Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl's Story

Tangled Threads chronicles the immigration story of a young Hmong girl whose experiences parallel those of refugees from many parts of the world. Mai Yang is fifteen years old when she and her grandmother leave the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand to reunite with her uncle's family in Providence, Rhode Island. In a realistic, yet sympathetic, way the novel tells of Mai Yang's long journey to the United States and her difficult adjustment to life with her assimilated family and indifferent American classmates and teachers. The end of the novel, by which time Mai Yang has found a place for herself in her family, her school and in the Hmong-American community, is a testament to the will of immigrants. Because of some graphic scenes and difficult subject-matter, this novel would be best for a high-school audience. The reading level makes it well suited for high-school TESOL students.

I really liked this book for a number of reasons. One it has an authentic voice. The author thouroughly researched this topic and although she is not Hmong herself she had the help of her Hmong friends to make sure that the experiences in the book were real Hmong issues. Two, it is a true portrayal of Hmong values. And three, it portrays girls in a positive light. Mai, the main character is shown being a strong young women even though she is staying true to her Hmong traditions. I would suggest this book to any young adult.

This book is actually a very good book because for me, it succeeds in portraying what the author wants to reveal. It makes you understand how an immigrant, has to deal with different issues involving coming to America and learning new customs and beliefs. It deals with issues teenagers are faced with right now everywhere in the world, and how immigrants from other countries look upon these actions. This book taught me a lot of different things about Hmong cultures and customs and how people lived in camps. It showed the differences between living styles here and there and how much of a change Mai and her grandmother had to do before adapting to the living environment here. It conveyed all the struggles needed to overcome such a change and how adapting to a place could take time, whether you are an adult or a child. Things and aspects that we find normal and understandable seem different and abnormal to outsiders. It is hard to change when you don't know or understand why you are changing or what you are changing too. I could relate to some of the things and situations Mai had to go through. Although I am not an immigrant and I have lived here all my life, there are certain situations you are put in where you don't want to be. In Mai's case, she didn't know what was happening but teenagers everyday are faced with issues that may affect their life. I know a lot of people who drink although they are underage, and even though I don't do it, it's hard to watch them throw away their lives without caring. When you care about a person a lot, it becomes difficult to watch them suffer or know that there will be consequences to the decisions they chose to make. It wasn't always the kids who had a hard time adapting. In this case, it was more of the elder. Like any elders, making a change after so long is very hard, not only because you are older, but because you have been living a certain way for so long. It is hard to change the ways you live after living that way for your whole life. These are some aspects that the author successfully portrayed to me about how difficult it was to not only move here and change their customs and beliefs, but to adapt to new ones as well. Although this book did succeed in portraying a lot of things to me, there were some stereotypical ideas. The way Americans were portrayed seemed a little bit of a stereotype in my opinion. Their behaviors, decisions and appearances seemed like what people thought of Americans, not what is really true. This was really the only thing that I didn't agree and didn't like about this author's story. Something that I liked a lot about this book was the author's writing style. I was never confused while reading the book and never lost as to where I was. However, there were some parts that kind of confused me but only because some words were in Hmong, but there was a Hmong short glossary in the back of the book, which helped me understand the words. Otherwise, the writing and plot of the story m

This book really made me understand what it was like during the war. I felt very bad for the girl in the refugee camp and then when she got to America her cousins acted strange. I would recommend this book to every girls/women everywhere.

This Book is awesome. I would recomend this to people ages 10 and up. A young girls journy to America and new experiances. Hard times, awesome foods, and much much more. AWESOME!!!