Escape from Saigon
Description
It's April 1975 and the armies of North Vietnam are pushing into South Vietnam, leaving death and destruction in their wake. In a Saigon orphanage, eight-year-old Long waits and worries. He is a mixed-blood child, the son of a white American father and a Vietnamese mother. What kind of future can he have in a country ruled by North Vietnam-America's enemy? His only hope of escaping Saigon is via Operation Babylift-the U.S. government's rescue effort to airlift children like him out of harm's way. A family in Ohio is waiting to adopt Long. But if he leaves, will he ever see his home and his grandmother again?
Award-winning author Andrea Warren -whose own adopted daughter was one of 2,300 orphans brought to safety through Operation Babylift- shares the true story of Long's journey from war-ravaged Vietnam to his new life in America's heartland, and ultimately to his return to Saigon to make peace with his past.
Short Description
The true story of a Vietnam War orphan, and his harrowing rescue from Saigon as part of Operation Babylift. He was adopted by an American family and as a young adult revisited his native country to make peace with his past.
More details
Person
Andrea Warren is a native Nebraskan who has called Kansas home since 1979. Her seven books of nonfiction for young readers include "Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story"; "We Rode the Orphan Trains"; "Pioneer Girl: A True Story of Growing Up on the Prairie"; "Escape From Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy"; "Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps"; "Under Siege! Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg," and "Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London." She is at work on a new book that will be released soon.
Warren's books have won a long list of honors, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award,the William Allen White Award, and the Robert F. Sibert Honor Award.
Warren says, "I write true stories about young people caught up in dramatic events. It's an interesting way to learn about history. Readers identify with my main characters and ask themselves, 'If that had been me, what would I have done?'"
