When Clouds Touch Us, Thanhhà Lại's stand-alone sequel to Inside Out & Back Again, features the same kind of gorgeous prose and memorable moments that won the 2011 title the National Book Award and a Newbery Honor.
Two years ago, Hà and her family escaped the Vietnam War and found safety in Alabama. She is dismayed now at the prospect of moving to Texas, where the promise of better work and better pay awaits her mother and older brothers. When the family arrives at their disappointing lodgings, Hà's mother gives the girl wise advice: "Inconveniences/ at your feet/ do not matter,/... / lengthen your gaze/ toward where/ land meets clouds." Hà aches "to know/ how much longer/ until clouds touch us,/ ending refugee living." In Texas, Hà makes a new friend and earns some money but still feels displaced. When she learns of the My Lai Massacre at school, the students all turn to her, the only Asian student, and say, "Did you know?" And Lại's lines of poetry give the response: "I've become/ an outsider/ to my own war."
As Lại beautifully illustrates Hà's straddling of two cultures and her desire to fit in, she draws a portrait of a life in which Hà and her siblings contribute toward making a home of their own, both literally and metaphorically. Her portrayal of the universal need for family, friendship, and a sense of belonging will resonate with middle-grade readers. --Jennifer M. Brown, senior editor, Shelf Awareness