BookDragon Young Adult Readers

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Search (Part One) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

03 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

To find out what prompts this eponymous ‘search,’ you’ll need to read the three-part Promise – which reveals how Aang and Zuko are actually family (surprise!), and why family matters so much. “Family is in essence a small nation, and the nation a large family … in...

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Promise (Part Three) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

03 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Okay, since this is the third and last part of this specific Avatar series, let's go back and catch up here ...

Limit (vol. 4) by Keiko Suenobu, translated by Mari Morimoto

19 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

First things first: make sure to go backwards to catch up with the opening three volumes; this is definitely a series that needs to be read in order. Parents, be warned: these kids are going to scare you to distraction. Younger readers, take heed: don't...

Sorako by Fujimura Takayuki, translated by GEN Manga

12 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Having discovered manga/manwha on the verge of being old, I often have these delicious moments of 'gaaaah'-wonder at coming across something original in the graphic industry. So here's a not-quite-three-years-old publishing niche I recently learned about – I know! What took me so long?! Meet GEN...

Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi, based on a story by Boaz Yakin and Moni Yakin, with art director Chris Sinderson

05 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Jewish, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Some years back, during a discussion about what was then the latest tragic news coming out of the Middle East, a friend's mother softly remarked about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, "The absolute worst arguments happen among families." She (the widow of conservative rabbi) was referring specifically...

Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah

04 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian, Young Adult Readers

Here's the seemingly simple story: When her grandmother falls ill, 13-year-old Hayaat decides that a jarful of her ancestral soil – a mere six miles away – will be the very thing that will make her grandmother well, so Hayaat grabs her best friend and goes off...

Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am by Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis

03 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Iraqi, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Ben Bright – popular senior, lead in the school musical opposite both his girlfriend Ariela and best friend Niko, the older son in a warmly bonded family of four – has a secret. Without telling his family and friends, he's bypassed college and chosen the U.S. Army....

Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves, & Other Female Villains by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple, illustrated by Rebecca Guay

29 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, then perhaps bad behavior might be, too. "In this book we are taking a look back through history at all manner of famous female felons," write mother/daughter author-team Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple (who,...

21st Century Boys (vol. 02) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

26 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

So why is it that all good things are supposed to come to an end? I’d be perfectly happy with another 20 more volumes. Really, is that too much to ask? With an enormously huffy sigh of resignation, I moaningly offer a final post for Naoki...

The Language Inside by Holly Thompson

25 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Cambodian American, Fiction, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Poetry, Southeast Asian American, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

This might be a spoiler of sorts: The advance galley is printed with a March 12, 2013 pub date, but when I went searching for an image of the book's cover to load here, online bookstores list a May date. Hmmm ...

The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio, translated with an introduction by Matt Thorn

22 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

"They say a person dies twice. / First comes the death of the self. / Then, later, comes the death of being forgotten by friends. / If that is so, / I shall never know that second death. / ...

Thermae Romae I by Mari Yamazaki, translated by Stephen Paul

15 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Rome, 128 AD. Even back then architects had a hard time finding work. Poor, poor Lucius – in spite of his fancy Athens training, his designs are considered "half-baked," and he finds himself "blacklisted out of the industry." Instead of sulking, an old friend convinces him...

War Brothers: The Graphic Novel by Sharon E. McKay and Daniel Lafrance, illustrated by Daniel Lafrance

11 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

If you look at the bottom of this post at "Filed under," you'll see this title is listed as both "Fiction" and "Nonfiction." That's not a mistake – and the explanation is found in the book's "Postscript": "This is a book of fiction based on...

The Hunger Games Trilogy: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

09 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

The day I stuck Hunger Games into my ears, Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress Oscar, albeit for her role in a different film, Silver Livings Playbook. I took that as a sign that I should finish the almost 35 hours (every bit admirably read by...

Limit (vols. 2-3) by Keiko Suenobu, translated by Mari Morimoto

08 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

First things first: you need to start with Volume 1 – that's where the fear begins. Volumes 2 and 3 won't offer much reprieve, but readers just might find a few life lessons within. Here's the set-up: Five survivors – all girls – of a tragic school bus accident...

The Stamp Collector by Jennifer Lanthier, illustrated by François Thisdale

03 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Here's how this mesmerizing book begins ...

A Chinese Life by Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié, translated by Edward Gauvin

28 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

No other word than epic describes this almost 700-page tome. It's epic in content: six decades of one ordinary man's extraordinary life, told through detailed, rich depictions in swirling black-and-white pen and ink that never seem to still. It's epic in context: 60 years of...

Odette’s Secrets by Maryann Macdonald

27 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

I'm compelled to start backwards with a number: 84. As children's writer (more than 25 times over) Maryann Macdonald explains in her ending "Author's Note," 84% of French children survived the horrors of World War II; in fact, "more children survived in France than in any other...

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

26 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

1958, Little Rock, Arkansas: A year has passed since nine courageous African American students – history's "Little Rock Nine" – integrated Central High School. Just days before the new school year is scheduled to begin that September 15, then-Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus closed the city's three high...

Irises by Francisco X. Stork

24 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Young Adult Readers

First things first: choose the page, not the headset. Carrington MacDuffie's voice is just too old to narrate the inner lives of two teenage sisters – no lilting resonance, no youthful lightness. Might I suggest that the better options for aurally appreciating the extraordinary Francisco X. Stork would be Marcelo...