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Summary
Summary
The Hmong People's Journey of Freedom Illustrated by Chue & Nhia Thao Cha
Author Notes
Dia, Chue, and Nhia Thao Cha were born in Laos. In 1975, Dia fled with her family to Thailand, where they spent over four years in the Ban Vinai refugee camp before gaining entry to the United States. Her uncle and aunt, Chue and Nhia Thao Cha (not pictured), made this story cloth in 1990 in the Chiang Kham refugee camp in Thailand. They have since returned to Laos. Dia works as a cultural anthropologist in Boulder, Colorado.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6An interesting and unusual title that resists neat categorization. The main body of the book, a first-person narrative in picture-book format, is illustrated with details from a Hmong story cloth designed and embroidered by the author's aunt and uncle. One double-page spread shows the cloth in its entirety. The rhythmic composition depicts lines of small figures, viewed from above, flowing around trees and buildings, across the landscape of Burma, Laos, and Thailand. Cha's family lived happily as mountain farmers in Laos until the `60s, when the country was divided by war. Her father joined the loyalists and disappeared. Fleeing the fighting, the author's family ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand. Her story ends with their emigration to America. A four-page encyclopedic description of the Hmong people and the importance of textile arts to their culture follows Cha's narrative, along with a bibliography. Part autobiography, part history, part description of a changing culture adapting life and art to new circumstances, the book serves as a brief introduction to the Hmong people. A good supplement would be Blia Xiong's Nine-in-One, Grr! Grr! (Children's Book Pr., 1989), a retelling of a Hmong folktale, with illustrations influenced by the Hmong story cloth, a new kind of folk art created in refugee camps.Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A folk art masterpiece from a Southeast Asian culture stands at the center of this thoughtful book. Intricately composed, painstakingly stitched by hand, the "story cloth" of the title was created by the author's aunt and uncle, Hmong who fled their native Laos for a refugee camp in Thailand. The story cloth records their experiences-which are also the author's own. Using details from the cloth as illustrations, Cha retells her life story, a meeting of Hmong history and a classic American immigration tale. Now an anthropologist in Colorado, Cha spent her early years during the 1960s in a Hmong village in Laos, where her family worked long days growing rice and corn. War tore the country apart; Cha's father was killed and she and her mother made a dangerous escape to Thailand, emigrating to the United States in 1979. The text is subdued; it is the needlework that drives home the poignancy of this cataclysmic account. For advanced readers, a lengthy afterword, by Joyce Herold, Denver Museum of Natural History's curator of ethnology, sets out historical background and assesses the story cloth as an art form. Ages 6-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Stitched by Chue Cha and Nhi Thao Cha. Compendium by Joyce Herold. Photographs of a traditional Hmong embroidered story cloth, colorful and detailed, accompany Cha's memories of her childhood in Laos, her family's escape to a refugee camp in Thailand, and their eventual immigration to the United States. The story cloth, created by the author's aunt and uncle, depicts the history of the Hmong people. A lengthy historical compendium is included. Bib. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-5. Based on a traditional Hmong story cloth, this picture book depicts the story of the author's family. It begins with their ancestors leaving China to settle in Laos and goes on to describe traditional Laotian life; the war between the loyalists and the Communists; the capture of Cha's father, and the remaining family's flight; their years in a refugee camp in Thailand; and finally, their immigration to the U.S. The colorful embroidered pictures illustrating the story are segments of a much larger story cloth, which appears in full on a double-page spread. Extensive notes describe the history and ways of the Hmong people and how their art, combining needlework and storytelling, continues in U.S. An unusual introduction to the Hmong. --Carolyn Phelan
