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BookDragon Arab

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,...

Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan [in Christian Science Monitor]

14 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

'Temporary People' depicts the lives of guest workers in the UAE The sense of displacement, of disconnect begins on the cover: The words “A Novel” written sideways, unobtrusively stamped along the left side under the title Temporary People, might be considered misleading. Made up of three...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi

10 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016, Young Adult Readers

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Haifaa Al Mansour’s The Green Bicycle

27 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016

The Green Bicycle by Haifaa Al Mansour

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

“Girls don’t ride bicycles,” Wadja hears repeatedly. Being an 11-year-old in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she finds herself constantly at odds with the societal limitations of her gender, from being forced to wear the all-covering abaya to adjusting her feisty behavior in too many restrictive ways. When...

Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq

18 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Young Adult Readers

"I believe that art is an essential element of revolution," Leila Abdelrazaq begins her "Artist Statement" on her website. She's half Palestinian and half American activist based in Chicago with a 2015 DePaul University degree who has generations of stories to share. Her Baddawi began as a webcomic "...

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 by Riad Sattouf, translated by Sam Taylor

30 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction

By 2, he knew he was "perfect." The toddler Riad with his "[l]ong, thick, silky, platinum-blonde hair," might have been "awake for only a few hours a day, but it was enough: when it came to living, [he] was a natural." And so begins the first...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Naomi Shihab Nye’s The Turtle of Oman

03 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Arab American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian American, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2015, Young Adult Readers

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, translated by John Cullen [in Christian Science Monitor]

04 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Translation

The Meursault Investigation cleverly builds on The Stranger by Camus In a New Yorker interview this March, Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud spoke of reading the iconic 1942 classic, The Stranger by Albert Camus – in which a man arbitrarily commits murder and is tried and sentenced...

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye, illustrations by Betsy Peterschmidt

26 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Arab American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian American, Young Adult Readers

Here's a narrative I haven't seen often: a not-yet-an-immigration story. Young Aref has one more week left to spend in his idyllic home in Muscat, the capital city of his native Oman. In too-few days, he and his mother will fly to the other side of the...

The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine, translated by Fatima Sharafeddine

24 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

At 15, Faten is uprooted from her village life to become a live-in servant to a wealthy family in Beirut, where violence from the ongoing Lebanese Civil War seems neverending. Her father's decision to pull her out of school, to indenture her away from all...

Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar

23 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Audio, British, Egyptian, European, Fiction, Middle Eastern

Hisham Matar's second novel (following his much-lauded, substantially-awarded debut, In the Country of Men) reads like a fast-moving dream, events jarringly, jaggedly forced together, and yet somehow managing to maintain a clear, thoughtful narrative. Narrator Steve West's methodically-paced, calmly-controlled voice imbues Matar's haunting story with dignity...

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

06 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Australian, European, Fiction, Jewish

Remember that gorgeous film, Red Violin, which tells the story (backwards) of the creation and fantastical 300-plus-year-history of the eponymous instrument? People of the Book uses a similar structure to reveal the story of a 500-year-old illuminated manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. That haggadah is very real;...

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, translated by Rajaa Alsanea and Marilyn Booth

27 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Audio, Fiction, Young Adult Readers

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a book is to get banned. REALLY. Just ask Rajaa al-Sanea (yes, the spelling of her name is different on the cover of her book from what she has on her personal website – which has two variations of...

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher

22 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Arab, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Guy Delisle is a graphic genius who draws what he sees – simply and unadornedly – with droll, minimal commentary, and creates some of the most poignant, effective, resonating memoirs ever. French Canadian Delisle has undoubtedly found international fame as a traveling artist: he recreated his temporary assignments...

Zahra’s Paradise by Amir & Khalid

05 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Persian American, Young Adult Readers

"The authors have chosen anonymity for obvious political reasons." When you know something like that about a book – that lives were willing to be risked to get a story out – how could you possibly not read it? In the case of Zahra's Paradise, I...

Gazelle Tracks by Miral Al-Tahawy, translated by Anthony Calderbank

31 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Egyptian, Fiction, Translation

The slim, startling volume begins with an aged, family photograph which essentially contains the contents of the pages that follow ...

Maryam’s Maze by Mansoura Ez Eldin, translated by Paul Starkey

23 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Egyptian, Fiction, Translation

Here I go again starting with a book backwards … in the ending “Translator’s Note,” Paul Starkey writes, “Readers of Maryam’s Maze who are already familiar with the author’s short stories will quickly feel themselves at home in this more extended work, which again reveals...

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

07 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Egyptian, Fiction

If, like me, you don't like to know the whole story before you read the book (!!), then skip the family tree in these opening pages. Don't even glance at it. You can always go back to it after. Ahdaf Soueif's 1999 Booker Prize shortlister (J. M. Coetzee took...

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SmithsonianAPA brings Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture to you through innovative museum experiences and digital initiatives.

About BookDragon

Welcome to BookDragon, filled with titles for the diverse reader. BookDragon is a new media initiative of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), and serves as a forum for those interested in learning more about the Asian Pacific American experience through literature. BookDragon is inhabited by Terry Hong.

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