Preview of A Long Way from Home Summary:

A Boat to Nowhere had just won the Child Study Children's Book Committee Award of the Bank Street College of Education in 1980 when this sequel was published. Because of its even more controversial subject matter at a time when Americans were resentful of the burden of Vietnam War refugees, the Newbery prize committee decided to designate A Long Way from Home as an Honor Book (1980) rather than the first place winner.

As with A Boat to Nowhere, A Long Way from Home "deals honestly and courageously with problems," in this case the adjustment to life in America of the three young boat people who survived weeks of danger and starvation on the South China Seas. Whereas A Boat to Nowhere focused on others besides the orphaned loner Kien, this is fifteen-year-old Kien Ho's own story as he struggles for identity in a country whose language, customs, and people...