OBOC is LAVC's common read program. Each academic year, a new book is selected, which is read throughout courses and across disciplines. The OBOC initiative cultivates opportunities for creativity, scholarship, critical thinking, and academic dialog. It creates a shared intellectual experience for students, faculty, administration and staff.
You can access The Best We Could Do anytime, anywhere. Follow these step-by-step instructions.
Unfortunately, all Spring 2020 face-to-face One Book, One College events have been cancelled due to the campus closure and compliance with "Safer At Home" restrictions..
The Best We Could Do "is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves." -jacket copy
"In creatively telling a complicated story with the kind of feeling words alone rarely relay, The Best We Could Do does the very best that comics can do. This is a necessary, ever-timely story to share far and wide.” -Booklist, starred review
Students, faculty and staff packed Monarch Hall for our November 20, 2019 speaking engagement with Thi Bui.
Student comic inspired by "The Best We Could Do" on display at the 11/20 event.
Attendees got a sneak peak of Thi Bui's new comic work, which tells immigrant stories from around the world.
A painting on display inspired by "The Best We Could Do."
Some attendees waited an hour to have their books signed by the author.
Ms. Bui took the time to draw a comic in everyone's book!
Planning these events takes a village! From L to R: Alicia Bien (OBOC coordinator), Michelle Lewis (OBOC coordinator emeritus), Thi Bui, and Meghan Cason (OBOC adminstrator)
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019
Author talk: Meet Thi Bui in person!
About: The One Book, One College (OBOC) Program and the LA Valley College Library are proud to present a talk with Thi Bui, the author and artist of LAVC’s 2019-2020 OBOC selection, The Best We Could Do. Ms. Bui’s graphic novel chronicles one family’s life in war-torn South Vietnam and eventual escape, as refugees, to the United States. The book is an exploration in words and pictures of an immigrant family’s hopes for the future and journey into the past. Ms. Bui is a Vietnamese-American, art instructor, and Caldecott winner. After the talk, the author will sign copies of her books.
Where: Monarch Hall
Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019
Origins Workshop: "Everyone Has an Origin Story: What is Yours?"
Where: LARC 106
