At Kathy’s international school in Bangkok, the diverse student body celebrates Culture Day by wearing traditional clothing from their cultural backgrounds. The “American” getup Kathy’s mom makes her wear, though, feels incomplete—like Kathy, “not one thing or the other.” She is biracial—in Thai, a luk khrueng (“half child”). She speaks only English, which distances her from her Thai-speaking mother. Kathy loves American culture, food, and television shows; she’s counting down the days until she and her family leave for a summer in coastal Maine, where her white father’s family lives and where she’ll be attending summer camp. But the summer is more complicated than she expects it to be. Although she’s overjoyed to be reunited with extended family members, she feels self-conscious in the mostly white town. It turns out she and her parents and sister have nothing to talk about, and she realizes she knows very little about her parents—especially her father, who was married twice before meeting Kathy’s mother. Even camp is a disappointment as other kids ask racist, intrusive questions. There are uplifting moments of connection, though, before the summer ends: She meets second cousins who are fun and welcoming, and she learns that her sister is also struggling with loneliness. By the time summer ends, she’s sad to leave Maine but looking forward to returning home to Bangkok. This relatable, honest graphic memoir excels in its depiction of feeling “in between” cultures, homes, and identities.

Winner of the American Library Association's Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature

With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. She spends most of the year in Bangkok, where she’s secretly counting the days till summer vacation. That’s when her family travels for twenty-four hours straight to finally arrive in a tiny seaside town in Maine.

Kathy loves Maine’s idyllic beauty and all the exotic delicacies she can’t get back home, like clam chowder and blueberry pie. But no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t look like the other kids in this
rural New England town. Kathy just wants to find a place where she truly belongs, but she’s not sure if it’s in America, Thailand . . . or anywhere.