Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl's Story | Pegi Deitz Shea

Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl's Story | Pegi Deitz Shea | Great Book!

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Tangled Threads: A...

	Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl's Story Pegi Deitz Shea Clarion Books, 2003 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

For the Hmong people living in overcrowded refugee camps in Thailand, America is a dream: the land of peace and plenty. In 1995, ten years after their arrival at the camp, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang and her grandmother are about to experience that dream.
In America, they will be reunited with their only remaining relatives, Mai's uncle and his family. They will discover the privileges of their new life: medical care, abundant food, and an apartment all their own. But Mai will also feel the pressures of life as a teenager. Her cousins, now known as Heather and Lisa, try to help Mai look less like a refugee, but following them means disobeying Grandma and Uncle. From showers and smoke alarms to shopping, dating, and her family's new religion, Mai finds life in America complicated and confusing. Ultimately, she will have to reconcile the old ways with the new, and decide for herself the kind of woman she wants to be.
This archetypal immigrant story introduces readers to the fascinating Hmong culture and offers a unique outsider's perspective on our own.

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Great Book!

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 made sense to me. It actually really helped me because I was always engaged in the story and there was never a dull moment while reading this book.
I would recommend this book to people because it is not only an interesting book, but it also teaches the reader a lot about Hmong cultures. The reader will learn a lot about how immigrants from other countries have to learn to adapt to new environments. It will teach them that things that we think are okay or normal, other people might not and that is not a bad thing. Every person is entitled to their own opinions and culture and because people aren't all raised the same ways, they have different goals and mind sets. This book is a great way for readers to realize the hardships the Hmong had to go through and be able to relate and understand their journey.

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Great Book!

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.

Very Good

This book was very good. I believe it to be accurate and without any faults. Now, for the woman who said that the spelling in the book of Hmong words was wrong, please let me out in my opinion......if you look in the back of the book at the glossary, the author does say when she abbreviates words (for example pan'dau is really panjdau)so they aren't really mispelled! This book is good for people interested in immigration, or the Oreint, but should be read by Young Adults because there is mentioning of rape and menstrauting.

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Important Novel

Shea had visited a refugee camp in Thailand in 1989 and acknowledged many people in helping her form the characters and traditions of the Hmong people. For the women in this book, the center of the Hmong tradition is the pa'ndau, or storycloth. There is a custom of making, and a custom of wearing, pa'ndau. It is a vivid reminder of so many things uniquely "Hmong." The story within the cloth shows Hmong history, the style of stitches show of the care and pride that goes into each item, the type of item signifies the occasion - a sash for New Year's Day, a burial collar, a splendid vest - these all represent a long and valued ethnic heritage.
What does it mean to be Hmong? Different things to different people. On one hand you have new waves of immigrants that want hold on stronger to their native culture because they have witnessed so much destruction of their personal history. They don't want to see their traditions die. Another group may not value their cultural history as much and is more willing to embrace change. They have been immersed at a young age into a society so different from what they remember; their homeland may seem more like a distant dream to them. It is a very individual experience, and Shea does a good job at giving us a peek into various stages of immigrant adjustment.

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ALEXANDER APOSTOLERIS WORLD CIV

This book is about a Hmong girl struggling to fit in the new American culture, with strange foods like pizza and giant shopping malls all around. Her grandma is very doubtful of this new culture and many times wishes for her old life. As their time in America passes, secrets are revealed and her destiny in America unfolds.

This book is a great read for teenagers and young students, the story line allows young readers to relate to the character, so they can understand her feelings. It has an interesting Introduction to the book when they describe the conditions and scenery in the Hmong holding camps. Throughout the book the young girl tries to adapt to the modern culture. The difficulties she has in separating her time with her old culture and the new one is thrilling. The progress of her relationship with her grandmother rollercoaster's over her travel to America, This allows the teen reader to compare it with a relationship they may have with a parent or family member, this provides an excellent experience for the reader and future entertainment throughout the book.

The downfalls of this book is that there is no in depth information about the Hmong culture, it focuses more on a average girl's life than the Hmong traditions and way's of the people. In the book the life of the girl before America is brief and that is one of the important details for a reader who is trying to learn anything they can about the Hmong. The reading level for this book is also very limited, this book is only a good read for children between the ages of eleven and thirteen. Anyone older will have trouble being entertained because all the characters have basic backgrounds and the plot is extremely typical.

I recommend this book to a teen in middle school. Overall it is a catchy book yet it lacks concrete information about the Hmong people and their history.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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