Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam
(Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Thien Pham. (2023). Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam. First Second.

Thien Pham. 2023. Family Style: Memories of an American From Vietnam. First Second.

Thien Pham, Family Style: Memories of an American From Vietnam. First Second, 2023.

Thien Pham. Family Style: Memories of an American From Vietnam. First Second, 2023.

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primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Thien Pham

isOwnedByCollections

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title

Family Style

dateAdded

2023-06-15T03:45:00Z

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Memories of an American from Vietnam

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keywords

1. • value: Vietnamese American
2. • value: sumo
3. • value: growing up
4. • value: Diversity
5. • value: teen
6. • value: refugee
7. • value: inspiring
8. • value: asian american
9. • value: Immigration
10. • value: Coming of age
11. • value: Identity
12. • value: migrant
13. • value: american dream
14. • value: multicultural
15. • value: Diaspora
16. • value: hopeful
17. • value: vietnamese food
18. • value: ownvoice
19. • value: cultural recipes
20. • value: Level up
21. • value: aapi
22. • value: instagram cartoonists
23. • value: thian phan

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Pham, Thien
   • bioText: Thien Pham is a graphic novelist, comic artist, and educator based in Oakland, CA. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and did the art for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang, and is an ongoing comic contributor to Eater SF. Currently Pham is working on his next graphic novel, teaching, and eating. A lot. Follow Thien on Twitter and Instagram.
   • name: Thien Pham

publishDate

2023-06-20T00:00:00-04:00

isOwnedByCollections

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title

Family Style

fullDescription

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
Eisner Award Winner for Best Graphic Memoir
An NPR Best Books of 2023

A moving young adult graphic memoir about a Vietnamese immigrant boy's search for belonging in America, perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and The Best We Could Do!
Thien's first memory isn't a sight or a sound. It's the sweetness of watermelon and the saltiness of fish. It's the taste of the foods he ate while adrift at sea as his family fled Vietnam.
After the Pham family arrives at a refugee camp in Thailand, they struggle to survive. Things don't get much easier once they resettle in California. And through each chapter of their lives, food takes on a new meaning. Strawberries come to signify struggle as Thien's mom and dad look for work. Potato chips are an indulgence that bring Thien so much joy that they become a necessity.
Behind every cut of steak and inside every croissant lies a story. And for Thien Pham, that story is about a search—for belonging, for happiness, for the American dream.

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 50
2. • value: Grade 1
3. • value: Grade 2

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: School Library Journal, starred review
   • content: "Pham's extraordinary memoir just might be the toothsome gift we didn't know we needed."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly, starred review
   • content: "Pham reflects the push-pull conflict of assimilation and cultural loss as explored through food in digitally illustrated panels portraying visual feasts and expressive emotion, making for a vivid and insightful telling that offers joy and hope amid the terror."
3. • premium: False
   • source: The San Francisco Chronicle
   • content:
     "In this gorgeous young-adult graphic memoir, Pham tells the story of his family's resettlement in San Jose through his vivid, emotional food memories."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Horn Book
   • content:
     "A nuanced and hopeful graphic memoir depicting moments of hardship and joy with sincerity."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

   • content: "[A] standout graphic novel"
6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from April 24, 2023
     Pham employs food as a vehicle to chronicle his and his family’s treacherous experience as Vietnamese refugees in this arresting graphic novel memoir, a debut. In the book’s first chapter, a bespectacled adult Pham recalls “my very first memory... from when I was five.” A spread rendered in inky line and muted color washes depicts an overcrowded boat carrying Vietnamese evacuees suffering from thirst, hunger, and fear. When their vessel is beset by pirates, Pham’s parents instruct him to close his eyes; pages of void-like darkness interspersed by red-toned scenes of the pirates’ violent acts follow as Pham’s parents assure him that they’re “right here. It will be okay.” Upon surviving the siege, Pham is given a rice ball, the last of the family’s food: “To this day,” Pham writes, “I can still taste that rice ball.” Subsequent chapters recount the family’s travels from Songkhla refugee camp to San Jose, Calif. Pham reflects the push-pull conflict of assimilation and cultural loss as explored through food in digitally illustrated panels portraying visual feasts and expressive emotion, making for a vivid and insightful telling that offers joy and hope amid the terror. Ages 14–up.

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 1, 2023
     

     Gr 9 Up-In this graphic memoir, Pham shares with readers memories of his family's immigration to the U.S. and their efforts to achieve "the American Dream." Each chapter is framed around a specific food that is central to his memory of critical points in his life. Starting with his first memory at five years old, Pham relates his family's experience of fleeing Vietnam by boat and being given rice and fish by a passing ship. Other chapters focus on the family finally making it to the U.S. (celebratory meal of steak and potatoes), Pham attending an English-speaking school for the first time (cafeteria-served Salisbury steak), and reconnecting with his Vietnamese heritage through a friend (shared meal of Co'm t�' m d- c bi t). Throughout, Pham's mother shines as the hero of the story, even if his younger self was not fully aware at the time of everything she did to protect his childhood. This can be seen in small moments, such as her treating Pham and his brother to expensive potato chips and in more extreme situations like the powerful scene in which she shields his vision and calmly talks him through a horrendous and brutal pirate attack. Pham's detailed artwork and expert use of the graphic novel format will doubtlessly transport readers into each compelling memory. VERDICT A delicious series of memories full of hope and human connections despite the hardships of immigrating to a new home.-Amanda Melilli

     Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2023
     This graphic memoir begins with the author's earliest memory: trying to quench his thirst with seawater as he and his family flee Vietnam by boat. Thien's perspective as a five-year-old child is relayed through alternating spreads of violence he witnesses and then pitch-black spreads (when he closes his eyes to shut out the terror). After the threat is over, a rice ball with fish saved for him by his mother provides comfort. The food motif continues, with chapters named for foods that accompany his memories, as the family stays at the overcrowded Songkhla Refugee Camp in Thailand until they're relocated to San Jose, California -- where the book showcases the diversity of Asian American identities via a dish introduced to Thien by his Vietnamese American crush. Finally, after anti-immigrant rhetoric drives the adult Pham to seek U.S. citizenship, a celebratory meal of rice and fish shared with his family recalls that first memory. Community-building and resilience are central to the story as people from various backgrounds help the family navigate unfamiliar situations. The cartoon style and animated facial expressions in the muted, earth-hued panel illustrations are warm and inviting, matching the earnest and often humorous tone of the book. A nuanced and hopeful graphic memoir depicting moments of hardship and joy with sincerity. Back matter includes photographs and Pham's "interview" with himself. Kristine Techavanich

     (Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 1, 2023
     Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Pham's (Sumo, 2012) extraordinary memoir just might be the toothsome gift we didn't know we needed. Pham was five when his family escaped Vietnam by boat. His earliest memory originates then, in the taste of the rice ball he ate after his family survived a vicious pirate attack (the black space in this sequence is particularly powerful): "the saltiness of the fish . . . the sweetness of the rice" endures. Over eight chapters, Pham highlights personally iconic foods to encapsulate certain portions of his life thus far, beginning and concluding with "rice and fish" eaten in vastly different situations, first as that vulnerable child and decades later during a citizenship celebration with his family. In between, Pham recalls b�nh cuốn (rice rolls) in the Thai refugee camp; their first American meal of steak and potatoes; the strawberries and potato chips that epitomized becoming "officially American"; the Salisbury steak of free school lunches; the ham-and-cheese croissant signaling the family's hope for financial independence; and a reconnection with his Vietnamese heritage in cơm tấm đặc biệt (broken rice platter). Pham presents his predominantly six-panel pages in earthy tones of browns, greens, and grays. His depiction of gaining English and losing Vietnamese via parallel text bubbles is brilliant. Gene Luen Yang (Pham's Level Up (2011) cocreator) makes a delightful cameo. Pham's endnotes--a comical, poignant Q&A--add even more delectable delight.

     COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      July 1, 2023
      This graphic memoir begins with the author's earliest memory: trying to quench his thirst with seawater as he and his family flee Vietnam by boat. Thien's perspective as a five-year-old child is relayed through alternating spreads of violence he witnesses and then pitch-black spreads (when he closes his eyes to shut out the terror). After the threat is over, a rice ball with fish saved for him by his mother provides comfort. The food motif continues, with chapters named for foods that accompany his memories, as the family stays at the overcrowded Songkhla Refugee Camp in Thailand until they're relocated to San Jose, California -- where the book showcases the diversity of Asian American identities via a dish introduced to Thien by his Vietnamese American crush. Finally, after anti-immigrant rhetoric drives the adult Pham to seek U.S. citizenship, a celebratory meal of rice and fish shared with his family recalls that first memory. Community-building and resilience are central to the story as people from various backgrounds help the family navigate unfamiliar situations. The cartoon style and animated facial expressions in the muted, earth-hued panel illustrations are warm and inviting, matching the earnest and often humorous tone of the book. A nuanced and hopeful graphic memoir depicting moments of hardship and joy with sincerity. Back matter includes photographs and Pham's "interview" with himself.

      (Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

popularity

1039

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languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Cooking & Food
2. • value: Multi-Cultural
3. • value: Sociology
4. • value: Young Adult Nonfiction

publishDateText

06/20/2023

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781250809711

mediaType

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shortDescription

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
Eisner Award Winner for Best Graphic Memoir
An NPR Best Books of 2023

A moving young adult graphic memoir about a Vietnamese immigrant boy's search for belonging in America, perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and The Best We Could Do!
Thien's first memory isn't a sight or a sound. It's the sweetness of watermelon and the saltiness of fish. It's the taste of the foods he ate while adrift at sea as his family fled Vietnam.
After the Pham family arrives at a refugee camp in Thailand, they struggle to survive. Things don't get much easier once they resettle in California. And through each chapter of their lives, food takes on a new meaning. Strawberries come to signify struggle as Thien's mom and dad look for work. Potato chips are an indulgence that bring Thien so much joy that they become a necessity.
Behind every cut of steak and inside every croissant lies a story....

sortTitle

Family Style Memories of an American from Vietnam

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awards

1. • source: Young Adult Library Services Association
   • value: Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist
2. • source: Comic Industry
   • value: Eisner Award

subtitle

Memories of an American from Vietnam

publisher

First Second

atos

2.8

bisacCodes

1. • code: YAN014000
   • description: Young Adult Nonfiction / Cooking & Food
2. • code: YAN038120
   • description: YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Asian American & Pacific Islander
3. • code: YAN012040
   • description: Young Adult Nonfiction / Comics & Graphic Novels / Social Topics