Listen, Slowly

by Thanhha Lai
Lexile:  800
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Mai is looking forward to spending the summer with her friends at the beach when she finds out from her parents that (surprise!) she is going to Vietnam with her dad and grandmother.  Her grandfather disappeared many years ago and her grandmother has never had a full understanding of how his life ended.  Now a detective has found a guard that claims to have known her grandfather when he was captured as a prisoner.  It will be up to Mai to travel with her grandmother in a country she has never been to and whose language and culture she barely knows.  Mai is convinced that this will be her worst summer ever.

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