Carolrhoda Books | 978-1541581302
What does the world look like beyond the fences of the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp? This is the question young Kalia asks her father. She hears the aunties talk about the little-known Secret War in Laos and the river they crossed as Hmong refugees fleeing to Thailand. But Kalia, having been born in Thailand, only knows her life in the refugee camp.
“You’re safe,” Kalia’s father promises.
He takes one of my small hands in his big one and tells me,
“Look at your hand.” He points down at the tips of my toes
and says,”Look at your feet.”
He says, “Your hands and your feet will travel far to find peace.”
His eyes are as serious as his voice, so I say, “Yes, they will.”
When Kalia wonders if all the world is a refugee camp, at first, her father has no answers for her. But the next day, he asks her mother to put her in the nice dress and hat she wears only on the rare occasion when she is having her picture taken.
Dressed in her fine clothes, with her hair combed, her father waits with a borrowed camera.
At the base of the tallest tree in the camp, her father tells Kalia to hold tight to his neck, eyes closed. Hand over hand, her father climbs to the top of the tree! From there, she sees the world beyond the walls.
CLICK TO ENLARGE © text by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrations by Rachel Wada
“Father, the world is so big.”
“Yes it is,” he says.
“One day my little girl will journey far into the world to the places her father has never been.”
FROM THE TOPS OF THE TREES is the true story of author Kao Kalia Yang‘s childhood in a refugee camp. In tender, lyrical prose, with stirring illustrations by Rachel Wada, the author provides young readers with a heartfelt and honest story of resilience and hope in the midst of the harsh realities of life in a refugee camp.
- Enjoy this INTERVIEW with author Kao Kalia Yang on the Lerner Books Blog
- Learn more about the book in this INTERVIEW with the author on “The Picture Book Buzz” blog
