Sign-In
Cart
A Year Without Home (Large Print Edition)
Hardcover
General Juvenile FictionHistoryPoetry
ISBN13: 9781420541083
Publisher: Youth Large Print
Published: Dec 9 2026
Pages: 584
Language: English
A poignant novel in verse about a Hmong girl losing and finding home in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. For fans of Jasmine Warga and Veera Hiranandani.
For eleven-year-old Gao Sheng, home is the lush, humid jungles and highlands of Laos. Home is where she can roll down the grassy hill with her younger siblings after her chores, walk to school, and pick ripe peaches from her family's trees.
But home becomes impossible to hold onto when the communist government takes over after U.S. troops pull out of the Vietnam War. The communists will be searching for any American allies, like Gao Sheng's father, a Hmong captain in the Lao Army who fought alongside the Americans against the Vietnamese. If he's caught, he'll be killed.
As the adults frantically make plans - contacting family, preparing a route, and bundling up their silver and gold, Gao Sheng wonders if she will ever return to her beloved Laos and what's to become of her family now. Gao Sheng only knows that a good daughter doesn't ask questions or complain. A good daughter doesn't let her family down. Even though sometimes, she wishes she could be just a kid rolling down a grassy hill again.
On foot, by taxi and finally in a canoe, Gao Sheng and her family make haste from the mountains to the capitol Vientiane and across the rushing Mekong River, to finally arrive at an overcrowded refugee camp in Thailand. As a year passes at the camp, Gao Sheng discovers how to rebuild home no matter where she is and finally find her voice.
Inspired by author V.T. Bidania's family history, A Year Without Home illuminates the long, difficult journey that many Hmong refugees faced after the Vietnam War.
2 different editions
Also available
Also from
Bidania, V. T.
Also in
Poetry
No Fair! No Fair! and Other Jolly Poems of Childhood: And Other Jolly Poems of Childhood
Trillin, Calvin
Hardcover
Fourteen Ways of Looking at Jellyfish: (A Picture Book Exploring Ocean Life, Marine Science, and Underwater Wonders for Ages 6-8, Grades 1-3)
Weatherford, Carole Boston
Hardcover
You're My Little Sunshine (Board Book for Babies and Toddlers 0-2 Years Old)
Edwards, Nicola
Hardcover
Bathtime for Snow Monkeys: (A Picture Book about Japanese Wildlife, Hot Springs, Nature, and Togetherness for Kids Ages 4-8)
Tokuda-Hall, Maggie
Hardcover
You're My Little Bookworm (Board Book for Babies and Toddlers 0-2 Years Old)
Edwards, Nicola
Hardcover
Happy Halloween, Baby! with Dr. Seuss Babies: An Interactive Lift-The-Flap Book
Random House
Hardcover
Chasing Eruptions: How Volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft Helped Save 60,000 Lives-But Lost Their Own
Manley, Curtis
Hardcover
Elmo's Little Library (Sesame Street): Elmo's Mother Goose; Elmo's Tricky Tongue Twisters; Elmo Says; Elmo's ABC Book
Allen, Constance
Albee, Sarah
November, Deborah
Hardcover
Life Doesn't Frighten Me: A Poetry Picture Book
Boyers, Sara Jane
Angelou, Maya
Basquiat, Jean-Michel
Hardcover
It's Busy Down in the Woods Today: Friends to Meet, Places to Explore, and Over 100 Things to Find
Piercey, Rachel
Hardcover
Eric Carle's Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Other Nursery Rhymes: A Lift-The-Flap Book
Carle, Eric
Hardcover
Construction Site a Thankful Night: A Thanksgiving Lift-The-Flap Book
Rinker, Sherri Duskey
Hardcover
Merry Grinchmas, Baby! with Dr. Seuss Babies: A Shimmery, Shiny Christmas Book
Random House
Hardcover
Happy First Birthday! with Dr. Seuss Babies: An Interactive Lift-The-Flap Board Book with a Mirror
Random House
Hardcover
Small-Girl Zora and the Shower of Stories: A Tall Tale Based on the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston
Anatol, Giselle
Hardcover