Pajama Press

A beautiful omnibus edition of the award-winning biographies Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War and One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way

Tuyet remembers little about life before the Saigon orphanage, before polio left her limping and in constant pain, before the war made it too dangerous to stand under the bomb-filled Vietnam sky. Unable to play with the other children and knowing that at eight she is too old be adopted, she helps care for the babies in the orphanage. So when frantic aid-workers load a van full of babies and take Tuyet as well, she thinks that’s why she is there: as a carer. She can’t guess that, with the capital about to fall to the North Vietnamese, she is being evacuated on the last airplane full of at-risk children bound for new adoptive homes in the west.

Before she knows what is happening, Tuyet is whisked into life with the Morris family: Mom, Dad, their biological daughter Beth, and their adopted children Lara and Aaron. It takes some time to really understand that she isn’t there to help care for baby Aaron: she is there to be their daughter. She learns that the bright sparks in the sky are stars, not bombs, that flames on a birthday cake are nothing to fear, and that her only jobs are to play and to be loved. But a bigger test stands before Tuyet: corrective surgery for her twisted ankle, and a gruelling physiotherapy regimen. Unable to speak English yet and terrified that the procedure will fail, Tuyet must draw on every ounce of courage and focus on her dream of running and kicking a ball in a pair of matching shoes.

Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars: A Vietnamese War Orphan Finds Home is an omnibus edition of the award-winning Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War and One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way. Retold by acclaimed children’s author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Tuyet’s dramatic true story is based on personal interviews and enhanced with archival photos.

Awards and Honours:
2020 CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens selection

Reviews:
“In giving young Tuyet her own unique voice and vividly presenting her joys and anxieties in a carefully structured story, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch has created an excellent work of literary nonfiction….Highly Recommended.”—CM Magazine

“For young readers who have not had the privilege of reading Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s award-winning non-fiction books about Son Thi Anh Tuyet…Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars offers an omnibus of the two earlier stories….Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars truly gives young readers the more complete story of a Vietnamese war orphan’s journey from hardships and horror to hope and home.”—CanLit for LittleCanadians

“Two fascinating and award-winning biographies in one…[Tuyet’s] compelling story is full of bravery and perseverance. Readers are given such an incredible window to a refugee’s experience and the obstacles they must overcome in an unfamiliar place…. Sky Of Bombs, Sky Of Stars will be an excellent non-fiction addition to any library.”—Band of MG Books