Escape From Saigon
How a Vietnam War Orphan Became An American Boy
This is a story of the Vietnam War’s most innocent victims: its orphans. One of them was Matt Steiner, then a boy named Long, who in the final chaotic days of the war was rescued from the dying city of Saigon as part of a mission that became known as Operation Babylift.
Today Matt is a medical doctor in Indiana. But back then he was a thin child, half-American, half-Vietnamese, who lived with his elderly grandmother. When she could no longer care for him, she placed him in the care of an organization that assisted Saigon’s orphans and when possible found them adoptive families, usually in other countries. Matt, then eight, struggled with his feelings of abandonment by both his parents and grandmother. He also worried about the war, which was drawing ever closer to Saigon.
This is the only book I’ve written that is set during my own lifetime, and it’s my most personal, for my adoptive Vietnamese daughter was also orphaned by the war, and, like Matt, she was rescued by Operation Babylift. Unlike Matt, she was not old enough to remember any of it.
Matt Steiner today.
Reviews
“Always true to the child’s viewpoint, Warren’s clear narrative, with many documentary photos, begins as the boy struggles to survive in Vietnam. . . to his terrifying evacuation on a plane under fire. Framing the biography is fascinating information, including Warren’s account of the evacuation of her own adopted baby daughter on Operation Babylift.”
-- Booklist
“Lavishly illustrated with archival photographs, the narrative is interspersed with just the right amount of war history, never losing the focus on Long and his experiences and ratcheting up the emotional intensity as he lifts off from Vietnam and lands in Chicago.”
“Warren’s compelling, emotionally charged account focuses on Long, a boy born in 1966 in a small village in South Vietnam (to a Vietnamese mother and “an unknown American father”). . . .Dramatic accounts of other Vietnamese and American people’s escape from Saigon on the eve of its collapse plus numerous b&w photos round out this informative book and help bring into clear focus the Vietnam War’s effects on children.”
“Escape from Saigon is compelling enough to read in one sitting and stays with you long after you put it down.”
“A personal story . . . so well written that it will be sure to hold readers’ attention…. Outstanding.”
Awards & Recognition
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Winner, Society of Midland Authors Best Children’s Book
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Louisiana Young Readers Choice Awards Nominee
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NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
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IRA Notable Books for a Global Society
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Orbis Pictus Nominee for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, National Council of Teachers of English
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Booklist Editors’ Choice
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ALA Editors’ Choice Best Books of the Year
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Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award Master List