Excerpt from Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Returning home that day, she faced her grandmother with a confession sinking down her tongue. Upon hearing the first three words, "Em mất rồi," he is gone, Bà immediately puckered her lips as if biting a lemon and was helpless against the red rimming around her eyes. After a long lumpy exhale, she concluded her grandson had been kidnapped.

Only Hằng, her mother, and Bà remained in the house after the war. They were told her father had been killed shortly before the winning north rolled their tanks into the southern capital. Her mother sank into bed and stayed. But Bà, vowing they would not become a house of weeping women, wrote down the beginning of hundreds of steps needed to reclaim her grandson. First, they must save money. Next, they must write to her uncle in Dallas, telling him to go to the address.

Hằng never corrected Bà's assumption. During the day, as Bà clicked her nails and plotted, Hằng could pretend innocence. After all, Bà did not ask, how did they get to the airport? Were there other children? Who thought he was an orphan? Why didn't Hằng scratch, bite, and scream to keep her brother beside her? It was so easy to stay quiet as Bà provided herself with answers.

But while crickets sang and Bà snored beside her, the lie streaked through Hằng's blood and deposited ashy guilt inside every crevice. The gray guilt had grown heavy, refusing to pause its relentless infusion into her joints and marrow. After all, it was her fault her brother was taken.

Rhinestone Cowboy

Stopping to get milk, LeeRoy gets out and adjusts his hat in the driver's mirror. He figures he did mighty fine turning himself into a cowboy.

As part of the graduation package, where the vehicle had to be a Ford F-350 in a shout-out to Bareback Ford and the generous eight-foot truck bed converted to a covered sleeper, his parents followed exact instructions: Texas-style white felt hat, two checkered button-downs with silver buttons, Wrangler jeans starched until white lines run down the legs, bumpy ostrich-skin boots in oxblood. Best of all, dark leather chaps with fringes. He is wearing everything but the chaps. Those are sitting in their box, to be anointed when he rides his first bronc.

Add to all that something that can't be bought and would horrify his parents if they knew: his grandpop's bareback buckle, won at some down-and-out rodeo where ribs were shattered and an arm was yanked clear out of its socket. That last ride also brought on a crushed right knee that had LeeRoy's grandfather walking up and down for the rest of his days. LeeRoy doesn't feel he deserves to hook on the bronze prize until he's held on past eight seconds and hollered out his grandfather's name, Roy.

LeeRoy's parents had branded him with a birth name no child should have to endure: Leslie Dwight Cooper. He shivers thinking of the mess boys in playgrounds had made from "Leslie," without knowledge of "Dwight." Since junior high, he's been Lee. This morning he bunched Lee to Roy and gave himself some on-the-road gumption.

In the parking lot he overhears four cowboys talking about heading to the Lone Star honky-tonk.

"Howdy, y'all aim to sneak in a handshake with Mr. Ford himself?"

They stare, looking him up and down. One of them sneers right in his face. "What are ya, some kind of rhinestone cowboy?"

LeeRoy evens up his voice before answering, "Enjoy your day." 'Course it stung, but his mother always said if it doesn't matter in five years, it doesn't matter. He's got a vision for the summer, and he'll be damned if some good ol' boys are going to best him.

There's always another place to buy milk.

Giraffe Made of Metal

A maroon car with white stripes slices in front of the bus. Hằng's gut arches, flooding her throat with a one-egg breakfast. Her uncle drives such a car. Face bloated, voice loud, he might have finished overnight work and already be in pursuit. She attacks more ginger.

Excerpted from Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai. Copyright © 2019 by Thanhha Lai. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins Children's Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.