Out of the Dragon's Mouth

by Joyce Burns Zeiss

Overview

After the fall of South Vietnam, fourteen-year-old Mai, a young Vietnamese girl of Chinese descent, is torn from a life of privilege and forced to flee across the South China Sea in the hold of a fishing trawler. Mai finds tenuous safety in a refugee camp on an island off the coast of Malaysia, where a greedy relative called Small Auntie offers her a place to stay-but her hospitality isn't free. With her father's words "You must survive" echoing in her ears, Mai endures the hardships of the camp, which are tempered only by her dreams of being sponsored by her uncle for entry into America. But when an accident forces Mai to leave the safety of Small Auntie's family, she meets Kien, a half-American boy who might be the only person who can keep her alive until she's sent to the United States. Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Out of the Dragon's Mouth is a poignant look into life ripped apart by the ravages of war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738744322
Publisher:	North Star Editions
Publication date:	03/08/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	790,846
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Joyce Burns Zeiss (Chicago, IL) has always wanted to be a writer. After retiring from teaching junior high school, she became a member of the Off Campus Writers Workshop in Winnetka, Illinois. Her experiences resettling a Chinese Cambodian refugee family in 1979 and her subsequent trips to work in refugee camps in Africa fueled her interest in the plight of the refugee. Her first novel, Out of the Dragon’s Mouth, is based on the true-life experiences of a fellow teacher who fled Vietnam as an adolescent to cross the South China Sea in the hold of a fishing boat. To learn more, visit her website at www.joyceburnszeiss.com.

Joyce Burns Zeiss (Chicago, IL) has always wanted to be a writer. After retiring from teaching junior high school, she became a member of the Off Campus Writers Workshop in Winnetka, Illinois. Her experiences resettling a Chinese Cambodian refugee family in 1979 and her subsequent trips to work in refugee camps in Africa fueled her interest in the plight of the refugee. Her first novel, Out of the Dragon’s Mouth, is based on the true-life experiences of a fellow teacher who fled Vietnam as an adolescent to cross the South China Sea in the hold of a fishing boat. To learn more, visit her website at www.joyceburnszeiss.com.

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Editorial Reviews

"Given the dearth of material about the exodus of the families that supported democracy in Vietnam, this novel has value in helping to bring home to modern readers the great costs they suffered." —Kirkus Reviews

"This well-written ... story puts emotions and a face to the word "refugee." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

01/01/2015
Gr 7 Up—The Vietnam War changed the lives of countless people, many neither American nor Vietnamese. Mai Nguyen is the 14-year-old daughter of a wealthy Chinese rice exporter living in the Mekong River Delta. When Saigon fell to the communists, her family's genteel life ended. She is forced to flee with another relative to Malaysia and petition for refugee status in hopes of being sponsored by a Vietnamese American uncle. Mai first finds shelter with a distant relative but is rejected when tragedy strikes. She moves to another small group of friends and begins a new "family," but bad luck follows. She questions Buddha and fears the spirits she worships, making her religious outlook feel hopeless. Romance—both innocent and ill-fated—blossoms. Mai's thoughts, fears, and emotions are genuine. Much of the book focuses on her life in the refugee camp on a small Malaysian island. The tedium of surviving and waiting slows the pace considerably, but it is understandable. There is very little to do while waiting—the author uses this time to develop relationships between Mai and other characters. There are passing references to rape and other sexual behavior, but nothing graphic. Eventually, her name is called and she begins the exciting but confusing journey to America. There are some credulity-stretching events during and after her trip, but her bewilderment is real. Life in America is open to her, and the reader feels her hope. This well-written but slow-moving story puts emotions and a face to the word "refugee."—Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

School Library Journal

2014-12-06
In 1978, Chinese-Vietnamese Mai's previously wealthy family has sent her away as a first step in getting the whole family to the safety of America. She is accompanied by Uncle Hiep, who at 16 is only two years older than she is. The two survive a harrowing boat journey and fetch up on a small island called Pulau Tenga, off the coast of Malaysia, where Small Auntie, Mai's mother's sister-in-law, is to take care of them. Small Auntie and her family have been stranded there since their boat died a year ago. She can help them navigate this crowded and somewhat harsh terrain and work with the Red Cross to contact an uncle living in Chicago. But Small Auntie believes that the two have brought wealth with them, and her greed soon finds them ostracized and seeking help from other young people on their own. Based on a friend's experiences, Zeiss' first novel lacks the immediacy of an actual memoir and suffers from unevenness of tone. At times, it seems that Mai can't distinguish between large and small crises, which undercuts her otherwise real trauma. At other times, the challenges she faces are grievous and even deadly. Nevertheless, given the dearth of material about the exodus of the families that supported democracy in Vietnam, this novel has value in helping to bring home to modern readers the great costs they suffered. (Historical fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews