Young Adult Literature about Vietnam

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Young Adult Literature about Vietnam
By Joan Sizemore
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The Princess and the Admiral by Charlotte
Pomerantz

• A fleet of
• warships attacks
• the Tiny Kingdom
• ending 100 years
• of peace but a
• clever princess
• saves her land.

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• The Princess and the Admiral
• By Charlotte Pomerantz
• Illustrator Tony Chen
• Feminist Press at the City University of New York
• 1-55861-061-8
• 48 pages
• Grades 4-7

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SubGenres

• Stories with American protagonist in Vietnam
  during the American war
• Stories with Vietnamese protagonist during the
  American War
• Vietnamese trying to escape conflict
• Life in Vietnam before/during conflict
• Vietnamese Americans tracing their roots

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Stories with American protagonist in Vietnam
during the American war

• Welcome to Vietnam by Zack Emerson
• The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United
  States Marine Corps by Ellen Emerson White

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Welcome to Vietnam by Zack Emerson

• A nineteen-year-old
• American soldier in
• Vietnam performs a
• courageous act in
• the face of
• boredom,
• fear and danger.

Published by Scholastic.inc. 0-590-44591-X Some
Language Best Books for Young Adult Readers
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• Stories with Vietnamese protagonist during the
  American War

• The Man in the Box A Story from Vietnam by Mary
  Lois Dunn
• The Water Puppets Stories of the War in Vietnam
  by Clive Gifford
• Sing for Your Father , Su Phan by Stella Pevsner
• Sweet Dried Apples A Vietnamese Wartime
  Childhood

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The Man in the Box A Story from Vietnam by Mary
Lois Dunn

• When Chau Li was
• a boy the Viet Cong
• put his father into a
• box and let him die.
• Now an American
• soldier is in the
• same box.

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• The Man in the Box A Story from Vietnam
• Mary Lois Dunn
• Published 1971, 1997
• Blue Lantern Publishing
• 1-887303-16-2
• 104 pages
• 12.50
• Grades 6-12
• Won Childrens Sequoyah Award in 1972.

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The Water Puppets Stories from the War in
Vietnam by Clive Gifford

• In 1967 the farmers of Noy Thien village are
  caught in the midst of war as no one knows who is
  loyal to the Viet Cong. Xuan and his family are
  caught up in the struggle between two forces.

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• The Water Puppets A Story from the War in
  Vietnam
• By Clive Gifford
• September 2002
• Barrons Educational Series, Inc.
• 0-7641-2206-1
• 96 p.
• Trade cloth
• 4.95
• Grades 5-8 (ages 10-13)

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Sing for Your Father, Su Phan by Stella Pevsner

• The daughter of a
• Prosperous
• Chinese trader in
• North Vietnam is
• caught up in the
• tragedy of war must
• learn to survive

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• Sing for Your Father, Su Phan
• By Stella Pevsner and Fay Tang
• Sagebrush Educational Resources
• May, 1999
• 0-613-18277-4
• 12.40
• Grades 3-6

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Sweet Dried Apples A Vietnamese Childhood by
Rosemary Breckler

• This picture-book
• examines a
• childhood in war
• torn Vietnam and
• the relationship of a
• girl with her herbalist
• grandfather.

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• Sweet Dried Apples A Vietnamese Wartime
  Childhood
• Rosemary Breckler
• Illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray
• Houghton Mifflin Company
• 0-395-73570-X
• 32 pages
• Grades 1-4

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Vietnamese trying to escape conflict

• Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan
• The Voyage of the Lucky Dragon by Jack Bennett
• The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland
• Boat to Nowhere by Maureen Wartski
• Family from Vietnam by Tana Reiff

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Goodbye, VietnamBy Gloria Whelan

• Mais life is changed
• forever when her
• family escapes
• Vietnam, risking
• their lives by
• taking a boat to
• freedom.

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• Goodbye, Vietnam
• By Gloria Whelan
• Sagebrush Education Resources
• 0-7857-1676-9
• Library Binding
• 13.00
• Grades 3-6
• 135 pages

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The Voyage of the Lucky Dragon by Jack Bennett

• A young Vietnamese
• boy faces hardship
• as his family
• journeys by boat to
• Singapore,
• Indonesia and
• Australia seeking
• asylum.

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The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland
Leaving Vietnam for America, a young girl brings
a lotus seed with her to remember her homeland by.
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• The Lotus See
• Sherry Garland
• Harcourt Childrens Books
• February 1997
• 0-15-201483-7
• 32 pages
• Picture book
• Grade 1-6

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Life in Vietnam before/during conflict

• The Land I Lost Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam
  by Huynh Quang Nhuong
• Water Buffalo Days Growing up in Vietnam by
  Huynh Quang Nhuong
• Ba-Nam by Jeanne M. Lee
• Sweet Dried Apples A Vietnamese Wartime
  Childhood

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• Grandfathers Dream by Holly Keller
• The Hermit and the Well by Thich Nhat Hanh

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The Land I Lost, Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam
By Huynh Quang Nhuong
Nhuong tells of his growing up in a small village
between the river and the jungle.
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• The Land I Lost Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam
• Huynh Quang Nhuong
• Illustrator Vo-Dinh Mai
• HarperCollins Childrens Books
• October 1986
• 0-06-440183-9
• 144 pages
• Grades 5 and up
• Lesson Plans
• http//www.harperchildrens.com/schoolhouse/hch/par
  ents/teachingguides/nhuong.pdf

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Water Buffalo Days Growing up in Vietnam By
Huynh Quang Nhuong

• Huynh quang Nhuong
• gives a first hand
• account of growing up
• in Vietnam before and
• during the beginning
• of the war.

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• Water Buffalo Days
• Huynh Quang Nhuong
• February 1999
• Sagebrush Educational Resources
• 0613122526
• Grades 4-7
• 117 pages

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Ba-Nam by Jeanne M. Lee
A young Vietnamese girl fears the old gravedigger
until a storm when she learns to trust the old
womans kindness.
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• Ba-Nam
• Jeanne L. Lee, author and illustrator
• May 1987
• Henry Holt Company
• 0-8050-0169-7
• 32 pages
• 13/95
• Grade K-2
• Picture Book

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Song of the Buffalo BoyBy Shelly Garland
Loi, an Amerasian girl, has been an outcast all
her life. She flees her village for Ho Chi Minh
City where she hopes to be reunited with her
American father.
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• Song of the Buffalo Boy
• By Sherry Garland
• February 1994
• Harcourt
• 0152000984
• 282 pages
• Grades Young Adult

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Vietnamese Americans tracing their roots

• Journey Home by Lawrence McKay Jr.
• Escape from Saigon How a Vietnam
• Orphan Became an American Boy by
• Andrea Warren
• When You Were Born in Vietnam A Memory Book for
  Children Who Were Adopted from Vietnam by Therese
  and William Bennett
• Going Home, Coming Home by Ve Nha Tham Que
  HuONg

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Journey Home by Lawrence McKay Jr.

• Mai travels to
• Vietnam to learn
• about her
• mothers
• homeland and her
• mothers birth family
• who disappeared
• during the war.

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Escape from Saigon How a Vietnam War Orphan
Became an American BoyBy Andre Warren

• True story of an
• Amerasian boy
• from his early life
• in Saigon to
• Operation Baby
• Lift and his life in
• the United States.

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When you were born in Vietnam A Memory Book for
Children Who Were Adopted From Vietnam by Therese
and William Bartlett

• A book about
• the rich cultural
• heritage of
• Vietnam written
• for the adopted
• child

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Going Home, Coming Home by Ve Nha Tham Que HuONg
American-born eight-year-old Ami Chi returns to
Vietnam with her family and learns to love her
parents homeland and her grandmother.
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Helpful Websites

• http//www.pbs.org/vietnampassage/Stories/index.ht
  ml
• Website that explores the stories of six people
  and how the Vietnam war affected them.
• http//www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/articles/0
  ,6709,187312,00.html
• Cool website about Vietnam for kids by Time.

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More Cool Websites

• http//education.eastwestcenter.org/asiapacificed/
  ts2004/MBernsteinBookList.htm
• Reading list of books for Children on Vietnam