I have recently read the book Listen Slowly by Thanhai Lai, a story about a girl named Mai learning about her roots and heritage and in the process, learning about the true meaning of family. Mai and her family live in California, but Mai, her grandma, and dad go visit Vietnam to find out what happened to her grandmas husband during the Vietnam war.

Mai, the main character, is a 12 year old girl who doesn’t really know much about her culture. She doesn’t know how to speak Vietnamese and wants to be unicultural. She goes by Mia at school in California instead of Mai. Then comes Bà, Mai’s grandmother who has delt with the loss of her husband for years, but then she finds out that he could be alive. So Bà along with Mai and her dad go to Vietnam