Thọ Phạm left Vietnam at the age of eleven as a child refugee. He eventually made it to a refugee camp in Palawan, Philippines. He was adopted by a Canadian elementary school teacher. Tho lives in Ottawa. Writing with Sandra McTavish, they loosely base their novel The Cricket War upon his own life story.
Fiction, Juvenile
The Cricket War
Co-writer Sandra McTavish
Kids Can Press, 2023.
Publisher’s Synopsis
It’s 1980, and 11-year-old Thọ Phạm lives with his family in South Vietnam. He spends his afternoons playing soccer and cricket fighting with his friends, but life is slowly changing under the Communists. His parents are worried, and Thọ knows the Communist army will soon knock on their door to make his brother, and then him, join them. Still, it shocks him when his father says that arrangements have been made for him to leave Vietnam by boat, immediately. Thọ tries to be brave as he sets out on a harrowing journey toward the unknown.
Awards and Honours
2024 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People (Finalist)
2024 Jean Little First-Novel Award (Winner)
Links
Publisher Kids Can Press