Here's something else that APAs and Jewish Americans have in common: we share the same heritage month! Yup, as of April 2006, May is not only our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but May is also Jewish American Heritage Month! Various stereotypes have long linked...
If you're looking for the quirky, original Yoko Ogawa, her latest, Hotel Iris, is probably not for you. Go back to your bookstore or library and check out the delightfully inimitable The Housekeeper and the Professor (2009), about a genius math professor with only an 80-minute...
By the time I actually met Sonya Chung, debut novelist of Long for This World, which hit shelves in March, I was already a groupie. Long was one of those suddenly-surprising-out-of-nowhere books that make you gasp. A publicist sent it to me initially and it...
Even though "Uncle" calls her Rosa Garcia, Tzunun Chumil knows her real Mayan name, and that in Spanish, Tzunun is 'colibrí,' which means "hummingbird." She knows somewhere that she has a mother and father that once loved her very much, that she lived a happy...
Five years ago, Taipei-born Malaysian British Tash Aw landed in the media spotlight with The Harmony Silk Factory, complete with public speculations about an allegedly enormous debut advance. Decorated with multiple important prizes, including Commonwealth and Whitbread first novel awards, Aw’s Factory earned him both...
Warning: I can't find any promises of a volume 2 (or 3, 4, or more!) anywhere in, on, or around this book. Nothing in the publicist's note, either! Uh-oh ...
This weekend, I get to meet Kyoko Mori in livetime [I'm scheduled to moderate an Asian American literary panel on Sunday morning as part of the first-ever Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival, sponsored by the brand-new Asian American Literary Review). Anyone can join me,...
For anyone and everyone who has or knows a middle-grader with braces (or about to get braces), this is the book of choice to share. "I've been telling people about what happened to my teeth ever since I knocked them out in sixth grade," writes...
Jack Lime is a self-described "detective, a private investigator, a gumshoe." He's also a new student at Iona High School, who landed mid-9th grade in the ultra-planned, exclusive community from the City of Angels to live with his grandmother after the tragic death of his...
Min opens her latest with guilty sobs recalling her "brainwashed" teenaged self in 1970s China, when she was forced to denounce Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning writer Pearl S. Buck to Madame Mao. That guilt clearly drove Min (Red Azalea) to write this "based on the...
David Almond has been repeatedly popping up in my inbox recently. Not him personally (don't I wish, as he is definitely one of my very favorite writers for young adult titles), but his mega-award-winning name is haunting my emails...
In a tony New Jersey suburb, artistic Jaya, outspoken Lola, and shy Maria find an instant bond with each other, recognizing their outsider experiences of being the daughters of immigrant mothers who work as housekeepers and nannies for the wealthy families of their eighth-grade classmates. Jaya...
Although the cover of Bi's novel displays a character for "triple happiness" – ostensibly representing the eponymous three sisters – readers shouldn't expect a happily-ever-after tale. After seven daughters, Party Secretary Wang sees his self-esteem redeemed with the birth of a son. Firstborn Yumi, the de facto...
When her parents take their annual summer trip to India, 11-year-old Poppy decides it's the perfect chance to spend a month with her veterinarian Uncle Sanjay who runs an animal clinic on Nisqually Island off Washington’s coast. How else can she learn to be a...
The adventures of Shizuka Shiroyama and her two best sidekicks, strong-willed Okouchi and ever-cheerful Tadami, continues in this third installment with some guilty feelings, a heartwarming wedding, and dealing with a meddlesome doctor's awkward attempts at matchmaking because she still can't get over her own...
How helpful to find a "For New Readers"-summary on the Table of Contents page! And it's so thorough that if you pick up volume 2 (or any after) before volume 1, you can still enjoy this touching series about the trials and travails of early...
Winner of the 2009 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Philip Hoose's inspiring title brings much-needed focus on a brave 15-year-old girl who decided, "You just have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'" In March 1955, nine months before Rosa...
Through the decades, Ruthanne Lum McCunn has built a lauded career giving voice to spirited, groundbreaking heroes of Asian descent. Growing up in a large, extended family in Hong Kong, McCunn, who is half Chinese and half Scottish American, was surrounded by strong, independent women...
I have old emails in my inbox from Jabari Asim, when he used to be a books editor at The Washington Post. I did a couple of book reviews for him, and pitched a few more ...
For most of the last hour (of 10+ hours) of listening to an effusive, lilting Chike Johnson read to me William Kamkwamba's phenomenal life story, I wore the goofiest grin on my face. Surely fellow drivers passing me by wondered what sort of gleeful idiot...
