Thi Bui was born in 1975 in Saigon, the capital city of the southeast Asian country of Vietnam. War had been raging across Vietnam for many years. When Bui was just a few months old, her parents left Vietnam by boat with her and her siblings. They had to evade pirates during their escape.

In 1978, three-year-old Thi Bui and her family came to the United States. As immigrants, they had a hard time adjusting to the differences between Vietnam and the U.S. The family settled first in Indiana, then moved to California.

After she graduated from college, Bui became a teacher. But she had long listened to her parents’ stories about their lives in Vietnam and their struggles and successes afterwards. She wanted to tell their stories in a way that would reach lots of people.

In 2007, Bui decided to turn her family's story into a comic book. "I hadn't done comics before so it took me a long time to actually get good enough at comics," she remembered. "I had to draw a lot of bad pages before making something that felt right."

It took her ten years. By then, she was married and a mother. She understood even more how hard it was for her parents to build a new life in a new country with young children. Her book, The Best We Could Do, was published in 2017. It has received many honors. One especially important one came from the Before Columbus Foundation. That organization is dedicated to showcasing people of color. "It feels good to get this vote of confidence now from a community I respect and admire," she said. She added that she wants everyone to read "voices that are less heard."

Bui today is proud of the book she created. "I believe acknowledging… history through personal stories can be a way forward," she says—a way to help people understand one another.