"Thao's name is short, and it shares the same letters as many other names....Ever since Thao can remember, her name has been misspelled, mispronounced, and misunderstood. Tired of it, Thao finally decides it's time for a change. But will her fresh new name live up to its promise?" --book jacket

A narrator describes all the ways in which her cat and father are--or are not--alike. They both love milk (we see them with milk mustaches) and sardines (ew!). They both start their mornings with stretches (yoga routine) and their afternoons with naps. What starts out as a humorous series of comparisons and visual gags takes a more meaningful turn when we realize the narrator may not be much like her parents at all. In the end, the narrator proclaims,...

"At her home in Vietnam, a girl rescues ants from the sugar water set out to trap them. Later, when the girl's family flees war-torn Vietnam, ants lead them through the moonlit jungle to the boat that will take them to safety. Before boarding, the girl folds a paper boat from a bun wrapper and drops it into the water, and the ants climb on. Their perilous journey, besieged by punishing weather, predatory birds, and dehydration, before reaching a new...

Too shy to say hello to the kids in her new neighborhood, a young girl picks at the wallpaper in her room and discovers an imaginary world of wonder where a monster is looking for a friend.