Title: Nowhere Girl
Author: A. J. Paquette
Pages: 246
Publisher: Walker & Company
Age Group: Intermediate, Young Adult (grades 4-8)
I chose to read this book because it takes place mostly in Thailand; I spent two months in Thailand this summer so I figured I would enjoy reading a fictional tale about it. And I did enjoy it! This book is about a 13-year-old girl who is born in a Thailand prison and lives there until her mother dies. After a few months, she decides to leave the prison and look for family in Bangkok and the U.S. Her mother was very secretive so she does not know anything about her family. She goes on a journey to get to the U.S. and learns her family secrets along the way.
This story posed questions from the start that the rest of the book took time to answer: Where did Luchi come from? Who is her father? Why was her mother in prison? Does Luchi have any other family? These questions came early on in the book and wanting to know the answers kept me reading. The book is told from Luchi’s point of view. This story would have been very different if told from another character’s point of view or by an unknown narrator. By Luchi telling the story, we get to experience her emotions, thoughts, feelings, anxieties, and fears. I really enjoyed reading this book but it was rather slow. The ending was not as exciting as I expected. I probably would not use this book for any particular activity in my classroom but I would include it in my classroom library and encourage students to read it. Any concerns about it would be that it includes the mentioning of alcohol and drug abuse.
Keep reading,
Christine
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