Angel Child Dragon Child Analysis

Previously published children’s literature on the Viet Nam/American War struggled with depicting war’s horrors while avoiding traumatizing young readers. Some books simplified the historical and political context of the war and presented a message of hope and friendship, resulting in the representation of the Vietnamese as victims in need of American assistance. This gesture is nowhere more exemplified than in Angel Child, Dragon Child (1989), story by Michele Maria Surat and pictures by Vo-Dinh Mai. In this picture book, the protagonist Ut and her sisters are in the States without their mother. The children are ridiculed by other students for the way they speak and dress. One day, after a snowball fight, Ut and a boy named Raymond are sent to detention, where Raymond learns about Ut’s mother, who does not have enough money to come to the States.

Originally published in 1977, The Little Weaver of Thái-Yên Village is a bilingual text written in Vietnamese by Trần Khánh Tuyết and translated into English by Tuyết and her husband, Christopher N. H. Jenkins. It tells the story of Hiền, another orphan who, like Kim, is taken to the States; in this case, for an operation to treat the injury she suffered in the explosion that also killed her mother and grandmother. The book’s goal is similar to those of Always with You and Angel Child, Dragon Child. According to the back cover, this work of children’s literature is intended to help young Americans “better understand the Vietnamese War and the dilemma facing more than 100,000 refugee children who came to North America at the end of the war.” As a work that fosters understanding between American and Vietnamese children, The Little Weaver of Thái-Yên Village does not shy away from portraying war’s savagery, probably to the dismay of some parents and school