Showing results by narrator "VyVy Nguyen" in All Categories

Discover why you were always afraid of a monster under your childhood bed, why people truly believe in their “lucky” lotto numbers, and more with hundreds of quick facts, research-based explanations, and challenging quiz questions on everything from the psychology of our ancient ancestors to the dark side of the world of psychology.

Quiet As They Come is a beautiful and at times brutal portrait of a people caught between two cultures. Set in San Francisco from the 1980s to the present day, this debut collection explores the lives of several families of Vietnamese immigrants as they struggle to adjust to life in their new country, often haunted by the memories and customs of their old lives in Vietnam. While some are able to survive and assimilate, others are crushed by the promise of the "American Dream."

In 1975, 13-year-old Lan Cao boarded an airplane in Saigon and got off in a world where she faced hosts she had not met before, a language she didn't speak, and food she didn't recognize, with the faint hope that she would be able to go home soon. Lan fought her way through confusion, and racism, to become a successful lawyer and novelist. Four decades later, she faced the biggest challenge in her life: raising her daughter, Harlan - half Vietnamese by birth and 100 percent American teenager by inclination.

To his friends back home, Viet Ho is calm and collected and a lovable oddball who nurses an obsession with forensic science. He’s relieved to head off to UC Davis and escape from being in the middle of his bickering immigrant parents. Yet, on campus and with the school year unfolding at an overwhelming pace, Viet struggles to belong and to keep his depression hidden.

If you could choose to be a god forever, would you do it? Every winter solstice, today’s Earthly descendants of Greek gods, nymphs, and muses must visit Mount Olympus to preserve their near-godly status. Until Dorothy’s mother refuses to go, sealing her fate and dying a human death shortly after. In retaliation, the gods release an ultimatum: return to the heavens as gods or live as humans on Earth. Everyone must now make a choice.

Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesn’t want anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.

Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, twelve-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember—a love letter in verse to sisterhood and the places we leave behind. Bom can't believe that her sister doesn't see herself as Vietnamese, only American. She says she doesn't remember Vietnam or their lives there, their family there, their house and friends. How could her sister forget the terrible journey through Saigon and the airplanes and . . . everything?

Many things are different for Ánh now that they've left Vietnam with their family. The weather is colder and they live in a communal barracks at a refugee camp while they wait for their new life in America to start. Ánh finds comfort in their warm-hearted teacher, Miss Mary Ellen, but has trouble with the foreign sounds of learning to speak English in class. All Ánh wants is to be able to say "thank you" out loud to Miss Mary Ellen, but will the words ever stop getting stuck between their head and their voice?

Award-winning author Justina Chen delivers a powerful and heartfelt novel about a young girl who accidentally discovers she has an identical twin sister. This uplifting novel about reunited adoptee sisters experiencing new family traditions, foods, and customs together is perfect for fans of Janae Marks, Kelly Yang, and Meg Medina. Dive into a nuanced portrayal of the transracial, transnational adoptee experience, including the joys and the sorrows within the wide spectrum of experiences as an adoptee.

This volume cultivates, for students and teachers in classrooms, as well as citizens in libraries and cafes, a language to deliberate about the possibilities and problems of democracy in America.

Eleven-year-old Be hasn't spoken a word since her mother left. She hangs on to the hope that one day they will be reunited, but after two years of waiting, it's becoming more difficult. Her father can do little to protect her from her stepmother, Big Mother. Thankfully, Be has a secret friend, her little kitten Meo, to comfort her in the worst of times. Unfortunately, Big Mother has other plans.