry yet silenced due to a lifetime of enforced respect for elders, she longs for some of her cousin Heather’s spunk, even as she disapproves of Heather’s deceit and open disrespect for her father. Mai works hard to learn American customs and language, especially the art of the white lie, made alarmingly easy for her by her role as translator for her grandmother. When Heather runs away to be with her boyfriend and her grandmother suffers a heart attack, Mai has to reassess what she values. Shea captures the complicated emotions of a thirteen-year-old girl in the midst of enormous personal change. Through various characters, she offers Mai a full platter of responses and consequences for the decisions she must make. Her friend from the camps has returned to a traditional life in Laos, Heather has opted for a fully American transformation, her other cousin, Lisa, walks a middle ground by secretly developing a relationship with a Hmong boy (when their parents find out, they negotiate a marriage, even though Lisa is only sixteen), her school friends attempt to keep their Hmong heritage alive through participating in festivals and practicing traditional arts, and her teachers and doctor model for her the joys of pursuing a profession. The details of Mai’s journey move the story off the page into multiple curricular possibilities for cross-cultural study and understanding. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2003, Clarion, 240p, $15.00. Grades 5-9.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2004)
Thirteen-year-old Mai leaves the Thai refugee camp where she's lived for ten years for a new home in Providence, Rhode Island. There she is torn between Hmong traditions and modern American culture, between her old-world grandmother and her Americanized teen cousins. Despite some amateurish writing, this is an accessible and immediate novel, and a welcome addition to the immigrant-experience canon. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2003, Clarion, 236pp, $15.00. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.

Janet Henderson (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 16, No. 4))
For ten years Mai has been living with her grandmother in a Thai refugee camp for Hmong refugees. Orphaned at the age of three when her parents were killed by the Pathet Lao “yellow rain”, Mai and her grandmother endure horrible conditions of overcrowding, dire poverty, hunger, and abuse by the Thai soldiers. For years, Mai’s body has been racked by an unexplained sickness that the local shaman cannot cure. Finally, they receive approval to join their extended family in America. Mai has visions of a “promised land” overflowing with pizza, coke, rides in cars, a cure for her mysterious illness, and most of all, with renewing family ties with her cousins. When Mai and her grandmother arrive in Rhode Island, though, they are faced with unexpected cultural challenges. Mai’s two cousins have abandoned their Hmong names in favor of American names; they have rejected Hmong traditions and embraced the American way of life completely. The very fabric of their family is unraveling. Mai is torn between respectful obedience for her elders, honor for her Hmong culture, and her own desire for independence. As is often the case with multigenerational families of immigrants, Mai adapts well to life in America, while her grandmother flounders. Mai quickly absorbs the English language and eagerly learns how to make use of the “newfangled” American gadgets such as microwaves, stoves, televisions, etc. The roles have become reversed, and Mai’s grandmother relies on her like a helpless child; she finds the American culture overwhelming and confusing. She relies heavily upon Mai for explanations and guidance; Mai resents her grandmother’s dependence and has difficulty coping with her previously strong caregiver’s weakness. In her first novel, Ms. Shea effectively presents the issues that immigrants face when they arrive in America. Her portrayal of conditions in the refugee camps gives readers a glimpse into the hardships these disenfranchised people have endured. This is a very worthwhile book for American children to read since it provides a perspective to which many school kids aren’t exposed. The author’s “Afterword” gives important background information about the Hmong people, their traditions, and the political conditions that made them refugees. The glossary defines and gives pronunciations for Hmong and Thai words. Fiction. Grades 5-8. 2003, Clarion Books, 236p., $15.00. Ages 10 to 14.

Michael Levy (VOYA, December 2003 (Vol. 26, No. 5))
In what is essentially a sequel to her fine picture book The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story (Boyds Mills Press, 1995), Shea tells the tale of Mai Yang, a Hmong girl growing up under her grandmother's guidance in the grim Ban Vinai refugee camp on the Thai border. Mai, now thirteen, lost her parents to a North Vietnamese poison gas attack and can barely remember life outside the camp. When word comes that she and her grandmother have been chosen to immigrate to the United States where she has family in Providence, Rhode Island, Mai is filled with joy. But life in her new country turns out to be harder than Mai expected. Even her cousins, now named Heather and Lisa, seem strange and at times hostile. Her grandmother, a strong support back in Thailand, is even more bewildered by life in their new home than Mai is. There have been many young adult novels about East and Southeast Asians adjusting to life in the West in recent years, but few as engaging as this one. Mai is a delightful protagonist, and Shea adeptly uses her first-person narrative to fully engage the reader in Mai's struggle to understand and be accepted. This book is also important because it is the first YA novel of any sort with a Hmong protagonist. Libraries with Hmong patrons should purchase multiple copies. The book is good enough to be enjoyed by any middle school student. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2003, Clarion, 240p., $15. Ages 11 to 15.