Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American Resources: Home

The author recounts how she and her mother moved from South Korea to the United States.

Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.

In BANNED BOOK CLUB, Hyun Sook shares a dramatic true story of political division, fear-mongering, anti-intellectualism, the death of democratic institutions, and the relentless rebellion of reading.

In graphic novel format, Thi Bui describes her family's experiences as they immigrate to the United States from their war-torn home in Vietnam.

In 1898 during the Boxer Rebellion a boy named Little Bao recruits an army of Boxers to rid China of foreign missionaries and soldiers who bully and rob Chinese peasants.

Gene Luen Yang understands stories -- comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him 'Stick' and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about...

Presents, in graphic novel format, the history of the Chinese in North America through the experiences of the Wong Family.

A young girl describes her experiences growing up in China, beginning with the death of Chairman Mao in 1976.

"Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City -- until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm! When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear? Kamala has no idea, either. But she's comin' for you, Jersey!"

Indian-American teen, Priyanka "Pri" Das, attempts to reconnect with her mother's homeland through a magical pashmina shawl. Presented in comic book format.

In 1898 during the Boxer Rebellion a girl named Vibiana who is unwanted and unwelcome turns to Christianity, but she finds herself torn between her nation and her Christian friends who are being murdered by bands of young men.

(Available on SORA) Amina has never been comfortable in the spotlight. She is happy just hanging out with her best friend, Soojin. Except now that she’s in middle school everything feels different. Soojin is suddenly hanging out with Emily, one of the “cool” girls in the class. Does Amina need to start changing too?

(Audio version available on SORA) Twelve-year-old Aru stretches the truth to fit in at her private school, but when she is dared to prove an ancient lamp is cursed, she inadvertently frees an ancient demon.

"Every day, Yasmin borrows a book from Book Uncle, a retired teacher who has set up a free lending library on the street corner. But when the mayor tries to shut down the rickety book-stand, Yasmin has to take her nose out of her book and do something."

Korean American fourth-grader Clara Lee longs to be Little Miss Apple Pie, and when her luck seems suddenly to change for the better, she overcomes her fear of public speaking and enters the competition.

As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao's father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam.

(Available in text and audio on SORA) Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel, even though the owner, Mr. Yao exploits them. Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade class.

The true story of Hiromi Suzuki, a Japanese American girl who defied tradition to train at her family s restaurant, and who became one of the first female sushi chefs in New York.

(Available on SORA) Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.

Eager to do something her big sister has not done first, Jasmine Toguchi, eight, decides to pound mochi with the men and boys when her family gets together for New Year's.

"Harpreet Singh has a different color for every mood and occasion, from pink for dancing to bhangra beats to red for courage. He especially takes care with his patka-his turban-smoothing it out and making sure it always matches his outfit. But when Harpreet's mom finds a new job in a snowy city and they have to move, all he wants is to be invisible" -- Amazon

In Dakota Territory in the 1880s, half-Chinese Hanna and her white father face racism and resistance to change as they try to make a home for themselves. Includes author's note.

"When Wu Chien Shiung was born in China 100 years ago, girls did not attend school. But her parents named their daughter 'Courageous Hero' and encouraged her love of science. This biography follows Wu as she battles sexism at home and racism in the United States of America to become what Newsweek magazine called the 'Queen of Physics' for her work on how atoms split"--Provided by publisher.

In her Bangladesh village, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting designs called alpanas, but to help her impoverished family financially she would have to be a boy--or disguise herself as one.

(Available on SORA) "Growing up in the same Chinese-American suburb, perfectionist Christine and artistic, confident, impulsive Moon become unlikely best friends, whose friendship is tested by jealousy, social expectations, and illness"--OCLC.

At the start of World War II, Japanese-American third-grader Aki and her family are sent to an internment camp in Poston, Arizona, while Mexican-American third-grader Sylvia's family leases their Orange County, California, farm and begins a fight to stop school segregation.

Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish, and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River.

Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life.

Whether she's braving the goalie net for the first time on the soccer field, trouble-shooting a plant problem in the garden with her family, tackling a tricky writing assignment, or managing a disagreement with her friends, Yasmin is always thinking outside the box to come up with creative solutions.

(Available on SORA) Told from multiple viewpoints, while seventeen-year-old Anna K seems above the typical problems of her Manhattan friends and siblings, finding love with a notorious playboy changes everything.

Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter--and friendship--on an abandoned bridge...

(Available on SORA) "In the final days of the Vietnam War, Hang takes her little brother, Linh, to the airport, determined to find a way to safety in America. In a split second, Linh is ripped from her arms, and Hang is left behind in the war-torn country. Six years later, Hang has made the brutal journey from Vietnam and is now in Texas as a refugee. She doesn't know how she will find the little brother who was taken from her until she meets LeeRoy, a city boy with big rodeo dreams, who decides to help her. Hang is overjoyed when she reunites with Linh. But when she realizes he doesn't remember her, their family, or Vietnam, her heart is crushed. Though the distance between them feels farther than ever, Hang has come so far that she will do anything to bridge the gap"--OCLC.

(Available in SORA) "1890, Atlanta. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for 'the genteel Southern lady'"--Provided by publisher.

Ten-year-old Gim Lew Yep immigrates from China to America with his father, whom Gim barely knows, and fears he will be a disappointment to his family when he arrives at Angel Island.

This richly woven contemporary fantasy debut, full of humor, magic, and heart, will appeal to readers who love Roshani Chokshi and Sayantani DasGupta.

(Available in SORA) Two friends. One fake dating scheme. What could possibly go wrong?

Lives of four misfits are intertwined when a bully's prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well and Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him.

Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls can't dance. Shouldn't wear bright colors. Shouldn't call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering, intense world of K-Pop, and to do that, she's about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother have set for girls like her.

A disaster in romance, high school senior Desi Lee decides to tackle her flirting failures by watching Korean television dramas, where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It's a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. She goes after moody artist Luca Drakos-- utilizing boat rescues, love triangles, and staged car crashes.

In 1934, twelve-year-old Kai leaves China to join his father in America, but first he must take a long sea voyage, then endure weeks of crowded conditions and harsh examinations on Angel Island, fearing that he or his new friend will be sent home.

(Available on SORA) "[Budhos] portrays with nuance the ways multiracial identities, socio-economic status, microaggressions, and interracial relationships can impact and shape identity. Readers will find a powerful window into the past and, unfortunately, a way-too-accurate mirror of the present." —Kirkus Reviews, MS

Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali is looking forward to going to Caltech and getting away from her conservative Muslim parents' expectation that she will marry, especially since she is in love with her girlfriend Ariana...

Frances Chin, an 11-year old Chinese-American girl, lives in the suburbs of Detroit with her immigrant parents and older sister, Clara. At school Frances contends with bullies and the loneliness that comes with not quite fitting in. She also feels a different kind of aloneness at home...

(Available in SORA) "Teenager Viola Li and her sister Roz are selling bean buns at a science fiction gathering in Seattle when she suddenly collapses--she wakes up in the hospital to find that somehow she has developed an extreme case of photosensitivity (so bad that even ordinary lights can cause blisters), and somehow, in her senior year of high school, she has to craft a new life that will still include journalism school, activism, and the new guy who caught her as she fell"--Provided by publisher.

In Australia, Lucy tries to balance her life at home surrounded by her Chinese immigrant family, with her life at a pretentious private school.

(Available in SORA) Debut author Aminah Mae Safi's honest and smart young adult novel is about how easy it can be to hurt those around you even if—especially if—you love them.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, which Rainbow Rowell called “smart and funny,” comes an unforgettable new romance about how social media influences relationships every day.

(Available on SORA)Two life-long best friends grow up and begin to grow apart in this honest, deeply felt middle grade debut. MS

An outcast teen girl explores the mysteries of friendship, family, faith, and phenomena, including the greatest mystery of all--herself.

Through the stories of a terra-cotta soldier who has survived through the centuries, thirteen-year-old Ming, a village boy in 1970s China, learns the history of Emperor Qin, known both for building the Great Wall of China and for burying scholars alive, and how and why the terra-cotta soldiers came to be.

(Available on SORA) Up until her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala considered herself an ordinary sixth-grader in Parsippany, New Jersey, but then her parents disappear and a drooling rakkhosh demon shows up in her kitchen, and soon she is swept into another dimension, full of magic, winged horses, talking birds (very annoying), and cute princes--and somehow Kiranmala needs to sort it all out, find her parents, and basically save the world.

Maren, desperate to save her kidnapped girlfriend, plans to steal one of the emperor's dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold, but her success depends on becoming an apprentice to the emperor's mysterious dragon trainer, which proves to be a dangerous venture.

Harper doesn't trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family's new house is haunted. Harper isn't sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely.

For fans of Jenny Han, Morgan Matson, and Sandhya Menon, critically acclaimed author Misa Sugiura delivers a richly crafted contemporary YA novel about family, community, and the importance of writing your own history.

(Available in SORA) The rom-com everyone’s talking about! Eleanor & Park meets Bollywood in this hilarious and heartfelt novel about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage.

(Available on SORA) By the author of the Newbery Honor Book The Night Diary, a thoughtful and relatable story about cultural identity, friendship, and what it means to fit in without losing who you are. MS

(Available in SORA) This elegant young adult novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations, You Bring the Distant Near explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse.

Explores the lives and treatment of Asian immigrants detained at Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco, California, during the early twentieth century. Includes translations of poems carved by detainees into the walls in Chinese script.

Drawing on numerous primary sources, this volume covers the history of Asia from the reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties from the fifth century CE to Choson Korea in the 16th century, also covering other parts of the continent including India and Japan.

Enjoy the best children's anthology of noteworthy Asian Americans. This compelling collection features 20 profiles with 60 action-packed, color illustrations.

Adapted for young readers, a presentation of American history from a multi-cultural perspective, focusing on a broader and comparative approach to enhance the possibility of understanding and appreciating America's racial and cultural diversity.

Describes the archaeological discovery of thousands of life-sized terracotta warrior statues in northern China in 1974, and discusses the emperor who had them created and placed near his tomb.

Biographical sketches of notable Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans, from the nineteenth century up to the present.

During World War II a community called Manzanar was created in the high mountain desert country of California. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese Americans. Among them was the Wakatsuki family, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, who was seven years old when she arrived at Manzanar in 1942, recalls life in the camp through the eyes of the child she was. YA

The story of Fred Korematsu's fight against discrimination explores the life of one courageous person who made the United States a fairer place for all Americans, and it encourages all of us to speak up for justice.

Chronicles the life of Asian American activist Yuri Kochiyama, discussing her childhood, schooling, work to defend human rights, work with Malcolm X, and other related topics.

Explores the history of Chinese culture including art, religion and technology.

This book tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day...

A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human.

A collection of head-on portraits and quotes in which men and women whose mixed racial heritage includes Asian or Pacific Island descent discuss what their heritage means to them and how it defines them.

Analyzes American literature, films, government documents, photographs, and other materials to examine what it was like to be Asian American in the South during Jim Crow-era segregation.

In this memoir, Tran navigates the push and pull of finding and accepting himself despite the challenges of immigration, feelings of isolation, teenage rebellion, and assimilation, all while attempting to meet the rigid expectations set by his immigrant parents.

"Present a collection of essays, including 'The Face of Sueng-Hui Cho,' in which the author explores the logic of the Virginia Tech shooter.

Text and illustrations looks at the lives of fifty South Asian women including M.I.A., Norah Jones, Rachel Roy, and more.

The inspiring, unlikely story of the American, Canadian, South Korean and even North Korean women who joined together to form Korea's first Olympic ice hockey team.

Graphic novel format

"[Shares the life of] the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to become attorney general of the State of California, and the second black woman ever elected to the United States Senate and the first Black and Asian American woman to be elected Vice President. Harris discusses the impact that her family and community had on her life, and how she came to discover her own sense of self and purpose."

Explores the "model minority" stereotype of Asian-Americans, discussing such topics as academic achievement and race relations, and examining Asian-American identities at a high school on the East Coast.

A wry, tender portrait of a young woman—finally free to decide her own path, but unsure if she knows herself well enough to choose wisely—from a captivating new literary voice.

"Stephens' darkly comic, sharply irreverent, undeniably wise 'Great Adoption Novel' is an unexpectedly timely, not-to-be-missed, epic wild ride." --Booklist, *Starred Review*

Presents a collection of Chinese poems from the Tang dynasty, featuring the following poets Wang Wei, Li Po, Tu Fu, Li Ho, and Li Shang-yin.

In ten captivating, unnerving stories, Flowers of Mold presents a range of ordinary individuals--male and female, young and old--who have found themselves left behind by an increasingly urbanized and fragmented world. The latest in the trend of brilliant female Korean authors to appear in English, Ha cuts like a surgeon, and even the most mundane objects become menacing and unfamiliar under her scalpel.

Award-winning poet Brandon Shimoda has crafted a lyrical portrait of his paternal grandfather, Midori Shimoda, whose life--child migrant, talented photographer, suspected enemy alien and spy, desert wanderer, American citizen--mirrors the arc of Japanese America in the twentieth century. In a series of pilgrimages, Shimoda records the search to find his grandfather, and unfolds, in the process, a moving elegy on memory and forgetting.

An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape—trying not just to survive but to find a home.

This collection of poems is an] examination of mixed- race identity, violence, and history skillfully rendered through the lens of motherhood...

(Available in SORA) This stunning debut collection unerring charts the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. In stories that travel from India to America and back again, Lahiri speaks with universal eloquence to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner.

A collection of poems exploring romance, family, memory, grief, war and melancholia.

At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.

A collection of poems about hard-hitting truths, focusing on feminism, cultural assimilation, and the Asian American experience.

For fans of Crazy Rich Asians: Meet the Wangs, the unforgettable immigrant family whose spectacular fall from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings them together in a way money never could.