The Best We Could Do
An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui (Abrams ComicArts, 2017)
This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
At the heart of Bui’s story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent—the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home.
In what Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “a book to break your heart and heal it,” The Best We Could Do brings to life Thi Bui’s journey of understanding.
National Bestseller • 2017 National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Finalist • ABA Indies Introduce Winter / Spring 2017 Selection • Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Spring 2017 Selection • ALA 2018 Notable Books Selection • 2018 American Book Award • 2018 Eisner Award Finalist • SF Public Library 2018 One City One Book • 2018 Ringo Award for Best Non-fiction Comic Work • 2018 Pop Culture Classroom Excellence in Graphic Literature Mosaic Award • Seattle Public Library 2019 Seattle Reads • 2020-2021 NEA Big Read • 2021-2022 NEA Big Read
“Be prepared to take your heart on an emotional roller-coaster journey with this thought-provoking account that completely satisfies as the story comes full circle. Highly recommended for teens and adults; an excellent choice for book clubs.”
★ Library Journal, starred review
“In creatively telling a complicated story with the kind of feeling words alone rarely relay, The Best We Could Do does the very best that comics can do. This is a necessary, ever-timely story to share far and wide.”
★ Booklist, starred review
Resources for The Best We Could Do
Pronunciation Guide (read by Thi Bui’s mother) | Teacher’s Guide | NEA Big Read Discussion Questions
Finding Papa
Written by Angela Pham Krans, illustrated by Thi Bui (HarperCollins, 2023)
This poignant and lyrical debut picture book based on the author’s own experience and illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Thi Bui follows young Mai and her mother’s perilous journey from Vietnam to America to find Papa—who left ahead of them to start a better life for their family.
Finding Papa reminds us that love and courage can stretch an ocean and that nothing can keep us apart from those we care about.
2024 APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Picture Book Honor
“Stunning illustrations and gentle text tell the story of a separated family’s heartrending and hopeful journey from Vietnam to the U.S. A beautifully moving collaboration of lyrical text and striking illustrations.”
★ Booklist, starred review
“Reassuring despite depicting a dangerous journey and uncertain time; there are many children for whom this is not history, but family stories. Essential.”
★ School Library Journal, starred review
A Different Pond
Written by Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui (Capstone, 2017)
A 2018 Caldecott Honor Book that Kirkus Reviews calls “a must-read for our times,” A Different Pond is an unforgettable story about a simple event—a long-ago fishing trip. Graphic novelist Thi Bui and acclaimed poet Bao Phi deliver a powerful, honest glimpse into a relationship between father and son—and between cultures, old and new. As a young boy, Bao and his father awoke early, hours before his father’s long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. A successful catch meant a fed family. Between hope-filled casts, Bao’s father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam. Thi Bui’s striking, evocative art paired with Phi’s expertly crafted prose has earned this powerful picture books six starred reviews and numerous awards.
2018 Caldecott Honor • 2018 Boston Globe Horn Book Honor • 2018 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor • 2017-2018 APALA Award
“Together, Phi’s gentle, melodic prose and Bui’s evocative art, presented in brushy and vividly colored panels and double-page spreads, rise above the melancholy to tell a powerful, multilayered story about family, memory, and the costs of becoming a refugee. Spare and simple, a must-read for our times.”
★ Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“This gorgeous tale about a father/son fishing trip shows the interconnectedness of family and the inexorable way that generational history impacts the present. . . .Bui’s cinematic illustrations make use of panels and weighted lines, evoking the perfect background or facial expression for each piece of text.”
★ School Library Journal, starred review
Chicken of the Sea
Written by Viet Thanh Nguyen and Ellison Nguyen, illustrated by Thi Bui and Hien Bui-Stafford (McSweeney’s, 2019)
A band of intrepid chickens leave behind the boredom of farm life, joining the crew of the pirate ship Pitiless to seek fortune and glory on the high seas. Led by a grizzled captain into the territory of the Dog Knights, they soon learn what it means to be courageous, merciful, and not seasick quite so much of the time. A whimsical and unexpected adventure tale, Chicken of the Sea originated in the five-year-old mind of Ellison Nguyen, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen; father and son committed the story to the page, then enlisted the artistic talents of Caldecott Honor winner Thi Bui and her thirteen-year-old son, Hien Bui-Stafford, to illustrate it. This unique collaboration between two generations of artists and storytellers invites you aboard for adventure, even if you’re chicken. Maybe especially if you’re chicken.
Anthologies
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![The Rose Metal Field Guide to Graphic Literature]()
The Rose Metal Field Guide to Graphic Literature
The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature gives readers unprecedented insight into the techniques of 28 of today’s most innovative creators of poetry comics, graphic narratives, and image-text hybrids.
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![The Nib: Pandemic Issue]()
The Nib: Pandemic Issue
The Nib’s seventh issue documents how the plague year of 2020 revealed both stark inequities and brilliant moments of resilience. Includes In/Vulnerable by Thi Bui and the reporting team at Reveal on inequity in the pandemic.
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![The Nib: The Power Issue]()
The Nib: The Power Issue
The sixth issue of The Nib captures portraits of power at a time of unprecedented crisis. Cartoonists reflect on fire, plague, police, and a power-mad president. Includes In/Vulnerable by Thi Bui and the reporting team at Reveal on inequity in the pandemic.
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![COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology]()
COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology
COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology collects more than sixty such short comics from a diverse set of creators, including indie powerhouses, mainstream artists, Ignatz and Eisner Award winners, and media cartoonists.
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![The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives]()
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives
Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen called on 17 fellow refugee writers from across the globe to shed light on their experiences, and the result is The Displaced, a powerful dispatch from the individual lives behind current headlines.
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![We Are Oakland International]()
We Are Oakland International
Ninth and tenth grade students at Oakland International High School in Oakland, California created this comic book as part of an interdisciplinary project combining art, reading and literacy, and social studies. Edited by Thi Bui.
