Coming-of-age Archives - Page 20 of 55

Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni + Author Interview

24 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

Spanning 17 titles over a quarter century, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has published books for every possible type of reader, including Grandma and the Great Gourd for the youngest, the three-volume Brotherhood of the Conch trilogy for middle grade/young adults, Black Candle for poetry lovers, Arranged Marriage for short story enthusiasts, and eight...

Nameless City (Book 1) by Faith Erin Hicks

06 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Pan-Asian, Young Adult Readers

Okay, so I'm warning you right up front: This is just the first of a trilogy. And YES, it's fabulous, stupendous FUN. Which means you're going to immediately want more. Since the first installment just hit shelves last month, who knows when the next will be...

And After Many Days by Jowhor Ile [in Library Journal]

04 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW For the rest of his life, Ajie would be known as the last person to have seen Paul, the family’s exemplary, exceptional firstborn. On a Monday afternoon during Nigeria’s 1995 rainy season, 17-year-old Paul announces he’s visiting a friend in the next compound; he...

South Haven by Hirsh Sawhney + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

02 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

The year was 1994. Hirsh Sawhney was in junior high school when Kurt Cobain's suicide made international headlines that April. Just a few weeks later in a suburb of New Haven, Connecticut, the boy with the locker next to Sawhney's took his own life with...

Unidentified Suburban Object by Mike Jung [in Shelf Awareness]

29 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

Primrose Heights is home to only three Asian Americans: 12-year-old Chloe Cho and her parents. In spite of Chloe's growing interest in her Korean heritage, her astrophysicist mother and fish store-owner father remain consistently mum about the family's past, always hedging with excuses like "Talking...

Author Interview: Meredith Russo [in Shelf Awareness]

21 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Meredith Russo: Sharing Secrets Not until Meredith Russo was in her mid-20s did she finally begin "living as her true self." Russo--a transgender woman born and raised in Tennessee, and now the mother of two children--has an unforgettable, timely story to tell. Russo's protagonist in her...

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo [in Shelf Awareness]

20 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In Lambertville, Tenn., where the social highlight of the week is the high school football game, new girl Amanda Hardy immediately turns heads. She's barely figured out her class schedule before Grant, acting as a mouthpiece for his buddy Parker, is asking for her phone...

the gods lie. by Kaori Ozaki, translated by Melissa Tanaka

15 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

As cranky and cynical as I can be – especially as an impatient reader, ahem – every once in a (long) while, I come across a title that gets me all choked up and sighing like a moony adolescent. Perhaps I'm going soft in old...

American Ace by Marilyn Nelson [in School Library Journal]

06 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, European, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Irish American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW When Connor's grandmother dies, she leaves his father a ring, a pair of pilot's wings, and a letter explaining that the man who raised Connor's father was not his biological father. With his father paralyzed by depression, Connor takes the two mementoes and the...

I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly, illustrated by JM Ken Niimura

25 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Barbara Thorson is most definitely not your average fifth-grader. She refuses to buy the "motivational speaking" going on in the front of the classroom on career day, quipping to the less-than-esteemed guest, "I already have a 'career,' thank you." Indeed, Barbara's calling is so much greater:...

It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Iranian American, Middle Grade Readers, Persian, Persian American, Repost

Zomorod Yousefzadeh hasn't "met anyone who has moved so many times before sixth grade." Her peripatetic upbringing has already encompassed long distances – not just in miles, but across cultural, social and political divides, as well. Originally from Abadan, Iran, her family moved to Compton,...

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout [in Library Journal]

22 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Many years earlier, Lucy Barton spent two months in a hospital after a routine appendectomy; no one ever figured out what was wrong. She wakes one morning to find her mother sitting on her bed, arrived in Manhattan from their rural Illinois hometown. Too many...

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate [in School Library Journal]

20 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Jackson was 7 the last time he saw his bubble-bathing, purple jelly bean-loving friend Crenshaw. But now that Jackson is 10, the oversize imaginary feline explains, "You need a bigger friend now." Jackson and his family must sell everything they can to pay their overdue rent...

A House of My Own: Stories from My Life by Sandra Cisneros

15 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction

“A house. A writing machine. …[And her] animals” are the “home” Sandra Cisneros needs to “feel like writing.” The MacArthur “Genius”-author of The House on Mango Street – one of those celebrated pivotal titles readers never forget – offers the “stories from my life [that]...

A Bride’s Story (vol. 7) by Kaoru Mori, translated by William Flanagan

11 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Central Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Thanks to his "fellow countryman," our peripatetic Turkey-bound Englishman, Mr. Smith, finds himself welcomed into a lavish Persian home. "I'm impressed, Boss," his guide and companion Ali remarks, "You sure know some powerful people." Momentarily glimpsed but intentionally hidden in the sprawling compound is Anis, the...

In Celebration of Museum Day 2016: Chatting with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

09 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Here’s a ‘did you know …?’-fact about the Smithsonian Museums … they’re all free, all the time. That’s not the case in many museums around the country, so the Smithsonian created Museum Day Live!, an annual event in which participating museums across the country open...

The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock [in Shelf Awareness]

01 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Set in remote 1970 Alaska, when indigenous communities still mourned losses that came with statehood in 1959, The Smell of Other People's Houses explores relationships that bind, falter, recover, and flourish. First-time novelist Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock introduces the distinct voices of four teenagers who, over...

Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey by Özge Samanci

19 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Turkish, Young Adult Readers

At age 6, Özge Samanci was desperate to be "on the other side of the binoculars" – that is, to be at school, being watched by her mother from across the street, just as she and her mother occasionally spotted and waved at her older sister Pelin,...

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

15 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center 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...

Husky by Justin Sayre [in School Library Journal]

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

Davis knows that every kid will "get boiled down to only one adjective…. It's decided. There. Permanent." Among his closest friends, Ellen is Mean, while Sophie is Pretty. Davis is "the Fat one, but everyone calls [him] husky." He hopes to escape his adjective, but being...

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