Inside Out & Back Again: Part 4

by Thanhha Lai
Fleeing to America to escape the Vietnam War, Hà and her family end up in Alabama, where they must adapt to a new culture. This novel in verse was inspired by author Thanhha Lai's own experiences.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
15 words 6083 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. monastery
    the residence of a religious community
    Brother Khôi asks
    what if
    Father escaped to Tibet
    after shaving his head
    and joining a monastery?
  2. whim
    a sudden desire
    From the sad look
    on their faces
    I know
    despite their brave guesses
    they have begun to accept
    what I said on a whim.
  3. waver
    move in a rising and falling pattern
    Mother says nothing
    about Father

    but

    she chants every night,

    long chants
    where her voice
    wavers between
    hope and acceptance.
  4. supposed
    required or under orders
    First day back
    after Christmas break,
    I know I’m supposed
    to wear everything new.
  5. clench
    squeeze together tightly
    Mother runs in after work,
    hands clenched into white balls,
    words chopped into grunts,
    face of ash.
  6. propel
    cause to move forward with force
    We repeat so often we lose count,
    propelled by Mother’s
    wild eyes and
    pressed mouth,
    frightened of what
    her expression would be
    if...
  7. portrait
    any likeness of a person, in any medium
    Mother has set up
    an altar
    on the highest bookshelf.

    The same, forever-young
    portrait of Father.
  8. ceremony
    a formal event performed on a special occasion
    I’m trying to tell
    MiSSSisss WaSShington
    about our ceremony for Father.
  9. tense
    a category of verbs used to express distinctions of time
    But it takes time to
    match every noun and verb,
    sort all the tenses,
    remember all the articles,
    set the tone for every s.
  10. article
    a determiner indicating the specificity of a noun phrase
    But it takes time to
    match every noun and verb,
    sort all the tenses,
    remember all the articles,
    set the tone for every s.
  11. stubborn
    refusing to change one's mind or ways; difficult to convince
    Being stubborn
    won’t make you fluent.
    Practicing will!
    The more mistakes you make,
    the more you'll learn not to.
  12. fluent
    expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively
    Being stubborn
    won’t make you fluent.
    Practicing will!
    The more mistakes you make,
    the more you'll learn not to.
  13. engineering
    applying scientific knowledge to practical problems
    Brother Quang
    has started night school
    to restudy engineering
    to become what
    he was meant to be.
  14. idol
    someone who is adored blindly and excessively
    Vu Lee
    refuses to apply to a real college,
    instead will go to a cooking school
    in San-fran-cis-co,
    where his idol once walked.
  15. intermingle
    mix or become mixed
    Our lives
    will twist and twist,
    intermingling the old and the new
    until it doesn’t matter
    which is which.
Created on Tue Apr 15 19:26:13 EDT 2014 (updated Mon Jun 30 17:53:52 EDT 2025)

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