The Cricket War

September 4, 2023
Debut author Pha∙m
and McTavish (Life Skills, for adults) weave a vividly wrought story of hope, loss, and inner strength in this semiautobiographical recounting of Pha∙m’s experience fleeing Vietnam. In 1980, 11-year-old Tho∙ lives in Communist Hô` Chí Minh City with his family and spends his days enjoying cricket racing with his best friend Lâm. Then, Lâm leaves without warning or a goodbye, like many others have, to escape the war draft. Suddenly, Tho∙ ’s older brother Vu˜ disappears, too. A year later, Tho∙ is floored to learn that his father has arranged for Tho∙ to leave as well, on a boat to America, where he will live with his uncle. But the boat on which he escapes is repeatedly ransacked by pirates. When one pirate crew offers the children on the boat sweets, Tho∙ decides to stow away on their ship (“any pirates who give out treats must have kind hearts. These are the right pirates”). While the protagonist’s journey is plagued by trauma and upheaval, and the authors detail Pha∙m’s and other Vietnamese refugees’ experiences to tear-jerking effect, the creators also offer comfort via joyful interactions throughout this carefully crafted, fast-paced read. Ages 9–12.

October 1, 2023
Grades 5-7 It's been more than 40 years since many in Vietnam fled in the aftermath of war, stealing away with boats on dangerous journeys through the South China Sea. Pham's fictional chapter book about his own childhood journey will fascinate readers who are both interested in history and its social ramifications, as well as those who love a story of pure adventure. Just 11, a boy named Tho, like Pham himself, boards a boat without family members and endures a trip fraught with pirates, starvation conditions, and storms until he is rescued by a German boat. On shore in a refugee camp, he bonds with a family he meets, as well as one he knew from home, and perseveres, though sometimes feeling as trapped as the crickets he used to collect to fight in neighborhood bug battles. Like the tough insects, though, Tho is resilient and can fight for himself and others--especially his new makeshift family--without hurting his enemies, and eventually, he finds his way, by plane this time, to his brother in Canada. Inspiring.

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August 15, 2023
In 1980s Vietnam, a boy suddenly becomes a refugee, lost amid a sea of uncertainty. Thọ loves cricket fighting, and he and his best friend, L�m, eagerly compete to see whose cricket will win. Despite this childhood joy, there are certain unsaid rules in their small village. It is not uncommon for young men and even families to disappear. No one talks about why this is happening, and if they do it is never the truth: People are trying to leave Vietnam to escape the required conscription of young men in the Communist army. If any of the families are caught, the surviving relatives will pay dearly. Though Thọ knows this, it doesn't dull the pain of finding L�m and L�m's brother, An, gone one day. Thọ's own older brother, Vũ, is also nearing conscription age, and Thọ overhears his parents whispering at night and notices them quietly selling their furniture to earn money to send the boys away. Vũ leaves first, and a year later, Thọ boards a small boat. He stows away with pirates who raid the boat and eventually navigates life at a refugee camp in the Philippines; through it all, he longs to reunite with his brother. Based on Phạm's own experiences of leaving Vietnam at age 12, this action-packed, emotionally intense story is counterbalanced by moments of kindness and joy. A harrowing yet hopeful account of a compelling journey. (pronunciation guide, map, afterword, a brief recent history of Vietnam) (Historical fiction. 9-12)

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