Kerisa Greene’s I Am Both: A Vietnamese Refugee Story begins with a muggy day in Saigon, in Vietnam. Hu’o’ng is awoken by her father and rushed off to school, as they enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the street life—swaying baskets, loaded bicycles, bánh mì sandwiches and durian.
At school, she learns the Vietnamese alphabet, math, and other lessons. Suddenly, the class is interrupted by the sounds and shaking from a bombing. The children are trying to learn while in a war zone and under indirect fire.
That night, the parents and ten children head for the airport to leave the city that is soon to fall. Their resettlement means new habits, new sounds, new foods, new friends, new neighborhoods, and even a new name.
In I Am Both: A Vietnamese Refugee Story, the little girl Hu’o’ng (aka Jennifer) is both Vietnamese and American. The illustrations are sweet and joyful. They belie the harrowing experiences of those living in a war zone with encroaching enemy forces from the North in a particularly perilous moment.
In the Author’s Note, the Greene shares the fact that her extended family was on the “Last Flight Out” of Saigon on April 24, 1975. She writes: “We are incredibly grateful for Pan Am’s dedication to getting their employees and their families out of Vietnam safely.”
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
