BookDragon Young Adult Readers

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka 001 by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka, co-authored by Takashi Nagasaki, supervised by Macoto Tezka

07 May, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of manga, introduced his beloved Tetsuwan Atom – better known in the West as Astro Boy – way back in 1951. The adorable robot boy became a worldwide phenomenon, thanks to his animated incarnation that began in 1963. Since then, somewhere, somehow,...

32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics by Adrian Tomine

05 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

You've gotta love this boxed set of eight little mini-comic books. As a not-so-cool high school student (the first picture you see once you slide out the contents) who didn't have much of a social life, Adrian Tomine had quite the cool other-life, inking comics...

Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia by Cindy Pon

05 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Young Adult Readers

Debut novelist Cindy Pon undoubtedly knows how to tell a story: Silver Phoenix is an exciting tale about a village teenager in ancient China who escapes a potential marriage with the over-wived town lech and goes on a great adventure through magical worlds to rescue her beloved...

Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins

01 May, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

With their father unable to find a job in Delhi, Asha, her older sister Reet, and their mother must go live with relatives in Calcutta while her father travels to New York in search of new opportunities. He hopefully promises that reunion is not far...

Cashay by Margaret McMullan

29 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Fiction, Young Adult Readers

Walking home one day from school on the violent streets of Chicago, 14-year-old Cashay loses her beloved younger sister to a stray bullet. She would have done anything for her sister – she even purposefully flunked a grade so they could be in the same class. She...

Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories about Teens in the Arab World by Elsa Marston

28 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Arab, Fiction, Iranian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

Eight stories feature eight teens from eight different countries coming of age during a time of uncertainty and tumult in their native Middle East countries. In the title story, young Amal of Baghdad, Iraq, must find the very best gift for her departing literature teacher even...

Johnny Hiro {half asian, all hero} by Fred Chao, with greytones by Dylan Babb and letters and edits by Jesse Post

19 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Young Adult Readers

The peaceful slumber of Johnny Hiro and girlfriend Mayumi Murakami in their rent-controlled (run-down) New York City apartment, is rudely interrupted by Gozadilla (that extra 'a' is not a typo), who couldn't make it as a killer monster in Tokyo so has come to New...

Ash by Malindo Lo

19 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

The good news is you will probably find  Malindo Lo's young adult debut hard to put down. The bad news is that you will probably find it hard to find at all. At least for awhile ...

In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story by Mary Woodward, foreword by David Guterson

15 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Japanese American, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

If such things are possible, this is actually (almost) a happy book about the Japanese American internment experience, as improbable as that sounds. Yes, the unfortunate Americans of Japanese descent who lived on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound across from Seattle, Washington – who made up a...

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (vols. 1-2) by Nagaru Tanigawa, art by Gaku Tsugano, characters by Noizi Ito

11 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Mystery solved: For awhile (way too long), Luddite me was maintaining our main Smithsonian APA Program website (no snickering!), and every time I booted up the machine I had to work on, an adorable anime character in a little sailor suit would pop up, pointing...

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

11 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

In case you missed it ...

Edward’s Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan

10 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

We listen to a lot of recorded books, shuttling the kids here and there. Every once in awhile, you get an unforgettable one like Edward's Eyes. It's not very long, but wow is it memorable, especially for parents! Jake and Edward are two especially bonded brothers...

The Great Call of China by Cynthea Liu

08 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Born in China and raised by loving adoptive parents in Dallas, teenager Cece Charles is on her way to China for a summer anthropology program in Xi’an, home of the legendary terra-cotta warriors. But in addition to seeking potential college credits, Cece is determined to...

Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger [in Bloomsbury Review]

06 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Four days after 9/11, a man wearing a turban shows up on Samar’s doorstep – and turns out to be her uncle. After years of estrangement, he’s determined to reunite the fractured family – and in the process teach Sam about her Sikh American heritage....

Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology edited by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma [in Bloomsbury Review]

06 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The SI boys gather some of the top names in Asian American pop culture to present a unique anthology of the Asian American experience – complete with masked crusaders, caped champions, and even everyday heroes. Together, they’re making our ever-morphing, multi-culti American future a safer,...

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin [in Bloomsbury Review]

22 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Spunky and independent Minli can't bear to see her parents leading such harsh lives, especially her mother who is so discontented with the family's poverty that she can't even enjoy the glorious stories Minli's father regularly tells her. Minli is determined to change her family's...

Samir and Yonatan by Daniella Carmi, translated by Yael Lotan

19 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Israeli, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Samir, a young Palestinian boy, must go to the "Jews' hospital" for a serious operation to save his injured knee. Having just lost his younger brother to Palestinian/Israeli crossfire, Samir is understandably anxious about entering what he sees as enemy territory. Waiting for the American doctor,...

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

16 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Indonesian, Indonesian American, Nonfiction, Pacific Islander, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

The inaugural post for a historic inaugural year! While finding out so much more about our first African American president, you can also discover his Asian Pacific American cultural heritage, as well. He was born in Hawai’i, his father-figure ages 4-6 was an Indonesian man, Lolo...

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

13 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Clearly, this is one of those books that will change the way you think about the world. Forget the 'rags to riches' stories out there, the lone 'self-made man' who rises to the top from nowhere. Gladwell, in his third intriguing book, argues that outliers...

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim [in Bloomsbury Review]

13 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

From two of the most successful names in contemporary graphic novels – Gene Luen Yang, whose multi-award-winning American Born Chinese was the first-ever graphic novel to be a finalist for the National Book Award, and Derek Kirk Kim, the equally multi-award-winning author of groundbreaking Same Difference and...