Origin/Ethnic Background Archives - Page 104 of 232

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

14 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

So here I sit facing a familiar conundrum ...

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

13 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Australian, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Micah is a boy. Micah is a girl. Micah is 17, a senior in a progressive New York City private school. Micah's father went to Marseille in search of his unknown black French father and came back with a white French wife. Micah's father is an...

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (vols. 1-2) by Tohru Fujisawa, translated by Ko Ransom

11 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Apparently, I've jumped way ahead and will need to go backwards sooner than later: GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is the sequel to the wildly successful original GTO which debuted in 1997 and quickly thereafter became a TV drama, live-action film, anime, and more. And the...

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

See the entwined pair of hands? Although the girl and woman never meet, they remain forever bound by both blood and experience over a tumultuous century in Afghanistan. The woman is Shekiba, the only daughter in a family of sons, whose gender alone makes her a target of abuse...

Chukfi Rabbit’s Big, Bad Bellyache: A Trickster Tale told by Greg Rodgers, illustrated by Leslie Stall Widener

08 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples

Welcome to Choctaw country: native storyteller Greg Rodgers re-introduces a "hidden away" tale transcribed from the 1930s to "the living world of Choctaw literature," while native artist Leslie Stall Widener animates Rodgers' words with whimsical renditions of the animal characters garbed in Choctaw-inspired colorful duds. Young (and old, ahem!)...

The Last Werewolf Trilogy: The Last Werewolf, Talulla Rising, By Blood We Live by Glen Duncan

07 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

In a roundabout way I can't quite recall, I ended up at this 2007 New York Times article, "Young Man Behaving Badly," and learned that bestselling author Glen Duncan is hapa British Asian. I found his latest title, By Blood We Live, magically waiting on my shelves, only...

Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"In 1975 ...

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

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

Although Fridays are predominantly reserved for manga, I thought July Fourth trumped the usual today. Kirby Larson’s Hattie Big Sky, a 2007 Newbery Honor title, examines American patriotism from a perspective I can't remember encountering before in fiction. While the target audience is younger readers, surely adults...

My Pet Rattlesnake by Joe Hayes, illustrated by Antonio Castro L.

03 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

"When I was a kid, I was what you might call a desert rat," begins renowned American Southwest storyteller Joe Hayes’ latest picture book from boutique indie Cinco Puntos Press. Once upon a time, that desert rat-kid stumbles on a rattlesnake trapped under a rock and releases...

Sidewalk Dancing: A Novel in Stories by Letitia Moffitt

02 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hawaiian, Short Stories

Two genres set my reading heart aflutter: novels in verse (highly ironic as I am an utter poetry dullard) and interlinked short storied novels. Hapa Hawaiian native Letitia Moffit’s Sidewalk Dancing falls in the latter category ...

The Hula-Hoopin’ Queen by Thelma Lynne Godin, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

01 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction

Welcome to the corner of Broadway and West 139th Street in New York City: Today, Kameeka is determined that she will finally claim her rightful title as the Hula-Hoopin' Queen of 139th Street! But today is also the beloved Miz Adeline's birthday – "I love Miz...

Better Nate than Ever by Tim Federle

29 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

Nate Foster, who at "four foot eight" looks much younger that his almost-14 years, makes up for his diminutive height with outsized dreams – and the grandest of plans to make them come true. While his parents are away for a romantic weekend (Dad's trying to make...

Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen Schwartz, illustrated by Dan Santat

26 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Southeast Asian American, Thai American

And you thought you knew Little Red and the Big Wolf? Look again ...

Lost Girl Found by Leah Bassoff and Laura DeLuca

25 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Not quite a teenager, Poni loses her 12-year-old best friend in violent increments: to too-early forced marriage, three failed suicide attempts, and finally to childbirth long before her natural time. Poni – and her fiercely supportive mother – are determined that Poni will somehow stay in school...

Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim, illustrated by Grace Zong

24 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction

So this might seem like a Chinese New Year title (because it is – although I just received a copy; the first print run sold out almost immediately, yippee!), but it's even more about sharing, forgiveness, and friendship. Which means don't read it just once a...

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

23 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

I can't believe we're already in the last full week of LGBT Pride Month! I confess that my June literary goal was to read as many David Levithan titles as possible (without guilt even, given what month this is). Alas, I didn't make much progress in any...

Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón

20 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Some time in the recent past, a video link came through that began with birthday wishes for Anne Frank, as if she had miraculously survived the Holocaust and lived many fulfilling decades. [I can't seem to find the link again, so if anyone recognizes the description...

Bingo’s Run by James A. Levine

19 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

If, like me, you have trouble with accents, dialects, or unfamiliar vernacular, choose audible here. Narrator Peter Macon couldn't be smoother and clearer: I couldn't figure out "meejit" on the page, but in Macon's voice, no problem (turns out I'm just the "eejit" who can't understand 'midget,'...

Work: An Occupational ABC by Kellen Hatanaka

18 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian Asian Pacific American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

Get ready for quite the imaginative, clever twist on this predictable genre: even the youngest readers know what comes after A-B-C ...

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel [in Library Journal]

16 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW In high school, Tsukuru Tazaki was part of a "perfect community" of five best friends. Each had a color attached to their family names – red, blue, white, black –except for Tsukuru, rendering him "colorless." After Tsukuru begins college in Tokyo, he's brutally excised...

BookDragon Origin/Ethnic Background