TANGLED THREADS

After ten years in a Thai camp as Laotian refugees, 13-year-old Mai Yang and her grandmother finally leave for the US. Mai’s thrilled: transition classes have helped her learn English and to familiarize herself with the American way of life, and she’ll be reunited with relatives in Providence. Despite the privations and casual rapes by brutal soldiers that were commonplace in the camp, tradition-bound Grandmother is less overjoyed. Once Mai has met her Americanized relatives, though, she has cause to be doubtful herself—and then appalled when her cousins reveal a shocking secret. Shea’s text successfully portrays the turmoil, excitement, and heartbreak that come with repatriating. Adjusting to a new country and culture is never easy; the ideal is to blend the best of old and new, as Mai seems on her way to doing by the satisfying conclusion. (Fiction. 10-14)