The ABCs of

Freedom

Hope

Dreams

Education

Opportunity

New Life

Family

Change

DecisionsTraditions

America

“Good-bye land of war, land of prisons, land of lies.” DeathRape

FilthHunger

Miss Sayapong

PASS

School

Confusion

“’Look Grandma! I pointed at my cup. The squares turned into water.’ We shook our heads at each other. How were we supposed to know?”

“This is cold?”

“I didn’t understand. ‘My own…room?”

“Will I kill us with what I don’t know?”

“Parents always told their kids who they could be with, what they could do. If the kids disobeyed, shouldn’t they get hit? I struggled to hide my confusion.”

English

$$$$

What religion do I believe?

Do I want to be a good Hmong girl?

Do I want a traditional Hmong life?

Do I want to be

“American” or

“Hmong”?

Can I be both

?

Do I listen to my family?

Do I listen to my friends?

Do I lie? “I have never lied before.”

Are Heather and Lisa good

for me?

How do I handle my anger towards Grandma?

How should I confront her?

How do I make

Grandma proud?

How do I make her

smile?

Where do I want to fit

in?

Decisions

El ePhan t

uck

a Nhia

Family

Love

Hate

Caregiver

Dependent

Proud

Traditional

Pa’ndau

Acceptance

Protector

Strong

Vibrant

Lost

Life Line

Dominant Independent

Grandma

Mai struggles to keep her Hmong identity and traditions while trying to adjust to her new American life.

“The Hmong are fiercely independent hills tribes who have populated the southwestern Chinese Provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Kwangsi for more than 4,200 years.” p 221

Mai struggles constantly with the independence a new American life offers and the obligation to her Grandmother and her previous way of life.

“’In my home Mai will obey me,’ Grandma insisted.

Heather whispered to me in English, ‘A battle for Mai’s soul. Who will win?’

‘Me’, I replied under my breath. I chomped into the cross and bit off the whole top.” p 163

“My hands touched my sash and my collar, and I thought, Grandma is here, and I touched my silver necklace, here, and my jingling hat, here. Then I lifted my hands high into the air and twirled once slowly, here and everywhere.” p 219

Mai blames herself for her grandmother’s death. She came to America with her grandmother at her side and now she must continue on the rest of the journey without her.

“Lies could help, I reasoned. They weren’t always wrong.

It would be okay for me. One tiny harmless lie, only one.” p87

“If I told the truth, Heather and Lisa would hate me.” p87

Mai wants to do the right thing… but what is right gets more unclear everyday.

“I remembered the encouraging words of Miss Sayapong in camp: ‘Keep learning, Mai. That is how to thank me.’” p176

Mai works hard studying during her first Summer in

America so that she may join her regulareighth grade class in the fall.

“I didn’t think much about pa’ndau anymore. My eyes were hungry for words! p 174

“Mai is beautiful as an orchid,but has the strengthof a tiger.” p 219

Mai is a smart girl with hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow in America. She struggles often with her own emotions. She wants to follow her Hmong traditions, but she is curious about the American way of life. Mai begins to find herself and slowly untangles the threads of her life.

Happy New Year!

“A new year of luck, health, and happinessjingled in the air, and here I was safe and swirling, inside it.”p 220

As the New Year arrives, Mai finally begins to make peace with herself over her inner struggles. She finally understands there is a way to balance the traditions and beliefs of her old Hmong lifestyle with her new life here in America.

OOIs for Obedient. Mai Is for Obedient. Mai

struggles to struggles to understand how and understand how and

why American why American children disobey their children disobey their elders so easily. It’s elders so easily. It’s almost fascinating to almost fascinating to

her to the point her to the point where she wants to where she wants to

try it herself.try it herself.

PPIs for PASS, Preparation for Is for PASS, Preparation for American Secondary School. American Secondary School. This is where Mai learned This is where Mai learned many things about American many things about American culture. She felt safe and culture. She felt safe and protected there by her teacher protected there by her teacher Miss Sayapong who helped Miss Sayapong who helped her get to America.her get to America.

QQ Is for Qeej, the wind Is for Qeej, the wind instruments made of bamboo. instruments made of bamboo. This symbolizes the This symbolizes the happiness Grandmother felt happiness Grandmother felt when she witnessed Hmong when she witnessed Hmong customs being practiced in customs being practiced in America, like the dancing the America, like the dancing the girls performed. girls performed.

RRIs for Refugee. Mai Is for Refugee. Mai spent ten years of her spent ten years of her life as a prisoner in life as a prisoner in camps. Her dream camps. Her dream was to be with her was to be with her family in America and family in America and not spend her life as a not spend her life as a Refugee anymore.Refugee anymore.

SS Is for Secrets. In America Is for Secrets. In America Mai learns that there are Mai learns that there are many secrets in her many secrets in her precious family. The secret precious family. The secret Grandmother keeps from Grandmother keeps from her is the most hurtful, yet her is the most hurtful, yet Mai waits months to confront Mai waits months to confront her about it.her about it.

TT Is for Threadworm, the stomach Is for Threadworm, the stomach sickness Mai suffers from. She sickness Mai suffers from. She caught it in the refugee camp caught it in the refugee camp and it plagued her until she was and it plagued her until she was treated by American doctors treated by American doctors and medicine. and medicine.

for Unite

“Only the shaman could rid my body of its bad spirits. Only the shaman could unite my wayward

souls.” page 1

for Vietnam “The Thai, the Lao,

even most Americans didn’t believe that the Pathet Lao – the

Communists who were the new rulers of Laos – had used

poisoned gas against us after the Vietnam

War.” page 10

for Westerners

“Hmong children never disobeyed. From what I saw last night, I guessed American children did all the time. It

seemed as if nobody was in charge of an American family.” page 90

for Xenophobia“Heather had told me about

the gangs. How when the Hmong first came to

Providence, other kids picked on us, beat us up.

Some Hmong started sticking together for

protection and fighting back.” page 125

for Yang“… my Yang ancestry. Slowly I traced the whorls

of Yang men who had fought for freedom from

the Chinese, Yang women who tried to save the

forbidden Hmong alphabet by stitching the characters

into pa’ndau, Yang who fought the Japanese and then the Communists.”

page 212

for Zis“ ‘…The doctors are

doing some tests. They took blood

from you and some samples of, uh, your quav and zis [urine].’”

page 133

Characters use Hmong words throughout the novel, lending strong cultural authenticity.

The ABCs of The ABCs of Tangled Threads Tangled Threads

ccreated byreated byAmy Parsons (A-G)Amy Parsons (A-G)Kim Irvin (H-N)Kim Irvin (H-N)Nickey Druley (O-T)Nickey Druley (O-T)Susan Lynch (U-Z)Susan Lynch (U-Z)