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BookDragon Caribbean American

Favorite Adult Books 2017 [in The Booklist Reader]

11 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, British Asian, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Pakistani, Repost, South Asian, Translation

What sweet agony to have so many fantabulous, freakin’ spectacular books from which to cull. I’ve got my 2017 favorite adult titles down to a baker’s dozen, chosen under great duress. They’re presented in alphabetical order – opposed to actually ranked, a feat which just might...

Favorite Diverse Children’s Books of 2016 [in Utah Journal of Literacy]

07 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Bangladeshi American, Black/African American, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Caribbean American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Indian American, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Middle Grade Readers, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Persian, Persian American, Repost, South Asian American, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

  ABSTRACT These books feature diverse characters who – in a multiplicity of ways – suffer, learn, and generally triumph in their differences. Varying in genre from picture book to poetry, in setting from Kenya to California, and in ethnic focus from Muslim Bangladeshi to Ojibway/Anishinaaabe (Canadian...

Augustown by Kei Miller [in Booklist]

16 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW As both the introductory note and epithet doubly insist, August Town, divided into two words, is a real town in Jamaica, made (in)famous for being the founding home of Bedwardism, a short-lived, early twentieth-century religion. Fast-forward to 1982 when teary Kaia comes home to his...

American Street by Ibi Zoboi [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Arriving with her mother from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, at Kennedy Airport, "holding hands for courage," 17-year-old Fabiola Toussaint, a U.S. citizen by birth, is ushered through Customs while immigration officials detain Manman. Fabiola is forced to leave her behind in New York, and lands alone in...

The Mortifications by Derek Palacio [in Library Journal]

21 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A mother, Soledad, flees Cuba, abandoning her revolutionary husband Uxmal and absconding with their 12-year-old twins Ulises and Isabel. She bypasses Miami for Hartford, CT, finding work as a court stenographer, making her the transcriber of other people's words. Although Uxmal’s presence never seems to...

Author Interview: Pamela Erens [in Bloom]

04 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Jewish, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

While Pamela Erens might not yet be a household-name author, she’s hardly a stranger to literary recognition. Her 2007 debut, The Understory – about a solitary, unemployed lawyer who’s about to lose his home – was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything

07 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016, Young Adult Readers

Eleven Hours by Pamela Erens [in Library Journal]

24 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW In a Manhattan hospital, two women are each pregnant – one obviously, the other not yet visibly. Lore arrives with no partner, no friends, and no support, but she is armed with a several-page birth plan with which she expects to control the...

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

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older [in School Library Journal]

01 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Caribbean American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Puerto Rican, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does it mean when paintings start morphing, shifting, and even weeping actual tears? For Sierra Santiago, who thought she would spend her summer making the mural of her dreams, these newly moving pictures are clear warnings...

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael López

28 Dec, 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, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction

Thank the stars for all the women who never succumbed to 'you can't' and 'you're not allowed,' and the constant cacophony of insistent 'no's. Meet another such hero: drum dream girl. In spite of her strikingly diverse heritage – Chinese, African, and Cuban! – all her elders agree...

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings by Margarita Engle

17 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Exactly a year ago today, POTUS and Cuba's President Raúl Castro announced a joint agreement reestablishing relations between two countries that have maintained a complicated half-century plus of separation. Released December 17, 2014, the official Cuba Policy Changes have made the island nation quite the destination of...

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon [in School Library Journal]

02 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Nicola Yoon’s superb debut begins and ends with books. Stories are how 18-year-old Madeline has survived with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency – "you know it as 'bubble baby disease’" – in her sanitized world that includes only her doctor mother and a nurse. She's been content...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Crystal Chan’s Bird

12 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2015, Young Adult Readers

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle

23 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

In case you've missed the recent headlines, Cuba has been in the news a lot: "We are separated by 90 miles of water, but are brought together through shared relationships and the desire to promote a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba," a recent official White...

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

24 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction

If I were to choose the one book that affected me most this year – the one that ran the entire spectrum from giddiest to maddest, from eye-opening in wonder to eye-scrunching in horror – this is it. Bad Feminist has forever changed the way I read,...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Crystal Chan’s Bird

20 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2014, Young Adult Readers

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

28 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American

I read the eponymous first chapter almost a year ago and then stopped. I listened to the same story – the absolute highlight in the disappointingly uneven collection Haiti Noir – so smoothly, lullingly read by Robin Miles, and again stopped. The book stayed on my desk...

Bird by Crystal Chan

17 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

In the small town of Caledonia, Iowa, Jewel stands out: she's "'half-Jamaican, a quarter white, and a quarter Mexican.'" As if to provide a physical embodiment of Jewel's hapa background, the audible producers cast Amandla Stenberg, who played the heartbreaking role of young Rue in the film version of The...

A Handbook to Luck by Cristina García

07 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Iranian, Latin American, Latina/o/x

Tell me if you've heard this one before: a Cuban, an El Salvadorean, and an Iranian land on the page and spend decades trying to find their place in the world. Yes? Then, you must have read Cristina García’s A Handbook to Luck. No? Then read...

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Asian Pacific American Center

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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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