Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War

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Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War

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Overview

Last Airlift is the true story of the last Canadian airlift operation that left Saigon and arrived in Toronto on April 13, 1975. Son Thi Anh Tuyet was one of 57 babies and children on that flight. Based on personal interviews and enhanced with archive photos, Tuyet's story of the Siagon orphanage and her flight to Canada is an emotional and suspenseful journey brought to life by the award-winning children's author, Marsha Skrypuch.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781927485064
Publisher:	Pajama Press Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	120
Lexile:	670L (what's this?)
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's award-winning books for young people include Last Airlift, a Red Cedar Information Book Award winner and OLA Red Maple Honour Book. Its sequel, One Step at a Time, won the OLA Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award. Her YA novel Dance of the Banished is a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2015. In 2008, in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the development Ukraine's culture, Marsha was awarded the Order of Princess Olha. She lives in Brantford, Ontario.

Read an Excerpt

A true story about life in a Saigon orphanage, a dramatic rescue flight from Vietnam to Canada, adoption by a Canadian family, and growing up in Canada.

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Editorial Reviews

[The] biographical approach helps to humanize a war that, for most readers, may seem like ancient history, and the tight focus on the airlift and Tuyet's first days with the Morrises reminds readers that they are sharing the experiences of an agemate.

Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch never strays from Tuyet's child-centered perspective in recounting her experiences. In an author's note, Skrypuch describes interviewing Tuyet (obviously now an adult), who found that she remembered more and more of the past as she talked. Dialogue takes this narrative out of the category of pure nonfiction, but Tuyet's story, with its occasional black-and-white illustrations, is no less affecting because of it.

Cooperative Center for Children's Books Choices

Enhanced with documents and a surprising number of photographs, Airlift is a touching, multi-layered experience. The strength of Skrypuch's storytelling shows strongest in the smallest details.

Smithsonian Institute Book Dragon

"Skrypuch, tells the true story of how this little girl is transported to Toronto and finds a loving home. She makes us feel Tuyet's fears, confusion and loneliness as she adjusts to her new home."

Winnipeg Free Press

Last Airlift is the story of an heroic deed, of one young girl's courage and resourcefulness when she most needs it, and of the ending she could not foresee . . . **Highly Recommended.**

CM Magazine

"Skrypuch's prose is intimate and compelling, the many personal touches make the story come alive... Both dialogue and many wonderful photographs enliven the story. Young readers will find Last Airlift suspenseful and interesting. It will take them to a time and place they may not have heard of, but which will resonate for them through Tuyet's longing for a family to call her own."

Goodreads

"Skrypuch's gift is her ability to tell stories of under-privileged children in faraway lands. Tuyet's biography demonstrates her talent...Tuyet's story is an excellent example of the biography genre for young student; a multi-cultural perspective on being an immigrant child in Canada, and also a snapshot of a child's life during the war. This biography is a useful source for discovering the ethnic makeup of a local community and the background of an immigrant Canadian. Highly recommended."

Resource Links

"Enhanced with documents and a surprising number of photographs, Airlift is a touching, multi-layered experience. The strength of Skrypuch's storytelling shows strongest in the smallest details."

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program blog

"This short narrative reads like a well-written novel, but it's the true story of Tuyet Son Thi Anh, a young girl who endured polio and war, and who was flown out of Saigon in 1975 by Americans, at the end of the Vietnam War...Her memories, as told to the author, are fascinating and poignant...Highly recommended!"

The Westfield Booktalker blog

"This biographical approach helps to humanize a war that, for most readers, may seem like ancient history, and the tight focus on the airlift and Tuyet's first days with the Morrises reminds readers that they are sharing the experiences of an agemate."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Tuyet's remarkable true story recounts the heroic rescue on a plane bigger than her orphanage, with babies hurriedly placed in cardboard boxes and an unknown future for all. With the new foods, her own bed, eating with a fork, using a toothbrush (instead of her fingers and some salt), walking on grass (instead of rice paddies), and learning that the lights in the nighttime sky are stars instead of bombs, it's her adjustment to a foreign land and an adopted family that proves most fascinating.

Booklist

An excellent first step on the ladder that leads to such fine immigrant tales as Thanhha Lai's Inside Out & Back Again.

Horn Book Magazine

"Dialogue takes this narrative out of the category of pure nonfiction, but Tuyet's story, with its occasional black-and-white illustrations, is no less affecting because of it."

Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices

As Saigon was falling to the North Vietnamese in April 1975, those who were caring for babies and children orphaned by the war worried about the fate of their charges. A series of evacuation flights called "Operation Babylift" carried several thousand young children to other countries around the world. Skrypuch (Daughter of War, 2008) tells the story of the last Canadian airlift through the memories of one child, Son Thi Anh Tuyet. Nearly 8 years old, the sad-eyed girl on the cover had lived nearly all her life in a Catholic orphanage. With no warning, she and a number of the institution babies were taken away, placed on an airplane and flown to a new world. Tuyet's memories provide poignant, specific details. The nuns expected her to be useful; she helped with the babies. Naturally, she assumed that John and Dorothy Morris had chosen her to help with their three children; instead, she had acquired a family. In an afterword, the author describes her research, including personal interviews and newspaper accounts from the time. But Tuyet's experience is her focus. It personalizes the babylift without sensationalizing it. The author has researched carefully and reported accurately, except where South Vietnam's soldiers are called Viet Cong. Immediate and compelling, this moving refugee story deserves a wide audience. (historical note, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)

Kirkus Reviews