Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (review)

This nonfiction picture book relates the account of Tuan Ho, who fled Vietnam with his mother and sisters in 1981, when he was only six years old. Following the departure of his father and older sister the previous year, Tuan and his remaining family (save for his baby sister) slip out one night, evading gunshots from soldiers to board a small skiff that takes them to a bigger boat. There they undergo perils ranging from a leak to a dead engine that leaves them adrift without drinkable water, finally finding succor when an American aircraft carrier rescues the boat’s passengers. Though the rescue climax oversimplifies the experience and leaves audiences hanging about the fate of the rest of the family (revealed in the smaller-text afterword), it’s a powerful story, and it doesn’t shy away from the dangers experienced— sometimes fatally—by the refugees. Deines’ smudgy oils are somewhat stodgy in their portraiture, but the scenes of escape are dramatic, and creative perspectives occasionally add dimension to the visuals. While this will be useful in a curriculum about immigration, it’s also a way to contextualize current refugee crises that haven’t yet hit the literature. A concluding note gives more information about the Vietnamese “boat people,” and pictures of Tuan Ho and his family are included alongside the summary of the Ho family’s subsequent life.