BookDragon

Avatar: The Last Airbender | Smoke and Shadow (Parts One and Two) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

22 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Avatar Aang takes a temporary narrative back seat to his Fire Lord buddy Zuko in Part One of the newest Last Airbender three-part installment. Now that Zuko has been reunited with his long-lost mother Ursa [you'll need to read The Search for the full backstory], he's bringing...

Dragonfly Kites by Tomson Highway, illustrated by Julie Flett [in Booklist]

18 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Bilingual, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Repost

Brothers Joe and Cody, their parents, and Cody’s dog, Ootsie, spend each summer near one of the hundreds of lakes in northern Manitoba, Canada. By naming and playing with sticks, stones, and even small animals, the brothers have no shortage of available “friends.” Their favorite...

Little White Lies by Brianna Baker and F. Bowman Hastie III [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Because she “can no longer idly sit by and consume the Little White Lies that [her] parents tell,” Coretta channels her frustration into a debut blog post about power, politics, mixed-race identity, Afros, and Rosa Parks. The blog goes viral, and Coretta’s 4.0, extracurriculars, college...

The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee [in Christian Science Monitor]

13 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Korean American, Repost

'The Expatriates' explores three overlapping lives in Hong Kong While Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Expatriates might be one of your first reads of this new year, you will not be allowed to forget this book as 2016 draws to a close. Mark my words: The Expatriates...

A Beginner’s Guide to Bear Spotting by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by David Roberts [in Booklist]

12 Jan, by SIBookDragon in British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Going for a walk in “bear country” could be very dangerous business, unless you heed the wise advice of this intrepid child, whose well-stocked, oversize backpack contains all the many things necessary to negotiate potential sightings. When confronted by a black or brown bear, pepper spray...

Fearless Flyer: Ruth Law and Her Flying Machine by Heather Lang, illustrated by Raúl Colón [in Booklist]

11 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Latina/o/x, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW It’s true: “When Ruth Law made up her mind, there was no use trying to stop her.” With tenacious aplomb, Law announced that she would fly from Chicago to New York in one day – a distance, in 1916, that had never before been...

Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth (Book 1) by Judd Winick

08 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

Given all the anti-immigrant hubbub in the news, Hilo is an absolutely surprising standout, least of all because the blonde, sometimes blue-eyed (not on the cover, but check pages 8 and 33, for example) hero here turns out to be the alien. Yup, Hilo (as in 'high-low')...

The Only Child by Guojing

07 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha

The single-page "author's note" which introduces this stupendous, otherwise-wordless wonder is a full story unto itself: Guojing reveals her lonely childhood growing up in 1980s China under the one-child policy. Her parents worked, and she was often cared for by her grandmother. But sometimes when...

Shelter by Jung Yun [in Library Journal]

05 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Faced with financial crisis, college professor Kyung Cho and his wife, Gillian, are considering selling their overmortgaged home. During the initial realtor meeting, the couple discovers Kyung's mother wandering disoriented and naked beyond their backyard. Kyung misunderstands his mother's garbled Korean – the language she...

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes [in Library Journal]

04 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Rhimes has become one of television's most powerful women – her ShondaLand production company owns Thursday night with Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away with Murder. But career success aside, Rhimes is an introvert who was perfectly happy turning down most of...

Bird & Diz by Gary Golio, illustrated by Ed Young

31 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Nonfiction

Text and art find a perfect pairing between two hard covers that stretch out to reveal a 10-foot, double-sided spread of popping colors, swirly lines, and infectious energy. Captured within is the story of two friends "who play together just like kids." They joyously romp through...

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt [in Library Journal]

30 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Jonas and Wyatt entered the world as identical twin boys, adopted by Kelly and Wayne Maines after being born to Kelly's teenage cousin who wasn't ready to be a mother. By toddlerhood, Wyatt vocalized that she was a girl; Jonas always recognized he had...

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

28 Dec, by SIBookDragon 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...

Is Mommy? by Victoria Chang, illustrated by Marla Frazee

24 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Taiwanese American

Mothers, you will relate. Meet your bluntly honest children. Ask your little one a question about yourself – all the while hoping for a smidge of uplifting compliment or encouraging understanding – and what you'll probably get is not exactly what you anticipated. You've been warned! These little wonders just aren't capable of...

That’s (Not) Mine by Anna Kang, illustrated by Christopher Weyant

23 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific

The wife-and-husband team of Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant debuted the most ingenious use of (title) parentheses with You Are (Not) Small, and promptly won the 2015 (Theodore Seuss) Geisel Award, given annually to "the most distinguished American book for beginning readers." Lucky for their audiences, the screenwriter/New Yorker-cartoonist...

Nowhere to Be Found by Bae Suah, translated by Sora Kim-Russell

22 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Translation

Korean narratives of disconnect and ennui arriving Stateside in recent translations seem to be on the verge of becoming an imported genre. Noteworthy titles over the past few years include Young-ha Kim's I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, Kyung Ran Jo's Tongue, and the forthcoming The Vegetarian by...

Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq

18 Dec, by SIBookDragon 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 "...

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings by Margarita Engle

17 Dec, by SIBookDragon 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...

Author Interview: Yiyun Li [in Asian American Literary Review]

15 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

To become a writer, Yiyun Li left behind everything familiar: her birth country (China), her first language (Mandarin), her family (parents and sister), her scientific training (immunology), and her PhD degree (University of Iowa). On the other side of the world, she switched into the...

The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith [in Library Journal]

14 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Han Kang, a South Korean writing professor with Iowa Writers Workshop training, makes her English-translation debut with this spare, spectacular novel, in which a multigenerational, seemingly traditional Seoul family implodes. Yeong-hye, the youngest of three adult children, repeatedly announces "I had a dream," violent, bloody,...

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