A short first-person novel details the difficulties Nam-Huong faces in adjusting to her new neighborhood and school and to another culture after leaving Vietnam to live with guardians in Australia. Numb with grief and sorrow at losing her family and home, Nam-Huong rarely speaks and, as a result, is ridiculed by neighborhood children and classmates. The depth of loss she feels is communicated in a series of letters she writes to a canary, a duck and a buffalo--animals she remembers from her earlier life in Vietnam. Numerous pencil drawings accompany this sensitive story of a young girl coping with tragic loss and taking her first steps toward emotional healing. The author's sources included narratives of adolescent girls who came to Australia from South-east Asia during the late 1970s/early 1980s. (Ages 7-10)

A little Vietnamese girl tries to come to terms with her grief over the loss of her family and her new life with the Australian family with whom she lives. Suggested level: primary.