This year, there were only two Newbery honor books. Last year, there were four. This year, they are all semi-autobiographical, historical fiction novels. Last year, three of them were historical fiction and the fourth was poetry. I hope this is a phase that the committee is going through. One that will end soon. I’d like to see a little more variety.
Newbery Honor book, Inside Out and Back Again, is the story of a ten-year-old girl named Há and the year she left South Vietnam, before the fall of Saigon, and ended up in Alabama with her mother and three older brothers. Her father has been missing in action almost as long as she has been alive.
The novel is written in free verse. At least one reviewer has pointed out that the free verse mimics the broken English of a new immigrant. I tend to agree. The story is told in a limited way. It is as if there was more that could be told, but she isn’t able to express it. I almost wish it was written in prose, written as though she had full control over the language. That there was more to the story. Of course, you know, I am no poetry lover, but I certainly appreciate being able to read a novel in a day.
I find that this book resonates more for me as a story about bullying rather than as a story about immigration. It reminds me of a book called Pinduli written by Jannell Cannon. A young hyena is teased by dog, lion and zebra. Later, the hyena, looking like a Great Spirit, confronts the three. It turns out that each was tormented by fox, vulture, and owl. The Great Spirit tells them to confront their own tormentors. But the tormentors were retaliating for harsh words received from serval, stork and adder. And of course, these three had originally been teased by dog, lion and zebra. A great circle of bullying completed.
In this novel, Há faces both racial and religious prejudice. In a state where blacks sit on one side of the cafeteria and whites sit on the other, Há, who considers herself brown, doesn’t know where she belongs and chooses to eat in the bathroom instead. Here is a place where I’d like more description. She didn’t try to sit with either side. She chose to eat alone. Is this prejudice as well?
One white boy in particular and his friends choose to pick on her. A black boy and a white girl choose to befriend her together. A group of three black girls alternately put barrettes into her hair one day and the following day they take them out and yank on her hair. At one point Há retaliates back with her own words. I find it most interesting that Há complains about the other children poking her, prodding her and pulling on her arm hair when she did the same thing, out of curiosity as well, to the Navy sailor who rescued her and her family when they were stranded at sea.
Back when Há was still at home and comfortable in South Vietnam, she used to torment the girl she shared her desk with in school. Há liked to make her cry even though she knew it was wrong and perhaps because she was jealous. The other girl was the teacher’s pet and Há’s mother wanted them to be friends.
Finally, Há must confess to her mother her past wrongs because she cannot hold them inside any longer. She feels that she is being punished in the present because of her past and she wants to know when it will stop. Her mother also suffers from the past, from the absence of her husband. They both must let go and move on.
No comments:
Post a Comment