Listen, Slowly

Reviewed by: Peg Becksvoort - Falmouth Middle, Falmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 9, 2016

Review

Listen, Slowly is the well-crafted story of Mai, 12 years old, and heading for VietNam to learn about her roots. Mai is quintessentially resentful of having to leave her US home in California. She is faced with learning a culture that is her heredity, but from which she has grown apart. She re-establishes her relationship with her grandmother and her extended family. Often resentful and very American, she learns to be VietNamese as well. While in VN, Mai is to listen to her Ba, Grandmother, to help her find her missing husband, Ong. The realistic story, heavily interspersed with Vietnamese phrases and with Vietnamese intonations - even the English develops the lilt of language that is Vietnamese.

As Mai's journey into understanding proceeds, the reader feels her change and understand her roots and background. Far from being foreign, the universal need to Listen, Slowly, to those around us is clearly understood. While not for every child in your library, this will strike a chord with students whose parents may have emigrated from other countries. Dialog is natural and flows easily. I would give this story to grades 6-12. It is readable on several levels of understanding. One request would have been to have a pronunciation guide for some of the Vietnamese.

Very Good.

Overall Book Score: excellent