Biography Archives - Page 2 of 8

A Song for China by Ange Zhang [in Booklist]

18 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Fifteen years ago, Toronto-based artist Ange Zhang debuted Red Land Yellow River (2004), a gorgeous, hauntingly rendered autobiography about coming-of-age during China’s Cultural Revolution, marked by incomprehensible, chaotic, threatening change. The beloved father he introduced then becomes the subject in this book, its title a...

Song of Arirang by Kim San and Nym Wales, edited by George O. Totten and Dongyoun Hwang [in Booklist]

09 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, Korean, Nonfiction, Repost

He’s had almost two dozen names, yet his story was forgotten for 40 years. More recently, despite their violent 20th-century histories, four countries – China, Japan, and his native Korea, now cleaved into North and South – all claim him as a local hero. Perhaps best...

Diverse Novels in Verse for National Poetry Month [in School Library Journal]

25 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Biography, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Japanese American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Organized by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month, in April, has been celebrated annually since 1996. While reading, writing, even performing poetry should be a year-round activity, National Poetry Month is a welcome catalyst to get verse newbies and doubters interested and involved. In...

Patient X: The Case-Book of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa by David Peace [in Library Journal]

31 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Biography, British, Fiction, Japanese, Repost

In one of the most inexcusable examples of careless casting or lazy producing or both, David Peace (Red or Dead) gets utterly short-changed by Ric Jerrom's exasperating performance, from grievous mispronunciations of the majority of the Japanese names and words – including even Peace's protagonist...

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston [in Library Journal]

30 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Biography, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Versatile, seasoned narrator Robin Miles is as comfortable narrating literary historic context as she is effortlessly adopting the vernacular patois of an octogenarian former slave. Published almost 90 years after its completion, Zora Neale Hurston’s (Their Eyes Were Watching God) presentation of Oluale Kossula,...

Che: A Revolutionary Life | A Graphic Biography by Jon Lee Anderson, illustrated by José Hernández [in Booklist]

12 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Latin American, Repost, South American, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Jon Lee Anderson’s Che: A Revolutionary Life (1997) is superbly realized in graphic form by Mexican artist José Hernández, who distills Anderson’s lauded, 812-page original into just more than 400 pages of spectacularly illustrated narrative. Since his 1967 death at 39, Che “has become the most...

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers [in Library Journal]

31 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Audio, Biography, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

Dion Graham has narrated 10 – which is almost all – of McSweeney's founding publisher and literary powerhouse Dave Eggers's books. Graham showcases his staggering genius for aural incarnations across gender, ethnicity, culture, age – whatever details Eggers writes, Graham inspiringly brings to listeners' ears. Their...

Charlie Takes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by John Joven [in Shelf Awarenss]

12 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction, Repost

African American legends like Serena Williams and Michael Jordan are household names, but not long ago, professional sports were strictly segregated. Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947; the National Basketball Association allowed Earl Lloyd to play in 1950; Brown v. Board of...

Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simone by Alice Brière-Haquet, illustrated by Bruno Liance, translated by Julie Cormier [in Shelf Awareness]

08 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, European, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

A young daughter is "having a hard time falling asleep tonight." To lull her to "dream," her mother offers a story about "a baby wrapped in a white sheet and her mother smiling at her." That baby is the titular jazz legend Nina Simone. Her...

Silent Days, Silent Dreams by Allen Say [in Shelf Awareness]

31 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Boise, Idaho, is home to the James Castle Collection and Archive, commemorating an internationally renowned local artist who lived most of his 78 years in isolation. The sleek building stands in sharp contrast to the artist's actual lifetime studios: an attic, an abandoned chicken...

Miguel’s Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Raul Colón [in Shelf Awareness]

17 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Cuban American, European, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction, Poetry, Puerto Rican, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Miguel de Cervantes survived his onerous childhood – his gambler father's imprisonments, his family's constant fleeing from debtors – by losing himself in stories. Inspired by his mother's tales, "dazzling plays," and "storytellers on street corners," Miguel imagines he will someday conjure his own...

Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival by Marsha Forchuck Skrypuch with Tuan Ho, illustrated by Brian Deines

17 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Prodigious Canadian author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch has built an admirable, award-winning reputation by writing about difficult subjects for younger readers, including the Armenian genocide, world wars, and Canadian internment. Her previous focus on the Vietnam War featured survivor/refugee Son Thi Anh Tuyet in a two-part...

The Refugee Experience for Middle Grade and YA Readers [in The Booklist Reader]

13 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, African, Arab, Biography, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Caribbean, Cuban, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Iranian, Iranian American, Iraqi, Italian, Lists, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Myanmarese (Burmese), Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

This is the second in a two-part series of recommended books for youth about the refugee experience. For a list of picture books, click here. Canada, with her groovin' President, functional healthcare system, and more welcoming borders, is currently in the throes of "Month 13," the first month following...

Help Young Readers Understand the Refugee Experience with Picture Books [in The Booklist Reader]

13 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Arab, Arab American, Australian, Bilingual, Biography, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Iraqi, Korean American, Latin American, Lists, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Syrian, Translation, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

This is the first in a two-part series of recommended books for youth about the refugee experience. For a list of middle grade and YA titles, click here. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as the United Nations Refugee Agency,...

Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko by David Jacobson, illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri, translated by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi

23 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Japanese, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry

Japan's latest tsunami warnings were just recently lifted, saving countless citizens from another Fukushima disaster-like tragedy which killed over 20,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless in March 2011. Amidst the apocalyptic aftermath, human goodness prevailed. Five years ago, a single poem managed to reach millions...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Gary Golio and Ed Young’s Bird & Diz

22 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Nonfiction, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Margarita Engle’s Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music

13 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Cuban, Cuban American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016

Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medial Pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks, illustrated by Colin Bootman

21 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

From the age of 13, Vivien Thomas worked with his master carpenter father and began growing a bank account that might someday take him to college and eventually medical school. The stock market crash of 1928 wiped out Thomas' savings, but nothing could touch his determination...

John F. Kennedy’s Presidency [Presidential Powerhouses series] by Rebecca Rowell [in Booklist]

03 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Irish American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost

Although JFK’s tenure was only 1,036 days, his legacy hasn’t tarnished much. In this volume of the Presidential Powerhouses series, Rowell diverges from too many children’s titles that lionize the youngest-ever POTUS to offer a finely balanced biographical overview. While JFK’s achievements are many – the...

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik [in Library Journal]

03 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Biography, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Ruth Bader Ginsberg (b. 1933) is legend: she was Columbia University's first female tenured professor; she published the first casebook on sex discrimination; she was the second woman to sit on the nation's highest court; and she was the first Supreme Court justice to...

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