The thirteen year old Mai and her family are living in a small village in Vietnam. Se has a little sister, Anh and a little brother, Thant. Their grandmother is living in the house too. Grandmother is a sorcer who can heal people, but the government doesn't like it and they are threatening to arrest grandmother, because sorcery is forbidden. Mai's mom and dad secretly have planned that they are going to escape the country before the police will come to get grandmother.They have selled almost all their belongings to save money for the boat trip.
At night they walk together to another village, Co Gong, where they will meet familymembers who also are trying to escape the country's communist regime. They get on a small boat which is filled with a crowd of people, leaving at night for the South China Sea, where the boat will set goal to the port of Hong Kong, where there hopefully will wait a better life for them.
But the truth is different: the people on board are put in a wharehouse together with other refugees who have come to Hong Kong. The crowded room is not safe,and everyone is waiting to hear if they can stay in Hong Kong or are send back to Vietnam. The only change Mai's family seems to have is their cousin Tien, who lives in Chicago.. the waiting seems long in the wharehouse, and they have to keep hope that they are not send back..
Goodbye, Vietnam is a book that I have read many times in the Dutch edition when I was a kid, I have read it for the first time in English now. It is a book you just can't miss when you are looking for Vietnam themed books. And it is a book you just musn't miss. It is the perfect book to introduce young children to stories of refugees, in this case the Vietnamese Boat People, who fled Vietnam after the war to escape the communist regime. and if you have been a refugee yourself or fled your country, I think you can relate to it. Just a very good Vietmam book to start with!
Good book dou!!
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