Rgz SALON member
Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of
MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography
Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of
Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and the author of
Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Her most recent novel,
Rogue--a spring/summer Junior Library Guild selection for middle school--is out this month!
We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the
rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she discusses
The Language Inside by Holly Thompson:
"Emma Karas is a 'third culture kid.' Her parents grew up in
the United States, but she calls Japan home even though she is not ethnically
Japanese. When her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and decides to return
to the U.S. for treatment, Emma is uprooted from her Japanese friends and her
efforts to help survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and dropped into
a world that she doesn’t understand. The stress causes her to suffer severe and
frightening migraines. To take her mind off her mother’s health, her parents’
separation due to work, and her loneliness, she volunteers at a nursing home
near her grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. There, she meets Samnang, a
volunteer of Cambodian heritage with a troubled past, and Zena, a middle-aged
poet with 'locked-in' syndrome. As she becomes comfortable in her new
surroundings, she feels guilty that she is not helping her friends in Japan as
they rebuild from the tsunami. Ultimately, this thoughtful, good-hearted
teenager finds herself torn and having to make choices that weigh her own needs
and the needs of others.
"Thompson is a poet and novelist from the U.S. who lives in
Japan, Her second novel in verse is a strong follow-up to the acclaimed Orchards, which mostly takes place in
her adopted home. The elegant and
heartfelt poetry in The Language Inside
allows the reader to explore Emma’s internal transformation as she navigates
different cultures and the people in her life. Emma writes, 'it’s not just
losing / Japanese words / and phrases / it’s as if I’ve lost / half of myself
here / but no one knows / because I’m a white
girl' There is very little dialogue, but through Emma’s eyes we see other
characters clearly and Emma’s changing relationships with them. The most
original aspect of this powerful and compelling story is Emma’s interaction
with Zena via poetry, as we see the growing friendship between two people who,
in distinct ways, understand that 'lonely
is when the language outside / isn’t the language inside.'"
