The town of Musashigawa has a graffiti problem ...
Janet Wong has gone literally hybrid. Her latest title, debuting next month, is part graphic novel, part regular prose. Thanks to her flexible illustrator Elizabeth Buttler, the result is an entertaining new way for young readers to enjoy a story on different levels. Popular. pretty Rolly Maloo is...
*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,...
Stuck in a virtual version of 1971, Koizumi Kyoko knows that unmasking the Friend will have irrevocable consequences. Past and present, both the 1971 and 2014 versions of the Chief try desperately to save her ...
It's 2014 and just-escaped-against-all-odds Otcho and his manga artist sidekick Kakuta are finally back in Tokyo ...
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...
If you’re reading this review, $4 lattes or $15 lunches are probably not shock-inducing numbers. Now think about this: “Two dollars feeds a child for a week...
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...
At the rate I'm reading these, it's a good thing I only ordered the first three volumes to get me started ...
The mysterious doctor is back to do more good with another set of miraculous adventures. Jack's late mentor and savior lends his voice from beyond to remind him once again, "don't underestimate the human body," as Jack attempts to chase a needle tip gone missing...
So it's not officially the start of summer by calendar date, but when temperatures get this hot, my eyeballs turn to lighter reading to soothe the heat-addled brain. Given my later-in-life appreciation for manga, Osamu Tezuka always proves to be a reliable go-to choice. In...
Mukhtar Mai's story is heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, even nauseating ...
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 ...
Last night, six of my book hens (my mother likes to refer to my book club as "the chicken coop," which has an amusing ring to it in Korean: "kkoh-kkoh-jang") got together for a lively discussion of Canyon Sam's debut, Sky Train. Even though I...
In a word – and to quote from the title – this book is amazing. Filled with poems chosen by award-winning poet Lee Bennett Hopkins that celebrate the wonders of our diversity, this gorgeous book is populated by the vibrant immediacy of Chris Soentpiet's stunning canvases...
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...
For those of us of a certain age, we remember well that shampoo commercial ...
Okay, so I'm not quite sure of the U.S. publication date for Xinran's latest ...
Sometimes it takes me years to read certain books. Oftentimes, fear is involved. Sometimes when I like a book so very much, I'm afraid the next book by that author just might disappoint. So I do the denial thing and move said title deeper down...
Every time I close a Mas Arai mystery (this is my third – I know, I need to catch up), and in spite of the sometimes gruesome body count, I have to admit I miss the crotchety old man with his Japanese phrases mixed in...
