My Cat Looks Like My Dad, Wallpaper, and The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story, returns with Thao. Based on Thao Lam’s own childhood experiences of being Vietnamese-Canadian in predominantly white environments, Thao explores names, otherness, and pride in one’s identity. Thao only has four letters in her first name, letters that make up other names, too – so why does her combination of these letters cause such difficulty for other people? At school, Thao’s Vietnamese name is often mispronounced – carelessly or deliberately – or goes unspoken. In several instances, Thao is on the receiving end of microaggressions, name-calling, and overt racism; sometimes Thao raises her hand in answer to a name nothing like her own. Since pronouncing Thao properly is such a problem for her peers, the young protagonist begins to wonder, Would it not be better if she simply changed her name?