After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza, shopping, and beer, while her grandmother and new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.
For the past 10 years, 13-year-old Mai Yang has been living in a refugee camp in Thailand with her grandmother. The pair face new challenges when they leave Thailand and immigrate to the United States to live with relatives in Providence, Rhode Island. Although Mai Yang's grandmother is reluctant to begin life in a new country, Mai Yang herself can't wait to immerse herself in the American culture. However, once she settles in with her Americanized cousins, Mai Yang realizes that although she wants to be American, she also does not want to give up her Hmong heritage.
- Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction, Juvenile Fiction
- Subgenre: People + Places / United States / Asian American, Social Issues / General, Social Issues / New Experience
- Age: Teen
- Publisher: Clarion Books
- Pages: 236
- Language: English
- Format: hardcover
- Release Date: September 22, 2003
- Date Published: September 22, 2003
- Author: Pegi Deitz Shea