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National Education Association's Asian American Booklist
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Chinese Cinderella
by Adeline Yen MahA riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s.A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for -- the love and understanding of her family.Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice. Includes 6-page photo insert.From the Hardcover edition.
Inside Out and Back Again
by Thanhha LaiNo one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.
For all the ten years of her life, HÀ has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by...and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.
But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. HÀ and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, HÀ discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape...and the strength of her very own family.
This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
Newbery Honor Book
Winner of the National Book Award
All the Colors of the Earth
by Sheila HamanakaWith soaring words and majestic artwork, Sheila Hamanaka evokes all the rich colors children bring to this world. Laughing, loving, and glowing with life, young people dance across the pages of her book, inviting readers to share a special vision of peace and acceptance. Images removed.
Anno's Magic Seeds
by Mitsumasa AnnoThe reader is asked to perform a series of arithmetic operations integrated into the story of a man who plants magic seeds and reaps an increasingly abundant harvest. A story that helps children understand the process of plant growth.
Growing Up Asian American
by Maria HongDifferent authors give their life views on growing up Asian American.
American Eyes
by Lori M. Carlson and Cynthia KadohataHeartfelt short stories written by ten young Asian-American writers who share the conflicts that many young people feel living in two distinct worlds - one of memories and traditions, and one of today. Stories by Marie G. Lee, Ryan Oba, Katherine Min, Mary F. Chen, Lois-ann Yamanaka, Fae Myenne Ng, Cynthia Kadohata, Peter Bacho, Lan Samantha Chang, and Nguyen Duc Minh.
The Cook's Family
by Laurence Yep12-year-old Robin Lee goes to her grandmother's house in Chinatown where they befriend a lonely cook. In Robin's new make-believe family, she discovers a sense of her Chinese heritage. The thing is, once Robin starts pretending, she doesn't want to stop.
China's Bravest Girl
by Charlie ChinThe story of Hua Mu Lan, a girl who, disguised as a man, went to war in place of her elderly father.
China Boy
by Gus LeeKai Ting is the only American-born son of a family that has fled China. Unprepared for life on the streets of San Francisco, Kai spends his childhood trying to adapt to American life.
The Land I Lost
by Huynh Quang NhuongA collection of personal reminiscences of the author's youth in a hamlet on the central highlands of Vietnam.
F Is for Fabuloso
by Marie G. LeeThe sky had not yet begun to lighten, and Jin-Ha could see hard fingers of frost pressing on her window, outlined by the light from the street lamp. She wanted to stay in her warm bed and never come out. Being cold -- and knowing you were going to be even colder before you got any warmer -- was the worst feeling. Then she remembered her dream. Then she remembered her math test. Now she wanted to jump out of bed and onto the first bus out of town. How else to cope with this terrible thing she had done? She failed a math test and a quiz and she had lied to her parents. Lying to her parents had been ten times worse than telling them the truth: telling the truth would have gotten the unpleasant news over with right away. By lying she was only postponing the agony. Everything only seemed all right; underneath, it was all wrong. All WRONG.
El Chino
by Allen SayA biography of Bill Wong, a Chinese American who became a famous bullfighter in Spain.
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung:
by Laurence Yep1881. A small village in China. A new emperor. The old problems such as hunger. Uncle Precious Stone declares that he is going to The Golden Mountain. After some time for preparation, he goes.
A few months later, Mama and Papa receive a request to send older brother. But they send Runt! He is the younger, smaller, more intellectual brother.
This is an exciting adventure! Although the journal is fiction, the events it portrays are based on history (American and Chinese) and culture. A fine book for a book report!
Grandfather Counts
by Andrea ChengWhen her mother's father comes from China, Helen, who is biracial, develops a special bond with her grandfather despite their age and language differences.
A Jar of Dreams
by Yoshiko UchidaWhen Aunt Waka comes to visit, and brings with her the old-fashioned wisdom of Japan, she teaches Rinko the importance of her Japanese heritage, and the value of her own strengths and dreams.
Necessary Roughness
by Marie G. LeeSixteen-year-old Korean-American Chan moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Minnesota, where he must cope not only with racism on the football team but also with the tensions in his relationship with his strict father.
Flowers from Mariko
by Rick Noguchi and Deneen JenksMariko's family has been freed from a Japanese-American internment camp, but the transition hasn't been easy. "Flowers from Mariko" tells of a family striving to reestablish their lives--through hope, perseverance, and love.
The Tiger's Apprentice (Book One of the Tiger Trilogy)
by Laurence YepA tiger, a monkey, a dragon, and a twelve-year-old Chinese American boy fight to keep a magic talisman out of the hands of an enemy who would use its power to destroy the world.
When the Emperor Was Divine
by Julie OtsukaFrom the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese American incarceration camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our times.On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her home, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family's possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their home and sent to a dusty incarceration camp in the Utah desert. In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells their story from five flawlessly realized points of view and conveys the exact emotional texture of their experience: the thin-walled barracks and barbed-wire fences, the omnipresent fear and loneliness, the unheralded feats of heroism. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today's headlines.
Dream Soul
by Laurence YepIn 1927, as Christmas approaches, fifteen-year-old Joan Lee hopes to get her parents' permission to celebrate the holiday, one of the problems belonging to the only Chinese American family in her small West Virginia community.
The Moon Lady
by Amy TanNainai tells her granddaughters the story of her outing, as a seven-year-old girl in China, to see the Moon Lady and be granted a secret wish.
Cool Melons - Turn to Frogs!
by Matthew GollubThe life story of Issa, a famous Japanese poet, as told through his haikus.
The Green Frogs
by Yumi HeoLike most rebellious children, the green frogs in this Korean folktale love to disobey their mother. Whatever she asks them to do, they do the opposite ... until their bad habit lands them in trouble.
Stella
by Lauren LeeHoping to be accepted by a popular seventh grade clique, a Korean American girl is embarrassed by her family's heritage-until a series of events gives her a better sense of who she is.
When the Circus Came to Town
by Laurence YepAn Asian cook and a Chinese New Year celebration help a ten-year-old girl at a Montana stage coach station to regain her confidence after smallpox scars her face.