Important story, well told. Ideal for the classroom.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This book was heartbreaking but beautiful. It was yet another part of history I was ignorant about and I was again educated by children’s literature. It really broke my heart even more for refugees. I think this book would tug on a lot of people’s heartstrings!

House Without Walls is a true story of a brother and sister who left Vietnam as refugees, hoping to make it to the United States to reunite with their father who had gone on ahead of them.

The main character, Lam, is brave beyond her 11 years. She dutifully cares for her younger brother Dee Dee. As they travel with other refugees, they are shown kindness by strangers.

I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone younger than junior high. Lam and Dee Dee experience several life and death situations and are witnesses to several people dying. Some characters go crazy from loss of hope and the suffering they experience. The refugees face pirates, a sinking ship, starvation and are without water at times. House Without Walls reminds me a bit of The Diary if Anne Frank as far as children facing death and suffering.

I would certainly recommend this book to older students. There are many refugees fleeing despotic governments, war or genocide in our world right now. This is an excellent example of what refugees are going through. It will inspire students to help those who are looking for asylum and depending on others’ help for survival.

I work in a school where immigrant students are the majority. Many of them were refugees. We can’t ignore their plight.

I received an advanced ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is one of those books that makes you realize how lucky you are! I loved how this story is written in verse about Lam and her siblings as they try to leave Vietnam. It was heartbreaking to see their lives on the refugee camp. This middle grade book is haunting, beautiful and devastating. Be sure to have a box of tissues nearby when reading this beauty!

This book will open the eyes of both Children and adults as they realize how lucky they are with the privileged lives they lead and how not everyone is so lucky.

This is a children's book written in free verse and covering a very important and heart wrenching part of history. I would recommend this for the classroom setting and for ages 10-12.

Vietnam has fallen to the Vietcong. The American forces have fled and many in Vietnam are afraid of what is to follow. That is why Lam and Dee Dee are put on a boat and sent out to see. Their family hopes they will find refuge and make their way to their father in America. The voyage is filled with danger as their boat experiences problems and they are not granted refuge. They are shuttled from one refugee camp to another and on one occasion sent back out to see on a sinking boat. They are helped along the way by a kind family who adopts them as their own. Their story is one of strength through tragedy as they seek a better life. It is based on real siblings who fled Vietnam in the 1970s. It was a beautiful story about refugees looking for a better life and one that is just as pertinent today as it was 40 years ago.

House Without Walls was such a beautiful account of two children who are sent to flee from Vietnam in the late 1970’s due to fear of the post-war life to come. Their grandmother and mother felt that leaving on their own was a safer option than the risks of staying. Just imagining how difficult this decision must have been at the outset was heartbreaking. Then the accounting of their journey through the immigration process was tragic at times and truly uplifting at times. How anyone could fail to have compassion for people making these decisions is shocking to me. This needs to be required reading for everyone who holds public office in any country in the world.

#HouseWithoutBorders #NetGalley

House without walls by Ching Yeung Russell is a touching novel about the plight of refugees in finding a new homeland.

Eleven-year-old Lam escapes Vietnam with her younger brother Dee Dee during the Vietnam Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety. Lam and Dee Dee’s final destination is San Francisco, to live with their father. Their immediate destination was to reach a refugee camp so that they could travel to America.

Their sea voyage is riddled with cold, hunger, exhaustion and violent sea pirates. At sea, a kind family takes them under their wing and they spend with them until they leave to America. The plight of the refugees and the disapproval by the new countries was heart touching. In one of the countries they landed, they shipped the refugees back to the sea in malfunctioned boats, with the intent that they will die at the sea and will not return back to their country. This incident almost brought tears to my eyes.

The novel is narrated by the voice of Lam. The language was simple and direct. The simplicity of the language gave room for more interpretation regarding the feelings of the Lam and Dee Dee. A must-read novel in today’s times when all over the world millions of people are migrating as refugees in their search for a new home that throws them a glance of acceptance.

A beautiful book about the pain of separation from one's home and family. Dee Dee and Lam are brother and sister fleeing from Vietnam seeking refuge. Written in verse and geared toward a middle-grade reader, this book cuts right to the heart of what a refugee lays on the line as well as the beauty that is sometimes glimpsed in life even at its darkest hour.

House Without Walls is one that left me torn the entire time. For what House Without Walls lacks in figurative language and poetic writing it more than makes up for in educational material. As a teacher, I feel like this would be an amazing piece of literature to read and teach students about subject matter that otherwise they may not hear about ever in their lives. The straight-forward style Russell uses eventually grew on me and there is no doubt that you care about the characters by the end of the book and find yourself rooting for them through everything.

Oh my, what an important story! Eleven-year-old Lam and her younger brother, Dee Dee, must escape from Vietnam and the cruel communist regime. Their hope is to leave the country by boat and eventually connect with their father who already made it to San Francisco in the United States.

Written in verse, this novel shares a grueling journey across sea and land where starvation and illness threaten their very lives. It’s horrific to learn of the pain experienced on the journey — of the ongoing nausea/vomit, of people being urinated on, and of the stench of death (as not everyone made it to shore, alive). Even on land, there is rape, illnesses, insects, snakes, leeches, lack of clean water, and military violence to fear. Despite these dreadful conditions, friendships are forged and family is adopted after Lam and Dee Dee are separated from their older brother (who happened to have all their money). The refugees slowly piece together a way of life as they fight to stay alive. And as the title indicates, we definitely learn that not all houses are built with walls.

This story was based on interviews conducted by Russell over many years. Before the story began, there was a lengthy and important Prologue that shares a number of details about the real life Lam and Dee Dee as well as other historical details.

While we learn that Russell toned down the horrors of these perilous journeys (since it was written for younger readers), everything about the story felt authentic. I’ve learned a lot about wars through the study of history, but we don’t often hear from the side of refugees who were trapped in deadly living conditions. So I’m grateful to learn more about the Vietnam Boat People Exodus in 1979 and I highly recommend this title for middle schools and high school libraries.

My thanks to Netgalley and Yellow Jacket for approving an e-ARC so that I could provide my honest review.

I wasn’t expected this to be so deep, thoughtful or heart wrenching. It is written in free verse and flows easily making it a quick & easy read but the topic is very full. Based on true stories, it follows a girl and her brother leave Vietnam in 1979 fleeing the oppressive regime trying to make it to safety and then to find their Baba (father) in America.

They become close to a family on their journey and try and stay together despite the turmoil and pain that they face. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Pub Date: June 18, 2019

5 out of 5 Stars

My Review:

A novel for youth written in verse; Russell tells the story of Southern Vietnamese “boat people”, beginning in May of 1979. This group were targeted by the Vietcong Communist party when they took over Saigon in 1975. By 1978, the government was shutting down their businesses, taking away their homes, and sending men to reeducation camps or forcing them to fight against China at the border. Both deadly missions.

In order to escape communist rule, 1 million Vietnamese and Chinese fled and traveled by boat. Most did not survive. They sought refuge in countries along the Malaysian coastline, and other Southeast Asians countries. The boat trip was brutal, inhumane, unsanitary, and abysmal.

Our main character’s name is Lam, and her brothers are Daigo and Dee Dee. The story opens with the three siblings saying goodbye to their Ah Mah (grandma) and ma (mother), nervous about leaving their home and family. Their Baba (father) escaped two years ago after his shop was shut down, and now lives in San Francisco. The goal is to get to America to live with him.

Lam and Dee Dee endure a 13 month journey from Vietnam to San Francisco, and during each part, emotions run high. On the open sea there is a fear of pirates, fear of running out of drinkable water and food, fear of the boat dying, and fear of each other dying. On land in refugee camps, hope is brought by the Red Cross. But, then disease spreads, deadly snakes bite, and depression sets in. They endured a treacherous trek, and Russell does an amazing job of relaying the truth of what happened during this forgotten time in our world’s history. It was a pleasure and an honor to learn about Lam’s story from Russell’s perspective.

I wasn't prepared for the emotional depth and heft of this story. Written in verse, it follows Lam and her brothers as they attempt to leave Vietnam and emigrate to another country, in the aftermath of the victory of the north Vietnamese forces and the subsequent discrimination against her family and other Chinese families.
This story has moments of darkness, but is also shot through with hope as the children face obstacle upon obstacle to reach safety and their father, ho successfully emigrated to America years earlier. At every step Lam is torn between the hope of a new future, the family she has left behind in Vietnam and the new 'found' family she has made along the way.
Beautiful and important book, recommended for all!
(If giving to younger children, please note that there is repeated mention of the threat of sexual violence and rape against women and girls although our narrator does not experience or witness this. As might be expected from the dangerous journey undertaken, there are also descriptions of death)

Verse novel about boat people from Vietnam. The author describes in details the harrowing lives of two siblings on boats and in refugee camps.

I have to say it took me a little bit to get into this book. But then.... Written so simply from a child's perspective, it shines with the power that can only come from a child's mind. A child who has to play by the cruel rules of the world that is difficult even for adults to handle. So difficulty, in fact, that some of them lose their battle before they get to their destination whether it it to the sea, the snakes, illness, or the grief of losing their family members. This book is incredibly important as it reflects the dire hopelessness of the people who choose to give up everything they have for a chance at freedom. This didn't jus happen "then". This is happening NOW. This is extremely relevant. The book gives us a perfect, albeit terrifying, window into what it is like to be a refugee. This is what will, hopefully, help us become a better world.

Written in verse, House Without Walls is a haunting and raw story of a child's journey to flee. A historical fiction middle grade, House Without Walls details Lam's journey from Vietnam, fleeing the political change in power, to escape to anywhere. Her family has already been separated because of this conflict, and Lam is very aware of the danger not only to her family, but to herself as a girl.

The details are harrowing and even though Russell talks about how this version of events has been made accessible for children, it does not shy away from showing the danger and conditions they face. All while showing the way that children will, despite it all, remain children, have moments of joy and play.

House Without Walls
by Ching Yeung Russell

Yellow Jacket

Children’s Fiction , Middle Grade

Pub Date 04 Jun 2019

I am reviewing a copy of House Without Walls through Yellow Jacket and Netgalley:

It’s 1979 and eleven year old Lam and her brother escape Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus. They manage to survive unbearable conditions, without food, and little water

This is a powerful story, of loss, of building a new life and of surviving against all odds, written in the lyrical forms, it would be a book I highly recommend to Middle Grade readers. It would be a great opening to talking about The Vietnamese Boat People Exodus and all they must have endured!

I give House Without Walls five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

A novel told in verse about Vietnamese refugees fleeing from Ho Chi Minh's communist regime. This book made me reminiscent of Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai because of it's similar theme and premise.

House Without Walls follows the story of Lam, an eleven-year-old Vietnamese girl with a Chinese heritage escaping to America from Ho Chi Minh's oppressive communist dictatorship with her brother, Dee Dee. Although this book is a short and quick read, it discusses topics such as refugees, prejudice, and the long, perilous journey of seeking asylum. I really liked that this book doesn't sugarcoat or shy away from the darker/less appealing aspects of the often unfortunate situations Lam and the other refugees are put in which makes it very seem realistic.

House Without Walls is based on the accounts of refugees who fled during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus of 1971. Ching Yeung Russel did a thorough job with her interviews and research which is very evident throughout the novel. Although told through the eyes of a young girl, Russel expertly portrays Lam's bigger understanding of the world around her as she experiences inhumane conditions and disasters while still retaining some of her naivete and optimism. Definitely recommended if you enjoyed Inside Out and Back Again or Refugee.

*Thank you to NetGalley and its publishers for providing a free ARC*