![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2017\/07\/BestWeCouldDo_p090-091qqq.jpg\")
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![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2017\/07\/9781623708030_int02large.jpg\")
<\/a>In March of this year, Thi also released her debut graphic novel, The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Abrams), the story of her family’s escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the rebuilding of their lives in America. <\/p>\n I’ve got art here at 7-Imp today from both books. <\/p>\n A DIFFERENT POND. Text copyright \u00a9 2017 Bao Phi. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2017 Capstone Young Readers and used by their permission, as well as by permission of Thi Bui. <\/p>\n Images from THE BEST WE COULD DO used by permission of Abrams Books.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" — From Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir “The streetlights look brighter and the roads aren’t so busy before the sun comes up.Dad turns on the heater and tells me stories. A kid at my school said my dad’s English sounds like a thick, dirty river. But to me his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books","category-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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(Click either image to enlarge and see sketchbook pages in their entirety)<\/center>
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(Click either image to enlarge and see drawing in its entirety)<\/center>
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‘Sure,’ my dad whispers and hands me the tackle box.”<\/em>
(Click either image to enlarge and see spread, sans text, in its entirety)<\/center>
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‘Everything in America costs a lot of money,’ he explains.
I feel callouses on his hand when he squeezes mine.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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(Click to enlarge illustration, sans text)<\/center>
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(Click each to enlarge, and click third image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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The fish feels slimy and rough at the same time. Dad laughs at the funny face I make.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge illustration, sans text)<\/center>
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we will dream of fish in faraway ponds.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge illustration, sans text)<\/center>
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An Illustrated Memoir<\/em>:<\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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