Four years old and her whole life has been spent in a refugee camp in Thailand where Hmong families live after fleeing the Secret War in Laos. Now Kalia is beginning to wonder about the space she lives in. She asks her father an important question, " Is the whole world a refugee camp?"
Her father has no answer in the moment but by the next day he has a solution and dressed in her finest clothes, she climbs on her father's back and together they take one branch and then another and another until they are looking out beyond the fences of the camp into that amazing place - the rest of the world - where Kalia's future waits.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
**********
"Father, is all of the world a refugee camp?"
Young Kalia has never known life beyond the fences of the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. The Thai camp holds many thousands of Hmong families who fled in the aftermath of the little-known Secret War in Laos that was waged during America's Vietnam War. For Kalia and her cousins, life isn't always easy, but they still find ways to play, racing with chickens and riding a beloved pet dog.
Just four years old, Kalia is still figuring out her place in the world. When she asks what is beyond the fence, at first her father has no answers for her. But on the following day, he leads her to the tallest tree in the camp and, secure in her father's arms, Kalia sees the spread of a world beyond.
Kao Kalia Yang's sensitive prose and Rachel Wada's evocative illustrations bring to life this tender true story of the love between a father and a daughter.---from the publisher
32 pages 978-1541581302 Ages 5-9
Keywords: refugee camp, refugees, Asians, Hmong families, diverse books, diversity, father/daughter, family, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old, 9 year old, possibilities, Vietnam War
