Coming-of-age Archives - Page 23 of 55

Wandering Son (vol. 7) by Shimura Takako, translated by Matt Thorn

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

Here's lucky number seven of this internationally lauded, gender-bender series starring two sensitive, searching middle schoolers navigating through the challenges of gender-fluid adolescence. To catch up, click here – this is most definitely a multi-volume narrative that requires careful sequential attention. Shuichi, the boy who wants...

Heritage by Sean Brock, photographs by Peter Frank Edwards

13 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Thanksgiving is just two weeks away ...

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

In 2004, Gilead gave voice to the aging Reverend John Ames, who recognizes he will not live to see his 7-year-old son grow up and so creates an epistolary record of all that he will never be able to share with his boy. Four years later, Home featured...

She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry [in Library Journal]

04 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

*STARRED REVIEW In 2001, on an evening with a full moon –when Asian folklore says a rabbit appears on the lunar surface – Amy Quan searches for a woman in Vietnam, "where I was born in the same year as her, our lives diametrically opposite." The...

Deer Hunting in Paris: A Memoir of God, Guns, and Game Meat by Paula Young Lee + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

03 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

The title of Paula Young Lee's latest book (her fifth) is Deer Hunting in Paris. The subtitle, which announces it's a memoir (her first), includes two very loaded words, "God" and "Guns." The sub-subtitle explains further: "How a preacher's daughter refuses to get married, travels...

Adrian and the Tree of Secrets by Hubert, illustrated by Marie Caillou, translated by David Homel

31 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Bespectacled, sweater-vested, and "as shiny as a new penny," Adrian is the quiet nerd who too often gets bullied at school. At home, his mother keeps him on a tight leash, even as he is clearly trying to pull away. His father is never mentioned. His...

Jasmine Skies by Sita Brahmachari

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in British, British Asian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

When she made her Stateside debut last year in Sita Brahmachari's Mira in the Present Tense (titled Artichoke Hearts in the original edition across the Pond), hapa Jewish Indian British tween Mira Levenson seemed wise beyond her 12 years in the midst of losing her paternal grandmother...

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

13 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

As National Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close this week, the audible rendition of this empowering memoir is an ideal celebration of two of the most legendary contemporary Latina heroes: Rita Moreno, the only actress ever to have taken Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and two Emmys...

Ashes to Ashes [Burn for Burn Trilogy 3] by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

09 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

"The idea for the Burn for Burn trilogy began over cupcakes, as the best ideas usually do," the back cover teases, citing YA-writing BFFs Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian's inseparable relationship. That said, little is sweet about this searing series featuring three high school girls bound together...

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande

08 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

She was left at age 2 by her father, then at 4 watched her mother go; both parents braved the border into "El Otro Lado" (The Other Side) to make enough American dollars to reunite the family in their dream house someday. The youngest of three children, Reyna...

The Isobel Journal: Just a Girl from Where Nothing Really Happens by Isobel Harrop

03 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in British, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

The titular Isobel – the 18-at-the-time-of-publication author here – knows how to make the eponymous 'nothing' into quite the entertaining 'something.' Although she grew up "squished somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool," she's now living somewhere "down in the South of England ...

Fire with Fire [Burn for Burn Trilogy 2] by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

29 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Even more than Reeve who is lying in a hospital bed – his intended college football career probably shattered – Lillia, Kat, and Mary are the ones who need to recover from the shocker that was Homecoming. Guilt, for now, is as paralyzing as any cast...

The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go

22 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Nonethnic-specific

Debut novelist Justin Go had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of betrayal? I thought – hoped? –...

Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle

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

For all the challenges he survived in Better Nate than Ever, Nate Foster is now just five weeks from making his Broadway debut. So he'll be going on as Alien Number Seven in a single-word part, but he's also the second understudy for the titular...

I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flašar, translated by Sheila Dickie

18 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation

To better understand this elliptical, exceptional novel, allow me to elucidate a growing cultural phenomena trapping Japanese young people. According to a glossary entry at novel's end, some 100,000 to 320,000 hikikomori exist in Japan. They are self-made prisoners in their parents' home, usually hidden...

brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

17 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Not to play favorites, but since the 2014 National Book Awards Longlist For Young People’s Literature was announced earlier this week, I'm putting my bet on Jacqueline Woodson’s childhood memoir-in-verse, brown girl dreaming, to not only to make the shortlist (announced October 15), but go all the...

Author Interview: Ellen Oh [in Bloom]

10 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Ellen Oh, author of the acclaimed Prophecy trilogy – starring a third-century, yellow-eyed, teenage supergirl demon slayer – is channeling her own colorful fighting spirit. Two-thirds of her series, Prophecy and Warrior, are available now. King hits shelves this coming December. In the meantime, Oh herself has gone...

Prophecy and Warrior by Ellen Oh + Author Profile [in Bloom]

08 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Ellen Oh’s Prophecy Trilogy and Why #WeNeedDiverseBooks For Ellen Oh, good things seem to happen in threes. She’s the proud mother of three daughters. She’s had three careers – lawyer, professor, and finally a published writer (after 40!). The third book she wrote got her a three-book...

I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached, translated by Edward Gauvin

29 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Lebanese, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

As in my post for Beirut’s preceding, award-winning companion title, A Game for Swallows, I find I need to start at book's end. "I remember Georges Perec!" the final image announces. Initially seeming to be unrelated to the rest of the book, the unexpected homage to the experimental...

I Love You More by Jennifer Murphy

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

What are the chances: I seem to be island-hopping this week ...

BookDragon Coming-of-age Tag