House Without Walls - by Ching Yeung Russell (Paperback)

About the Book

Eleven-year-old Lam, her brothers, and other ethnic Chinese flee Vietnam in 1979, embarking on a long and perilous journey toward a refugee camp, where Lam finds new hope and happiness. Includes historical notes, glossary, and pronunciation guide.

Book Synopsis

Most people imagine "home" as a safe, warm place with four walls. But for child refugees Lam and Dee Dee escaping Vietnam, "home" is ever-changing and often doesn't have any walls at all.

"A moving and thought-provoking picture of a refugee experience filled with both tragedy and hope."--School Library Journal

House Without Walls has been beautifully rendered in paperback!

Eleven-year-old Lam escapes from Vietnam with her younger brother during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety. For Lam, "safety" means joining her father in San Francisco. But the trip to the United States is long and perilous, full of dangerous encounters with pirates and greedy sailors, a lack of food and water, and even the stench of dead bodies. Befriending Nam, Dao, and their parents is a small reprieve from the horror, but the worst is yet to come. . . . Can Lam and her brother survive the refugee camps? Will they be reunited with their father?

Written in verse, House Without Walls is a heartfelt story that is sure to elicit empathy and compassion for refugees around the world escaping oppression.

Review Quotes

"Lam is an 11-year-old Chinese Vietnamese girl who, along with her seven-year-old brother Dee Dee, becomes part of the Boat People Exodus in 1979 Vietnam. They are leaving behind their ma and ah mah to join their baba in America. Lam describes their harrowing journey, detailing their deteriorating conditions and daily fears on the boat, as well as their experiences at refugee camps in Malaysia and Indonesia. Readers will share the children's emotional highs and lows, and witness both the ugliness and beauty of humanity. Told in beautifully written verse from Lam's perspective, this story is a combination of the real-life Lam's journey, accounts told to the author by other refugees, and a bit of imagination. There is a map for context at the beginning of the book and a glossary, with several of those terms italicized throughout. VERDICT A moving and thought-provoking picture of a refugee experience filled with both tragedy and hope."--School Library Journal

About the Author

Ching Yeung Russell is a seasoned, award-winning author of many middle grade novels, including First Apple, Tofu Quilt, and Bungee Cord Hair. She was raised in China, where she was inspired to write after being told by her friend that she could eat more bowls of "dan lai"--a hard-to-get, sweet-milk custard she loved--if she became an author. She left China for Hong Kong when she was 12 years old. Ching has been friends with the real-life Lam and Dee Dee since 1986. She combined their refugee journey with the details and stories she heard while visiting a Vietnamese refugee camp in Hong Kong.