Novels in verse have become even more popular for middle grade readers recently, for good reasons, one being the format’s unique ability to approach heavy, complicated themes in accessible yet evocative language. A Year Without Home by V.T. Bidania is a great example of this, and one that fans of the format should not miss.

When 11-year-old Hmong girl Gao Sheng and her large family are forced to leave their home in Laos following the Vietnam War, her sense of contentment is shattered. Her family is flung to the winds, with smaller groups splintering out to seek refuge from the Communist troops seeking to execute her father, who cooperated with US Troops as part of the Lao Army. Along her path, she grapples with not only the existential struggles and fears of being a refugee, but her own budding sense of identity, her longing for home, and her mourning of a childhood gone too quickly.

Based on the author’s family history, the powerful and poignant poetry of A Year Without Home act not only as a glimpse into an era and culture rarely explored in the children’s literature world, but also into timeless themes of adolescence made all the more intense by extreme circumstances—ones that the Hmong and Indigenous culture like theirs are still feeling the effects of to this day.

Thanks so much to Nancy Paulsen Books and Penguin Young Readers for sending us a copy of this book!