In-Store: Storytime w/ Monique Truong & Thai Nguyen: Mai's Áo Dài

Event guidelines:

• All attendees are encouraged to wear face masks at all times.
• RSVP is highly encouraged but not required.
• Additional copies of the event book will be available for purchase in-store.
• The reading will be followed by a book signing.
• As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

Celebrity fashion designer Thai Nguyen from Netflix’s Say I Do joins forces with bestselling author Monique Truong and illustrator Dung Ho in this irresistibly charming picture book about embracing your heritage and the traditions that tie generations together—centered around Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.
It’s the morning of Tet, and Mai can’t wait to celebrate at her beloved grandmother’s home. With the perfect dress: a poofy, sparkly Cinderella dress that makes Mai look like the movie star she dreams of being! But when Mai’s father suggests that she wears an áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese outfit, to her Ba Noi’s party, Mai is disappointed. Stars don’t wear áo dài, she thinks. Then Ba tells her the story of a true star, her very own Ba Noi, who sewed beautiful, highly sought-after áo dài in Vietnam and brought her magic with her when she immigrated to the United States.
So maybe stars wear áo dài after all! But how can Ba Noi know what Mai’s wearing when Ba Noi is losing her eyesight? Ba tells her every áo dài is sewn with love, and the beauty of love is that you don’t need to see it to know it’s here.

When Monique Truong (pronounced Trurn) was six years old, she came to the United States as a refugee from S. Vietnam. She and her family then lived in North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. She is the bestselling author of The Book of Salt, which was a New York Times Notable Book, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Fellowship winner, a Stonewall Book Awards – Barbara Gittings Literature Award winner, among countless others. She is also the author of Bitter in the Mouth, which received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, and The Sweetest Fruits, named a best fiction of 2019 by Publishers Weekly. Her home is now in Brooklyn, New York, where she writes novels and libretti, always cooks enough to have leftovers, and takes long afternoon naps. She was also once a lawyer with degrees from Columbia Law School and Yale College. Mai’s Áo Dài is her debut picture book.

Thai Nguyen (pronounced Tie-Win), born in My Tho, learned to sew at the age of nine sitting in on classes at his parents’ sewing school in Saigon, Vietnam. In 1993, the family immigrated to the United States, where Thai is now a fashion designer, based in Orange County, California. His designs, for clients such as Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Kelly Marie Tran, Ali Wong, Katherine McPhee, and Cindy Crawford, have been featured in top publications and have graced the red carpets of the Met Gala, the Oscars, the Grammys, and film and television premieres. Thai’s love of the áo dài, this iconic symbol of Vietnam, has been and will continue to be the wellspring for all his creations. Mai’s Áo Dài is his debut picture book.

Host or Publisher Books Are Magic