The Happiest Refugee Book Report

Anh Do has experienced a great deal of adversity throughout his life, but through this he has had immense help from his family and friends to help him become the man he is today. The Happiest Refugee written by Anh Do, shows the importance of friends and family. The book provides the viewers with a serious yet humorous recount on the hard journeys Anh and his family had faced, such as being trapped on a small boat full of people which took them away from Vietnam while doing this being robbed of their belongings. Through the book it is strongly shown that family is important and should be number one priority and should be loving and supporting of each other regardless of the situation. The main examples to be explored are when Anhs father helped Anhs mother start the clothing business, when Anh got a job to support his at the time single mother, and the fact that Anh’s father always made time to show and teach the children life lessons.

She started this business as when the family first moved to Australia they had no means of earning money so they decided to start making clothes to sell to support the family. Anh’s father was very supportive of her decision, and soon other family members joined in to help out. Evidence of this can be found in chapter 3, on page 38 “Dad left the factory and started making clothes with mum”, and “soon we had three uncles, four aunties and several distant cousins helping out, and we were running our own business”. Through starting this clothing business and having lots of support from others the Do family was able to make a living for themselves. Through the tremendous amount of support given by Anh’s father and other family members, the importance of family, their support and sacrifices for each other is