Read our interview below with V. T. Bidania, the author of "A Year Without Home."
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
My middle grade verse novel, "A YEAR WITHOUT HOME," is a fictionalized memoir about my family’s escape from Laos after the Vietnam War and our year in refugee camps afterwards. It was inspired by so many things, from the many gorgeous verse novels I have read and adored to my desire to tell the story of the Hmong people losing our home country. It’s to honor my family and especially my father for all he did to bring us to safety at this rarely talked about moment in US history.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
To me, it means seeing myself and others not only reflected in books, but in accurate and authentic representations. It means feeling valued and important by the representation. It means reading stories that affirm everyone, that recognize and celebrate our differences and help us grow empathy and confidence.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
Often, young readers are first introduced to those who may be different from them through books. When they see a wide range of people, backgrounds and experiences in stories, they learn that everyone belongs (including them). Representation can help build pride, curiosity, and kindness from early on, which is crucial in this diverse, colorful world we live in.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
"A YEAR WITHOUT HOME" takes place in May of 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. Eleven-year-old Gao Sheng, a Hmong girl in Laos, escapes the country with her family after the communist takeover. She spends the following year in refugee camps missing and longing for home while searching for her voice at the same time. Ultimately, she finds hope and strength inside herself. I wrote it so people could learn about the history of the Hmong as US allies and how we came to be in this country. I also wrote it to present the Hmong people in a more fully dimensional light. I wanted to write a book that would tell not the usual refugee story that is so often used to portray us, but a human story.
What can fans expect from your book?
Sadness, longing, homesickness, pockets of joy, family love, strength. I hope readers will see what the experience of losing your home and country can be like from a child’s perspective. I hope it might help them to understand how it would feel to be ripped away from everything you know and cherish so much. It’s my wish that the book can offer some hope to the young people everywhere who’ve been displaced from wars and develop awareness and empathy in those who haven’t experienced these losses.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I’m writing the next set of EXTRAORDINARY ELIANA books, a new early reader series that’s a spinoff of my ASTRID AND APOLLO chapter books. A+A is about 8-year-old Hmong American twins and their awesome daily adventures; EE stars their little sister Eliana and focuses on her sweet escapades. I’m also finishing up a middle grade novel that’s very different from "A YEAR WITHOUT HOME." It was inspired by an Instagram notification I received one day from an obviously fake account that said, Keanu Reeves is now following you. It’s about a 12-year-old girl who films a cooking show on YouTube with her mom. She receives a mysterious email from a viewer that sends her on a frantic, secret search for her long-lost father.
