Book Review
Title: Weeping Under This Same Moon
Author: Jana Laiz
Genre: Fiction (categorized for both young adult and adult)
Reviewed by: Dorothy
Based on facts, the award-winning book tells of two teenage girls: Mei, a Chinese escaping the Vietnam war, and Hannah, an American girl with a chip on her shoulder and how their lives come to intersect.
The first eighty pages were written from the voice of Mei with readers following the emotional roller coaster of her family once the decision was made to break the family apart to escape communist Vietnam. Mei and two of her younger siblings were the first to leave. Laiz did a fabulous job describing the anguish of Mei’s parents and the intensity of the moments during separation. Unfortunately, what could have been a good, meaty historical fiction waned slightly towards the end of the eighty pages: Their approval and subsequent arrival in New York seemed glossed over hurriedly to usher in the next eighty pages: Hannah’s story.
While the first part was engrossing and educational, the second part left me a little impatient as Hannah describes her existence as an angry teen. Granted, Laiz once again did a great job in painting the right mental picture for readers and I come to fully understand Hannah’s character, but after Mei’s interesting and harrowing story, Hannah’s “problems” seemed trivial by comparison and I had trouble relating to her.
The last part of the book brought the warmth back as the girls meet and Laiz drives home the tale of survival, friendship and compassion. As an adult book, it falls a tad short for me. I would have loved to see Laiz write about Mei alone with no limitation of page count and fully flesh out her experience and her character. As a young adult book, it will no doubt educate and open the eyes of many teens about the hardships of refugees and also encourage volunteerism. I will not hesitate to recommend this to high schoolers and middle graders who are strong readers. Great book for classroom use.
Dorothy
