Kids
Asian American & Pacific Islander Booklists
Click on the links to access the library’s copy of each title.
PICTURE BOOKS
A self-confident and strong young girl recounts how she shares her eyes--and so much more--with her mother, her amah and her little sister.
Yoomi hates stinky spicy kimchi-- until Grandma makes kimchi pancakes for her!
Told in verse, a Chinese American girl and her little brother protest the idea of moving, until their grandmother teaches them a special trick to make the change easier.
In Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, in 1942, after Sam's Japanese neighbor, Keiko, is sent to an internment camp with her family, he makes a special effort to send her a gesture of friendship.
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.
Amy is determined to make a perfect dumpling like her parents and grandmother do, but hers are always too empty, too full, or not pinched together properly.
Danbi is thrilled to start her new school in America. But a bit nervous too, for when she walks into the classroom, everything goes quiet. Danbi wants to join in the dances and the games, but she doesn't know the rules and just can't get anything right. Luckily, she isn't one to give up. With a spark of imagination, she makes up a new game and leads her classmates on a parade to remember!
EARLY CHAPTER BOOKS
Jasmine worries that she will be the only one with no talent to share in the school talent show until her mother brings out her taiko drum.
After Kitty magically turns into a cat, she meets with the local Cat Council and is recommended as their new Guardian.
Winnie is challenged to adapt to a new school for girls where the eclectic student body includes magicals as well as humans, and while Winnie uses her wits to find her own way, crusty dragon Miss Drake is secretly trying to discover and foil a new plot by Winnie's grandfather to gain custody of her.
Priscilla "Cilla" Lee-Jenkins is on a tight deadline. Her baby sister is about to be born, and Cilla needs to become a bestselling author before her family forgets all about her. So she writes about what she knows best―herself! Stories from her memoir include: being bald until she was five, overcoming struggles with reading, and differing family traditions with her Grandma and Grandpa Jenkins and her Chinese grandparents, Nai Nai and Ye Ye.
CHAPTER BOOKS
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Also, her parents hide immigrants, and if the mean motel owner finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.
Eleven-year-old Thom Ngho is keeping a secret: she’s strong. Like suuuuper strong. And it’s making it impossible for her to fit in at her new middle school. In a desperate bid to get rid of her super strength, Thom makes a deal with the Monkey King, a powerful deity and legendary trickster she accidentally released from his 500-year prison sentence. But dealing with the trickster god might be more trouble than it’s worth...
Ok Lee knows it's his responsibility to help pay the bills. With his father's death and his mother working three jobs, barely making ends meet, there's no other choice. If only he could win the cash prize at the school talent contest. But he can't sing or dance and has no magic up his sleeves. Then there'sthe most popular boy in their grade who's got it out for Ok. When the pushy deacon at their Korean church starts wooing Ok's mum, it's the last straw. Ok has to come up with an exit strategy - fast.
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, but Hanna is determined to fit in and realize her dreams: getting an education, becoming a dressmaker in her father’s shop, and making at least one friend.
Chloe Cho is a Korean American seventh-grader who would like to get in touch with many of the aspects of her heritage, but her parents are unwilling to talk about it--then when a class assignment forces Chloe to confront them directly, they finally tell her the truth about her family, which may just be too much for one girl to handle.
When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni's Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. When the tiger approaches her with a deal that might restore her halmoni's health, Lily is tempted to agree. But deals with tigers are never what they seem...
Kaia lives near the beach in California, where moviemaking fun is all around. This summer, Kaia and her friends are part of a creative arts camp, where they're working on a short movie to enter in a contest. The movie is inspired by the Filipino folktales that her beloved Tatang, her great-grandfather, tells. Tatang lives with her family and is like the sparkle of her special-effects makeup. When Tatang decides that it is time to return to his homeland in the Philippines, Kaia will do anything to convince him not to go.
Lou Bulosan-Nelson has the ultimate summer DIY project: build a "tiny house," 100 square feet all her own. She shares a room with her mom in her grandmother's house, and longs for a place where she can escape her crazy but lovable extended Filipino family. It won't be easy, but with the help of friends and relatives, her dream begins to take shape, and she learns the deeper meaning of home and family.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
When thirteen-year-old Tai Pham inherits his grandmother's jade ring, he soon finds out it's more than it appears. Suddenly he's being inducted into a group of space cops known as the Green Lanterns, his neighborhood is being overrun by some racist bullies. Now Tai must decide what kind of hero he wants to be: will he learn to soar above his insecurities or will the past keep him grounded?
Twelve-year-old Cici has just moved from Taiwan to Seattle, and the only thing she wants more than to fit in at her new school is to celebrate her grandmother's seventieth birthday together. Since she can’t go to A-má, Cici cooks up a plan to bring A-má to her by winning the grand prize in a kids’ cooking contest to pay for her plane ticket! There’s just one problem: Cici only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.
Growing up in the same Chinese-American suburb, perfectionist Christine and artistic, confident, impulsive Moon become unlikely best friends. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she has visions, sometimes, of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. Moon's visions have an all-too-earthly root, however, and soon she's in the hospital, fighting for her life. Can Christine be the friend Moon needs, now, when the sky is falling?
NONFICTION
This book describes the popular street cook's life, including working in his family's restaurant as a child, figuring out what he wanted to do with his life, and his success with his food truck and restaurant.
The true story of a Chinese American mountain man who fed thirty people for ten days in the wilderness--and helped inspire the creation of the National Park Service.
When Wu Chien Shiung was born in China 100 years ago, most girls did not attend school. But her parents felt differently and encouraged her love of learning and science. Wu Chien Shiung battled sexism and racism to become the first woman hired as an instructor by Princeton University, the first woman elected President of the American Physical Society, the first scientist to have an asteroid named after her when she was still alive, and many other honors.
The autobiographical memoir 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. 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.
Jose Antonio Vargas was only twelve years old when he was brought to the United States from the Philippines to live with his grandparents. He didn't know it, but he was sent to the U.S. illegally. When he applied for a learner's permit, he learned the truth, and he spent the next almost twenty years keeping his immigration status a secret. Hiding in plain sight, he was writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country. Only after publicly admitting his undocumented status--risking his career and personal safety--was Vargas able to live his truth.
Before he became an artist named Tyrus Wong, he was a boy named Wong Geng Yeo. He traveled across a vast ocean from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. Once in America, Tyrus seized every opportunity to make art. While working as a janitor at night, his mop twirled like a paintbrush in his hands. Eventually, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime--and using sparse brushstrokes and soft watercolors, Tyrus created the iconic backgrounds of Bambi.
This book tells the bold story of Maya Lin, the artist-architect who designed the Vietnam War Memorial.