Bamboo Son, by Pao Lor
Pao Lor left Laos when he was five, but the country of his birth followed him to Wisconsin. His family were Hmong, an ethnic group mobilized to fight Laotian Communists in the Vietnam-era wars. When Laos fell to Communism, tens of thousands of Hmong fled to refugee camps in Thailand and from there, to the U.S.
With Bamboo Son, Lor recounts his Green Bay adolescence and Wisconsin adulthood (he’s now associate dean of education at UW-La Crosse). He grew up within a supportive community of Hmong refugees, yet his transition to American life included obstacles to overcome. Although he faced some bullying, his biggest challenges were internal and involved overcoming a sense of cultural and intellectual inferiority. Bamboo Son is a personal success story that will remind readers of the value given to America by its immigrants—and a time in living memory when the U.S. helped its allies in lost wars.
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