1. On the April Sunday that she plants her first seeds, Kim's apartment includes an altar that has contained candles, incense sticks, food, and a photograph of her father to commemorate an anniversary of his death. What are the origins of such family altars to the spirits of the dead? In which cultures are altars to dead ancestors common? How does the Vietnamese family's altar compare with the altars that Latin American families create to observe El Dia de Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, each year?

2. Why is Kim living in Cleveland, Ohio, instead of the village in which her father farmed in Vietnam? What events might explain her family's presence in America?

3. Ana tells us the national or ethnic origins of other Gibb Street families but tells nothing about her own origin except that her parents were born in a village...