Customer Reviews

A Million Shades of Gray

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For many Americans, no matter their age, the Vietnam War has receded into distant memory or even the realm of myth. Outside of the iconic Vietnam Veterans Memorial and dwindling accounts in films and books, this 1960s and '70s-era war has been subsumed by more recent conflicts.

Even for Americans who remember the war, their knowledge of it probably ceases at the point when the U.S. troops withdrew from what seemed an increasingly hopeless and unpopular situation. But what happened to the South Vietnamese people who were left behind when the Americans withdrew to cut their own losses? Cynthia Kadohata explores this devastating question in A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY.

Thirteen-year-old Y'Tin has one passion: elephants. Y'Tin is an expert elephant trainer, the youngest handler in his village. He is not so enthusiastic about school, though --- he would rather spend his energies training his beloved elephant, Lady, with whom he has a close, intuitive relationship, without the violence and mistrust that characterizes some other handlers' treatment of their animals. Y'Tin's goal is to open his own school someday --- an elephant training school, that is, the first of its kind in Vietnam.

But history might have its own plans for Y'Tin. His Dega tribe has long had a relationship with the American troops fighting the North Vietnamese --- many men like Y'Tin's own father have assisted the American Special Forces in exchange for a promise that the Americans will always defend the Dega if the North Vietnamese break their treaty agreement and attack these mountain-dwelling South Vietnamese people.

In the wake of the American withdrawal, however, the U.S. troops seem to have forgotten about their promise to the Dega. And when the North Vietnamese attack Y'Tin's home, nearly half of the villagers are killed, and many others --- including Y'Tin --- are captured, forced to perform manual labor (including digging mass graves) at penalty of death.

In Cynthia Kadohata's well-researched coming-of-age story, Y'Tin matures from an impetuous boy into a less trusting, more cautious, but still goal-oriented young man. At the end of the novel, his future is not quite what he had imagined, but he is still able to find hope despite the horrific things he has seen and done. Kadohata pulls no punches in her depiction of war. In her compassionate portrayal of Y'Tin and his people, she vividly brings immediacy to a conflict that too many people have forgotten about or never really knew.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

This is the story of a young teenage boy name T'Yin who is the youngest elephant trainer in his village in the Vietnam jungle. American troops have withdrawn from the Vietnam War, and T'Yin's village, from which many of the men helped the American Special Forces, is now vulnerable to attack from the North Vietnamese. T'Yin ends up fleeing into the jungle with his elephant, and has to decide whether to stay and resist or establish a new life elsewhere.

This book had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, I did not find it to be very engaging. I enjoyed the first 30 pages of this book, introducing T'Yin and his elephant, Lady, but it was downhill from there. The elephant became rather peripheral to the storyline, there, but not very important, and I think that would be one of the main appeals for many readers. Lady also didn't really come to life and didn't seem to have much personality to her.

I felt the story, as short as it is, just seemed to drag on, and the writing was so dry and matter-of-fact and held me at a distance. T'Yin was held captive, and running through the jungle, and bickering with older boys, and making major life decisions, and I cared more about getting through the book than about what happened to his character. I also felt the writing was a bit abrupt at times. T'Yin has an exceedingly convenient reunion with his elephant; she appears unexpectedly out of nowhere at a key moment. And, the ending of the story seemed rather abrupt to me. All of a sudden, T'Yin comes to his monumental decision and has his strong feeling of security in what the future holds (for no apparent reason), and the book is over.

Finally, I also didn't like the fact that T'Yin sees the soul of a dead young man twice, and not in a dream sequence or anything like that, but in broad daylight matter-of-factly like it really happened.

I think a book for young people aimed at this time period from the side of the Vietnamese is a wonderful idea, but I do not feel this book lived up to its potential. It's main fault is that it does not do well drawing the reader in and the reader ends up at an emotional remove.

This is the powerful story of Y'Tin, a 13 year old boy living in the mountain regions of Vietnam and what happens to him following the American withdrawal. The story is told by Y'Tin, and the author has achieved a stunningly authentic voice for him. We see his fear, his courage, and his sometimes childish, sometimes wise thoughts about war, his family, and his beloved elephant. His devotion to his elephant runs throughout the story, and his faith in his future with her despite the horrific things happening around him is beautiful and sad in it's child-like naivete.

This is a sometimes graphic, brutal story that is best suited for middle school and above. The images of a mass grave and ruthless murder as seen through the eyes of a child are vividly portrayed. Y'Tin's struggle with the realization that the American's were not coming back to help his village was hard for me to read. This is a part of the Vietnam story that I had conveniently forgotten about, so I am very glad that the author is helping to keep it alive for the next generation. I hope teachers latch on to this book as I truly think it could be very effective while teaching about the Vietnam war period.

Other reviewers have commented on the child like writing style as being a draw back to the book's appeal to teens. I feel that any teen who picks this up will be drawn in by it. The style of writing is an integral part of Y'Tin's character and helps to serve as a counterpoint to the horrific events of the book. My congratulations to the author for once again producing such an important novel that will have lasting impact. A solid choice for teens age 12 and up, as well as any adult fan of historical fiction. The author's end notes add much to the story and will only serve to open up even more discussion.

The Vietnam Conflict ended years ago for Americans, but Kadohata brings young readers another side to the war. Through the eyes of a young boy whose dream is to be an elephant trainer, we learn much about the culture, pain, and character of the Central Highlands people of Vietnam. At first young Y'Tin's life looks promising and fun-filled as he and two other boys spend their days training their elephants. When the North Vietnamese invade their village, Y'Tin finds himself in a fight for survival.
Like a millions shades of gray, there are no easy decisions to be made. Y'Tin finds he must made a choice that is right for him, and his elephant. The author takes the reader on a memorable journey!

Cynthia Kadohata won my heart (and my students' hearts) with CRACKER: THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM, the story of a working dog and the young soldier who trains and travels with him throughout the war. In this new work of historical fiction, she takes us back to Vietnam through the eyes of a young elephant trainer whose family is forced to flee into the jungle when the enemy raids their village, after the Americans have left. Once again, the relationship between people and animals shines as a light in a darkened world.

"He lay on his back as the first mtu appeared in the sky, sparkling shyly. The war was coming just like the mtu came, barely sparkling at first and then glowing stronger and stronger. And then as darkness came, all you could see were the mtu. He listened to the leaves in the jungle rustling with the wind. He loved the sound suddenly. He loved the wind on his face. He loved lying on the ground quietly. Tomas, Y'Siu, and Y'Tin liked to lie on the ground near the elephants because it felt risky but also comforting. The elephants could step on them -- but they wouldn't. That was elephants for you."
Over the past month, I've been working on a research project requiring the retrieval of vast quantities of information -- bibliographic; biographic; educational philosophy and state standards-related stuff; cultural trivia; song lyrics; and more. I am totally in my glory because being knowledgeable of, comfortable with, and practiced at tapping into the vast array of Internet and online database tools,and online word processing tools, available in the twenty-first century means being able to achieve in a few moments what a dozen years ago would have required months of time and travel and reading. Much of what I'm accomplishing in a just few keystrokes simply would not have been possible to accomplish in the past. It gives me such a rush -- on a daily basis -- to be able to ride the waves of these radical, world-changing, technological advances.

I took a bus trip in to Manhattan the other day. Much of the route we traveled consisted of six-, eight-, and ten- lane highways that did not exist in any form when I was a young child here on Long Island in the early Sixties. Back then, I grew up flying kites in cow pastures that turned to housing developments almost two generations ago. It is this sort of progress that I have to accept as being the way of our world. I mean, the population boom that instigated those roads and the millions of new homes that have been built on Long Island and everywhere else in my lifetime are the result of you and I -- along with billions of other people -- being born worldwide.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo

The downside of the manner in which the world has radically evolved over the course of my lifetime is that the very ability of the planet to support life is now being threatened. While the true degree and growth of that threat may be open to debate, there is no question that the world's largest and most glorious mammals have been on the firing line, relentlessly falling victim to the insatiable global pressures of human population growth and the related agricultural development and resource exploitation.

And so it is, that upon reading A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY, a hauntingly brutal piece of historical fiction set in Vietnam in the mid-Seventies, it is not only the slaughter of hundreds of mountain tribal people that leaves me aching. It is, even more so, the unknown fate of the three elephants that we come to know so intimately -- along with their three young keepers -- that has me sitting here wondering what else I could/should be doing to belatedly help mitigate the damage, if it is not already far too late.

You tell me what kind of half-assed, second-rate planet this will be when elephants and rhinoceroses, whales and polar bears, lions and snow leopards, have all gone the way of the dinosaurs?

When we first meet him, Y'Tin is eleven, hoping to become the youngest elephant trainer that his isolated mountain tribe has ever had. It is 1973 and his people do not yet know it, but the Americans are on the verge of signing the Paris Accords and leaving. This is a problem for the tribe because Y'Tin's father is among a number of men there to have repeatedly undertaken military-related missions for the Americans. In the long run, once the Americans are gone and the North inexorably moves south, there will be a deadly price to pay. After the opening chapters, the story moves to 1975, when that price is on the verge of being exacted and Y'Ting has achieved his dream.

Y'Tin ends up moving back and forth between bearing witness to and barely escaping the atrocities that come to pass, and being on the run in the jungle with the other two boys while training and caring for Lady, the elephant out of the domesticated trio with whom he has been entrusted.

I am happy that the story ends with boy and the elephant both still alive. But that is of small comfort as I search sites for information on Asian elephants. Some estimate that in 1900 there were more than a million Asian elephants in the wild. That number is now down below 40,000, including a few dozen left in the wild in Vietnam.

"Y'Tin ran right toward Lady. When Lady spotted him, she trotted over, picked him up with her trunk, threw him to the ground, and bonked him on the head. Then her trunk swayed back and forth the way it did when she was happy."

A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY is an important tale in its telling the little-known story of the Montagnard tribal people amidst the Vietnam War (which, there, was called the American War). But what will stay with me is the story of the boy who is justifiably filled with pride and joy for his having the uncanny ability to communicate with and to be as one with such a beautiful and powerful creature, without the need for employing force or punishment.

In the Central Highlands of Southern Vietnam live the Dega tribes, Vietnamese village farmers and elephant keepers. 13 year old Y'Tin is the youngest animal trainer of his kind and his charge is his beloved elephant named Lady.

Set soon after the Americans pull out of the Vietnam War in 1975, the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese are still soldiering in to combat the Southern Vietnamese, breaking the established Paris Peace Accord agreement. Y'Tin's village is ambushed, threatening the lives of many; most are held captive or killed. Y'Tin's father urges him to run for his life, to lead him and his friends with their elephants far into the jungle to escape the threat of war and the rain of destruction coming their way.

Three boys and their elephants grow up quick as the art of jungle survival has them learning to track and hunt for food, find shelter, and watching for signs of the enemy. Friends become enemies, childhood brothers turn to betrayal. The other boys abandon Y'Tin as he insists on staying with Lady temporarily in the wild as she joins a wild herd, bonding with them to ensure safety of her unborn calf. Y'Tin's sorrow of the loss of Lady runs deep but as boy becomes man he knows in his heart it is right to let her go free. Leaving her safe, away from harm, Y'Tin spends days in the heat of the jungle, bleeding from wounds, dying of thirst and hunger, and yet his talented tracking skills pay off as he winds his way back finding his family alive. But rest is not in the cards for our young hero, the boy who betrayed him has been missing for days and his family begs Y'Tin to return to the jungle once again to find him, dead or alive.

The character of Y'Tin is both innocent and playful as he shows us his love for Lady and as he dreams of starting his own elephant training school someday in far off Thailand. Yet he also reveals to us that he is strong in body & mind when he is presented with challenges both bold and brave.

I loved this precious and poignant story and feel it would give young boys an adventure tale filled with heroic action they can relate to. However, I was a bit at odds with the conflicting writing style Kadohata pens. The level of writing is for that of an 8-10 year old boy, very simplistic and matter of fact. But the content of the story with its bloodshed and heinous acts of war, along with the difficult scenarios that Y'Tin must endure as he continually beats the odds when death is at his every door, was a bit heavy and serious for the writing ability level. This is an excellent book, but I do caution parents to use judgment as they consider the content for the younger readers; there are a few graphic scenes presented that paint a very vivid picture of the horrors of the Vietnam War.

Don't let your kids read this book on their own.

If I'm not mistaken, they've recently added the "Grades 6 to 9" to the description of this book. That was a great move because I started to read the book out loud with my third and fourth graders. They loved the main character--his love of his elephant, his relationship with his siblings, and how he got into trouble at school. However, we stopped reading it together after I read ahead and found the upcoming violent scenes. I finished reading the book on my own and am very glad I didn't read anymore to them.

It was far, far too graphically violent for kids any younger than 6th grade and, of course, genocide isn't appropriate for a younger audience. Actually, I found the book pretty troubling as an adult: screams of rape victims in the night, digging up a human ear, a scull being crushed in plain sight and so on. If it was a movie, it would be rated R for violence.

Having taught middle school, I am not convinced the book would work for that audience either for several reasons. First, the reading level, the elephant topic, the main characters age and the sentence structure all seemed slightly childish. And, depending on the middle schooler, the subject matter is still going to be very difficult to process emotionally. However, if they had an adult to discuss it with...maybe.

The best part of the book, I thought, was the child's relationship with the elephant, which was beautifully described and very touching.

A Million Shades of Grey is a great book which is weird coming from a person who normally reads Harry Potter type of books. It's about a boy and his elephant in the middle of a war. I probably like it because it has lots of action and drama. The humor in the book is JuJubee who is the boy's younger sister (who at one point shoves her hand up his nose. This book is good for people who like hearing about other people's lives and also for people who like war-type suspense.

Having bought A Million Shades of Gray for my niece, I looked at it and couldn't help reading it myself. Cynthia Kadohata's new novel is both beautifully written and action-packed. It tells the story of 13-year-old Y'Tin and how he comes of age in the harshest circumstances: in the jungle and on the run from North Vietnamese soldiers.

It's the 1970s, the Americans have left Vietnam. Now, those in South Vietnam await conquest by the northern army. Y'Tin has particular reason to fear. He and his family are not only Dega people--a minority tribe--but his father served as a tracker for American soldiers. Since boyhood, Y'Tin has wanted little more from life than to be an elephant handler. As the North Vietnamese start shooting up his village, Y'Tin is faced with terrible choices. Can he flee to the jungle with his family? Can he flee with his beloved elephant?

Kadohata's writing is wonderfully clear and full of unexpected humor. She describes what it's like to train elephants, live in a Dega longhouse, be captured by enemy soldiers, hide in a jungle, survive in a hidden jungle encampment, even rescue an injured friend--as if she's done such things herself. A Million Shades of Gray raises the right questions for young readers learning about the Vietnam War ("The American War" to the Vietnamese). Why were we there? Why did we leave? Why did we abandon our Vietnamese friends--those who helped us?

The novel gives readers a sense of just how multicultural Vietnam was. It also raises harder questions: what happens when an oppressed people becomes an oppressor? Who's to blame? What's the nature of loyalty? And how do you say goodbye to your pet, your parent, or your country?