First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins [in Bloomsbury Review]
01 May, by in Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers
With her Republican front-runner father, Sameera “Sparrow” Righton just might be headed to the White House. That is, if her father’s PR spinners can make her more ‘all-American,’ given her Pakistani heritage as the beloved adopted...
Although based in part on the real-life experiences of Virginia Loh’s childhood in Northern Virginia, something about Dragon just doesn’t ring true. The premise seems unique and most definitely worthwhile – I can’t remember another middle-grade...
American teenager Sarah would much rather be hanging out with her friends back home in an air-conditioned mall than being stuck with her family vacationing in faraway Indonesia. When the massive tsunami of 2004 hits the...
Another precocious debut – this one by a Princeton freshman who began the novel at 15 and won the PUSH Novel Contest at 17. Big Man on Campus-Caesar (real name John, but called Caesar because all...
The multi-millennia-old South Asian discipline gets a hip new twist for a teenage audience, complete with inviting step-by-step drawings of how-tos and must-dos. Makes the perfect no-occasion gift, too.
Review: "In Celebration of Asian Pacific American...
A harrowing story about Nadira, a Pakistani teenager who is considered damaged goods, having paid for a crime that her older brother never committed, leaving her with a scarred face and abused young body. When her...
Interweaving his own multigenerational family history, Thant thoughtfully presents the troubled story of his homeland from ancient times to its colonized modern legacy. Thant’s grandfather, U Thant, figures prominently in the title, once a small town...
Using food as an engaging trope to tell her poignant story – from Pringles to Big Macs to Bubble Yum and Little Debbies – Nguyen takes the reader on a vicarious munching session, recounting her experiences...
The renowned cooking guru and award-winning actress presents an inviting memoir – complete with family recipes, of course! – about growing up in the sprawling family compound in Delhi, surrounded by extended family members, literally climbing...
A collection of 13 illuminating essays about the so-called “Urban Generation” of young filmmakers who came of age in post-Tiananmen Square China, creating an alternative, independent cinema eschewing the demands of the still-powerful state-owned studios. Zhang...
“This book is a corrective action,” insist the three adoptee editors of this recent collection of essays and memoirs about growing up as a transracial adoptee. “Over the past fifty years, white adoptive parents, academics, psychiatrists,...
The long-awaited biography – even if it’s a tad bit on the academic side – on Hayakawa, a trailblazing Asian American film pioneer, who in his silent heyday was one of the most recognizable, lauded actors,...
A spectacularly rendered coffee-table collection of the history of how some the best designed Japanese products – from furniture to appliances to toys to even the ubiquitous drip-free soy sauce bottle – ever got made. My...
An expansive, statistics-filled look at why 600,000 to a million North Koreans died in the mid-1990s during one of the worst famines of the 20th-century. In spite of so-called government reforms and the push for growing...
While Tokyo is undoubtedly one the world’s most modern cosmopolitan centers, traditional neighborhoods of bygone eras still exist within the sprawling city – you just need an expert to show you where. With inviting photographs and...
You could build major muscles benching both volumes, but think of it as beefing up your theater knowledge way beyond New York’s Broadway (it ain’t called ‘The Great White Way’ for nothin’!). For both the theater...
Yes, it’s pricey, but if you ever wanted a one-stop primer on Asian American theater, this is definitely it. Besides, I – yes, me, yours truly, don’t be so surprised! – get a very sweet nod...
This superb anthology offers nine challenging, unique, edgy voices, who were each chosen to be produced by one of the nation’s premier, most award-winning Asian American theater companies, the Ma-Yi Theater Company in New York City....
From the “godfather of manga” – who also had a medical degree! – comes the first English translation of the mysterious story of a dedicated young doctor, Kirihito Osanai, who is initially sent to a remote...