BookDragon Family Tag

Kurozakuro (vols. 1-2) by Yoshinori Natsume, translated by Camellia Nieh

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

Here's a 21st-century spin on the 90-pound weakling who wakes up one day admirably transformed, complete with bulging muscles and confident attitude. That said, check out these covers: this version is not without some menacing twists. "There's something called a 'food chain' in this world....

Watch Me Grow! A Down-to-Earth Look at Growing Food in the City by Deborah Hodge, photographed by Brian Harris

01 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

First reaction after reading this inviting title: I wanna move to Vancouver ...

My Mom Is a Fob: Earnest Advice in Broken English from Your Asian-American Mom by Teresa Wu and Serena Wu, foreword by Margaret Cho

28 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

For those of you searching for an antidote to the Tiger Mom brouhaha, this is it! I kid you not. Picture this ...

Cross Game 2 (vols. 4-5) by Mitsuru Adachi, translated by Lillian Olsen

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

You can't just jump in midway with this manga ...

My Colors, My World | Mis colores, mi mundo by Maya Christina Gonzalez

23 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Latina/o/x

Chunky little fingers deserve bright, saturated colors to hold and giggle over, to learn little lessons from ...

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

22 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Fiction

Having finished one Chris Cleave novel, I had to immediately start another without even missing a step (literally, as both books were loaded one after the other on the iPod – with Little Bee narrated with careful control by Anne Flosnik – and I was out running...

Dream Big, Little Pig! by Kristi Yamaguchi, illustrated by Tim Bowers

19 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Japanese American

Lucky for the Smithsonian to own a piece of legendary Olympic ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi ...

Harbor by Lorraine Adams

17 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Fiction

According to her official website bio, Lorraine Adams left her Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper career in 2000 "to recount the lost stories of Algerians she knew without the strictures of journalism, and the conventional sentiment of the moment." Even before 9/11, Adams well understood about "ambiguity" and...

Wise at Heart: Children and Adults Share Words of Wisdom by Brody Hartman, Dr. Richard Steckel and Michele Steckel

16 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Surely the world is filled with many, many wise old souls ...

Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life by Luis Alberto Urrea

15 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction

This third and final installment of Luis Alberto Urrea's Border Trilogy is unmistakably his most personal. His "good Republican" mother from Staten Island never accepted his Mexican identity. His "devil on the dance floor"-father was once on Mexico's presidential staff, becoming a bowling alley janitor...

Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide by Icy Smith, illustrated by Sopaul Nhem

09 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Cambodian, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian

Tragically, death and destruction are very much a part of human reality ...

Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan [in Christian Science Monitor]

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nepali, Nonfiction, Repost

Two warnings: 1. Don’t read Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal in public unless you enjoy making a spectacle of yourself, wiping your eyes and blowing your nose every few pages; 2. Skip the middle photo insert until...

Author Interview: Anjali Banerjee [in Bookslut]

06 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American

With her past seven published novels – written for audiences that range from middle-grade readers on up – Anjali Banerjee didn’t particularly mention male body parts in any great detail. Maybe a twinkling eye here, capable hands there, but she certainly didn’t dwell. But as...

The Lives of Rain by Nathalie Handal, foreword by Carolyn Forché

02 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Palestinian American, Poetry

I am the first to admit I missed having the poetry function installed when my limited brain got assembled. So when I DO actually GET poetry, I feel a true sense of gratitude to the writer, not to mention a few outbursts of gleeful accomplishment. Nathalie...

By the Lake of Sleeping Children: The Secret Life of the Mexican Border by Luis Alberto Urrea, photographs by John Lueders-Booth

31 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Mexican, Mexican American, Nonfiction

Once I opened this second volume in Luis Alberto Urrea's Border Trilogy, I simply couldn't stop. So here's the best thing I can say about Lake after reading his first border title, Across the Wire: Lake is more of the same ...

Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border by Luis Alberto Urrea, photographs by John Lueders-Booth

27 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Mexican, Mexican American, Nonfiction

Thanks to a sudden snowstorm and ensuing power outage, I had every excuse to strap on my headband flashlight and read the first of Luis Alberto Urrea's Border Trilogy without pause. Given the sheer gawk-factor of these pages, any excuses were negligible: This is definitely...

A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff

26 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

In spite of the "Afterword" being at book's end, I feel like I need to begin this post with the final line: "I write this especially so that the story of Dina and her beloved, Johann, will be remembered by our family," explains two-time Newbery...

Saturn Apartments (vol. 2) by Hisae Iwaoka, translated by Matt Thorn and Tomo Kimura

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

Wherever the ALA – the American Library Association, the mother of all library associations in the world! – leaves its stamp of approval, you're guaranteed some great reads. In 2007, the ALA even hopped on the manga bandwagon when their young adult division, YALSA (Young Adult...

Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan

19 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers

"I always thought the biggest problem in my life was my name, Naomi Soledad León Outlaw, but little did I know that it was the least of my troubles, or that someday I would live up to it." So opens Pam Muñoz Ryan’s swiftly moving coming-of-age...

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

17 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Nonfiction

From the age of 16 when she took a biology class at a community college (making up for a failed high school freshman year because "she never showed up"), award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot has seemingly spent the majority of her life preparing to write...