Butterfly Yellow

Thanhha Lai has written her first teen novel about  18 year old Vietnamese girl Hang, who travels to the US to find her younger brother, Linh, who had been taken in the ending days of the Vietnam War. She traces him to Texas, and with the help of a young cowboy, LeeRoy, locates him. But it has been years since Hang had last seen Linh, and he wants no part of her. She takes a job on a nearby ranch to try and build a relationship with him. Lai was born in Vietnam and she writes a gripping story about the horrors experienced by Hang before she was able to escape from the country, and her determination to work as hard as she can to make a life for herself in her new country. Lai’s own soldier father went missing during the fall of Saigon in 1975, and her mother and siblings fled Vietnam for the US. A timely immigrant story, recommended for ages 13 and up.