Mai's Áo Dài

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.

Thai Nguyen (pronounced Tie Ng-win) 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.

When Monique Truong (pronounced True-ong) was six years old, she came to the United States as a refugee from 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 Prize 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. 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.

Dung Ho (pronounced Dzung) is the illustrator of the New York Times bestselling picture book Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, Eyes that Speak to the Stars, Me and Ms. Too, The Mindy Kim books, and many others. Born and raised in Hue, Vietnam, she worked in the design and advertising industries before discovering a great passion for illustration and picture books and becoming a freelance illustrator. She lives and works in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.