Birds in my Closet

Birds in my Closet was inspired by an experience that the author's husband had with their adopted son of Black Vietnamese heritage. Hoang, age five, has squirreled himself away in his closet, feeling less vulnerable having slept on a mat in Vietnam. His mom and dad supply him with a sleeping bag in hopes that he will have fewer nightmares. He talks to his dad and expresses his struggle with being different from the other kids at school, where he is called Blackie and Cotton Picker. He has taped