Since 2005, more than 19,000 Sacramento-area school children have benefited from Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s Literature. This annual celebration, held each February, gives students the opportunity to hear about the personal journeys and creative processes of acclaimed authors and illustrators of diverse children’s literature whose stories about Native American heritage, Asian culture, African American culture, and Latino identity, among many others, allow them to explore a wide range of perspectives and world views.

On Tuesday, February 27, 2024, Words Take Wing hosted award-winning children’s author Thanhhà Lại​ in two in-person events:

• a matinee presentation at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts for 3rd grade through middle school classes from 11 am – 12 pm
• a public evening presentation at the Sacramento Public Library’s Tsakopoulos Library Galleria from 6 – 8 pm.

Thanhhà Lại is a Vietnamese-American writer of middle-grade and young adult novels. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and daughter. Her first novel, Inside Out & Back Again (2011), which won the National Book Award and a Newbery Honor, was partly based on her childhood as a refugee growing up in the southern United States. Other books include Listen, Slowly (2015), a middle-grade novel, and Butterfly Yellow (2019), her young adult debut. Hundred Years of Happiness (2022) is Thanhhà’s first picture book. Her latest novel is When Clouds Touch Us (2023), the long-awaited sequel to Inside Out & Back Again. Learn more on Thanhhà Lại’s website.

Words Take Wing is made possible by the support of our title sponsors: