BookDragon Coming-of-age Tag

YUMMY: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, illustrated by Randy DuBurke

19 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

True stories about kids with tragic endings are undoubtedly effective in fueling parents' worst nightmares. This one proves especially haunting. Six years ago today, "Yummy" Sandifer made the cover of Time magazine. Along with his mugshot were the words, "The Short, Violent Life of Robert 'Yummy'...

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

18 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Marcelo marks quite a memorable moment in our family's dynamics: For the first time ever, our daughter actually shut us out with her headphones (I realize it's coming relatively late in modern teenage life), demanding that she be able to finish this book right now (it was...

The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault

14 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Latin American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction

María Luz's family is in trouble. Their land in the hills of Honduras, which provides them with the corn and beans they need to live, has "lost its goodness." In order for the family to survive, María Luz's father must leave home and find work....

Koko Be Good by Jen Wang

31 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

When I first read Jen Wang’s spirited debut graphic novel, I couldn't help but be reminded of how quirky, unique, and just plain delightful Melanie Griffith once was in Jonathan Demme's 1986 film, Something Wild. Not that the plots are overly similar, but that contagious wild-child spirit infuses...

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

26 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Truly, one of the best ways to keep the kids happily quiet in the car is to share a story ...

The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the Holocaust by Lola Rein Kaufman with Lois Metzger

25 Aug, by SIBookDragon in European, Jewish, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Lola Rein Kaufman's "'memory button'" got turned on on September 17, 1939, when Russian tanks, trucks, and soldiers entered her small hometown of Czortków in what was then Poland. She was not yet 5 years old. Before she reached her 10th birthday, she lost her...

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax

30 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

If you're a parent, go get this book and start reading NOW. Even if you don't have a son. While you're ordering, make sure to also include Leonard Sax's latest, Girls on the Edge, another life-changing read. If you're a parent, truly, you owe it...

Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee’s Return to Korea by Jane Jeong Trenka

25 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Korean, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction

Jane Jeong Trenka's follow-up to her phenomenal debut memoir, The Language of Blood, is a searing, disturbing account of why transracial adoption does not work. Newly divorced, having severed her relationship with her adoptive parents, escaping from a violent stalker now in jail, Trenka arrives in Korea having...

Lucky Girl: A Memoir by Mei-Ling Hopgood

20 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonfiction, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

The first reaction to finishing Lucky Girl is 'lucky readers.' Definitely of the 'you can't make this stuff up'-genre, journalist Mei-Ling Hopgood's debut memoir is one lucky surprise after another. Paced just right to keep you reading, the Taiwanese-born Hopgood reveals a remarkable story of her Midwest...

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

18 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

As the new boy in town, living in a motel with his near-silent father, young Rob Horton literally hasn't unpacked. He keeps a virtual suitcase tightly locked with his deepest feelings and thoughts, most notably memories about his mother who passed away six months ago...

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

13 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction

With the publication of her first memoir, Infidel (2007), Ayaan Hirsi Ali spent the better part of a year seeing her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Born in Somalia, at times neglected, abandoned, or abused by her parents, the strictly-raised Muslim child that...

Author Interview: Karen Tei Yamashita [in Bookslut]

06 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Japanese American, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost

For the last two months or so, Karen Tei Yamashita will not get out of my life. And I say that with a goofy-grinned "wahhh" of delighted surprise. While I’ve been an ardent admirer of Yamashita’s books for some 20 years (yup, I have all...

DupliKate by Cherry Cheva

30 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Thai American, Young Adult Readers

While I have to confess Cherry Cheva's sophomore novel is not quite the fabulous fun of her 2008 debut, She's So Money, I'll also insist that DupliKate (with the oh so perfect title!) is undoubtedly an entertaining read that will keep you quickly turning the pages. My teenage daughter chose...

How I Made It to Eighteen: a mostly true story by Tracy White

25 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Tracy White’s graphic sort-of-autobiography is “only mostly true because I skipped over things, moved events around, embellished, and occasionally just plain made things up,” she explains on the first page. “The technical term for this is dramatic license. I used it,” she adds in the...

Blue Jay Girl by Sylvia Ross

24 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples

Sylvia Ross, LA-born and “raised … apart from her family Chukchansi culture,” as stated in her bio, has focused her writerly life on her Native American culture. Her latest title captures an inspiring ‘girl power’ story of long ago … about a “medium-sized” Yaudanchi child...

I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [in Library Journal]

18 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese American, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost, Southeast Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Comprising 10 novellas that took 10 years to craft, this is Yamashita’s (Circle K Cycles) magnum opus. Year by year, the novellas mark a decade’s worth of tumultuous Asian Pacific American (APA) history, from 1968, when ethnic studies was painfully birthed in San Francisco,...

The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee

10 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean, Korean American

Certain writers – Chang-rae Lee and Khaled Hosseini immediately come to mind – paralyze my reading capability. I say that with the utmost respect. I become so attached to an author's previous book (in the rare case, books), that I find myself unable to even...

The Long Season of Rain by Helen Kim

04 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

For years, this 1996 National Book Award finalist in Children's Literature sat high on my night-table stack. But once I finally opened its pages – annoyingly marked with multiple intrusive stamps of "Discarded by the Yankton Community Library" as I ordered it used – the book...

Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

31 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Pacific Islander, Young Adult Readers

"Once upon a time this was a true story ...

I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World by Eve Ensler, foreword by Carol Gilligan

22 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Drama/Theater, Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult Readers

As the mother of a teenage girl (and too-soon-to-be-teenage son, too, egads!), I vacillate constantly between nervous fear and proud elation. My daughter is a miracle in so many ways ...