Graphic Novelist Thien Pham Shares Stories & Food with 7th Grade

In Thien Pham’s book, Family Style he shares the stories he remembers through food throughout his life. He not only talks about hard things he had to go through, but also his fondest childhood memories. 

Thien came to Synergy School on November 15, 2024 to talk about his book. People brought all different types of food they have memories with: Turtle chips, blueberries, dumplings, empanadas and many other things. Everyone told each other about why they brought their food and the associations they have with them. Stories varied from spending time with relatives and friends, to just liking the food.

Suddenly, it sprung on him. All of his childhood memories derived from food! 

Thien is a teacher and writer.  He primarily writes comics and zines, and has wanted to be a comic book writer since childhood.  When he was five, his family had to flee Vietnam by boat and sail to a refugee camp in Thailand, eventually settling in America.

In addition to finding his place in this new culture, Thien faced the challenge of having to learn a new language, even though he had some Vietnamese friends from the refugee camp. Thien had never read a book up until 4th grade when his family was celebrating Tet, a Vietnamese holiday similar to other New Year celebrations. It’s common to give your kids a red envelope of money during Tet, to symbolize good wishes and luck for the new year ahead.

Thien got an envelope with one dollar in it and went to a corner store planning to get candy, but saw something else instead.

There it was–a comic book with Spiderman and other superheroes that intrigued Thien. He bought the book and brought it home. Once he was home, he slowly looked through the pages. He realised that he was reading it! With the words he had learned he could not only understand the story but seeing the pictures also helped connect the words. As Thien flipped the last page of the book shut, he was ecstatic! He had just read his first book.

From then on, Thien had wanted to become a comic book writer, so once he got older he became friends with other people with the same ambition, and pursued it. Thien made zines and would sell them with his friends, even though not many sold. 

One day he was talking to his friend on how he had come to America with his family when he was young. His friend, fellow author Gene Yang, told him, “Hey, you should write a comic on that!” Thien wanted to, but since he was so young he only remembered a few things, a rice ball he had had on the boat to the refugee camp, his first meal in America, the first potato chips he ever tried and more. Suddenly, it sprung on him. All of his childhood memories derived from food! 

The class discussed each chapter with Thien, explaining everybody’s favorite parts of the book, including Thien’s. Then he took questions from the 7th graders and signed all of our books!