Based on ethnographic research among Kinh, Hmong and Cham H'Roi children in the highlands of Vietnam in 2008, this paper presents a narrative analysis of how poverty and ethnicity affect children's experience of adversity. It explores the meanings children give to their experience and their use of discursive strategies such as criticising displays of wealth to create a repertoire of meanings from which personal and collective resilience is drawn. Acknowledging the ambiguities and contradictions in children's accounts, the author reflects on how their understanding of social differences is underpinned by local power structures.