Youme
MALI UNDER THE NIGHT SKY : A LAO STORY OF HOME
Cinco Puntos Press, 2010
IL K-3, RL 3.9
ISBN 1933693681

The tale describes Mali as a little girl who is inquisitive like all little girls.  Her daily activities, from exploring the bamboo forests to making feasts with her aunts, give students a look into the daily lives of children their own age that live in an unfamiliar region.  Youme includes beautiful illustrations that depict the people, countryside, and traditions of Laos.  As an added bonus, words in the Lao language are included on every page with translations so that students can practice the language themselves. 
 
The light and innocent tone at the beginning of the story becomes serious and grave as the family finds themselves having to walk across the border to Thailand and are arrested and put in jail.  In jail, it is Mali who is able to bring feelings of hope back into the other prisoners as she tells everyone of her memories of home.  The story ends on a positive note, but leaves it to the imagination of the audience to determine what happened afterwards.    (Adrienne Lovejoy,  alovejoy@valverde.edu, Status teacher)