Blue Jay in the Desert by Marlene Shigekawa, illustrated by Isao Kikuchi [in What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature]
04 Mar, by in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost
Junior and his family live in Camp Poston, an internment camp where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Junior’s grandfather is carving him a special blue...
Young Sachiko is frustrated about having to spend time with her elderly grandmother, with whom she shares the same name, who no longer even recognizes her. Sachiko comes to understand what has...
Ballet is the most important thing in 11-year-old Robin Lee’s life. But her parents want to bring her grandmother to the U.S. from Hong Kong – an expensive venture. For Robin, that means no more ballet....
Undoubtedly, this is the prolific Yep's signature title, as well as one of his most award-winning, including a 
When her gambling father is hospitalized, 12-year-old Casey is sent to live with the relatives of her passed-away mother who she never knew. With the help of her loving grandmother...
Teddy’s mother insists he get a special birthday present for his younger brother, Bobby, who everyone already considers perfect. So Teddy comes home with a baby alligator. He figures it’s his job as older...
Just before the end of World War II, the Sakane family is released from internment camp and sent to live briefly in Salt Lake City. When they are finally allowed to return to their...
With the advent of World War II, Yuki’s family is separated and imprisoned. Her father is taken away by the FBI, and the rest of the family is eventually shipped to Camp...
At 17, Molly Jane Fletcher begins to question who she really is. Lovingly raised, she’s always known she was adopted. With her Asian face, she knows she doesn't...
As the only daughter in a traditional Chinese American household, 16-year-old April Chen feels responsible for her grandmother, a strong, manipulative woman. But April will soon be leaving...
Determined to become an artist, young Sei Koichi convinces the famous cartoonist Noro Shinpei to take him on as an apprentice. Under Sensei’s (Japanese for "teacher") nurturing tutelage, he receives a new name, Kiyoi,...
Nine-year-old Yingtao Yang has just moved with his family from China to Seattle. As he adjusts to his new American life – making friends and discovering baseball – he struggles daily with...
Yingmei Yang wants to "be American." She’s changed her name to Mary, keeps a notebook of American slang, and tries her best to make friends at school. But she realizes that fitting...
At 15, young Megumi is left behind to live with her cold father and difficult grandmother when her desperately unhappy mother suddenly leaves the family. In Japan, tradition dictates that children must remain with...
When her mother suddenly commits suicide, 12-year-old Yuki is left behind to try and piece her life back together. Living with an aloof father and an uncaring stepmother, Yuki must learn to rely on...
Alice Larsen is a popular seventh-grade cheerleader. Then Yoon Jun Lee arrives from Korea, and Alice’s father wants her to be his friend. Although...
It’s senior year in high school and Ellen understandably wants to spend time with her friends, but her parents expect her to study even more she can get into Harvard. Ellen must...
Shirley Temple Wong, with her new American name, arrives in her new American home. But making friends proves difficult. She...
Naomi is just a little girl when World War II scatters her Japanese Canadian family. Separated from their parents, Naomi and her older brother Stephen are relocated far from their home in the care...
A group of lyrical, interrelated shorts stories about multi-generations of the Kim family, who begin their American lives in the Korean camp section of a Hawaiian sugarcane plantation in the early 1900s. As the...