Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2011
240 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
Twelve-year-old Tracy - or Tuyet - has always felt different. The villagers in Vietnam called her con-lai, or "half-breed," because her father was an American GI. And she doesn't fit in with her adoptive family in California, either. But when Tracy and a friend discover a soldier's dogtag hidden among her father's things, it sets her past and her present on a collision course. Where should her broken heart come to rest? In a time and place she remembers only in her dreams? Or among the people she now calls family? Partridge's sensitive portrayal of a girl and her family grappling with the complicated legacy of war is as timely today as the events were decades ago.
"Starred Review. This gripping yet tender coming-of-age story reveals multiple nuanced perspectives of the Vietnam War and its aftermath in the summer of 1980. Ages 8-12." - Publishers Weekly
"Never reverting to stereotypes, Partridge...capture[s] the ambivalence of the culture toward the war, as well as the struggle of the vets to personally cope with their experiences. A strong yet gentle read." - Kirkus Review
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Elizabeth Partridge is the author of several award-winning books for young readers, including Marching to Freedom, This Land Was Made for You and Me, and John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth. She lives in California.
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