Mai can only see a summer away from Southern California, which is the only roots she knows-her friends and her life and the boy she has a crush on. Bà is returning to the village where she and Ông lived, which means Mai will have the chance to “discover her roots” as her mother puts it. Mai’s summer is ruined when her parents ship her off to Vietnam to be company for her grandmother, who’s received word that her husband, lost to The War decades ago, might still be alive. To stay updated about Thanhhà's writing, visit and follow her on social media: Thanhhà lives with her husband, daughter and a little white dog just north of New York City. When Clouds Touch Us is out May 9th, 2023. Her latest book is When Clouds Touch Us, the long-awaited sequel to Inside Out & Back Again. Her debut picture book is Hundred Years of Happiness, illustrated by Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien.

Next was Listen, Slowly, another middle grade novel featuring a young Vietnamese-American girl. 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. She switched to fiction, leading to an MFA from New York University and short story publications in various journals and anthologies. Starting her writing life as a journalist, she worked at The Orange County Register. There, she learned English from fourth graders and then spent the next decade correcting her grammar. At the end of the war, she fled with her family to Alabama.

Listen, Slowly by Thanhhà Lại