Identity Archives - Page 6 of 83

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho [in School Library Journal]

18 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW For audiences familiar with the former NFL linebacker’s viral YouTube series, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, or those who might have already listened to the Emmanuel Acho-narrated audiobook of the same title, be assured that Landon Woodson’s performance in this young readers edition...

One Life: Young Readers Edition by Megan Rapinoe [in School Library Journal]

15 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Megan Rapinoe read her original 2020 memoir herself. Here, for the young readers edition, Nicole Lewis proves to be an optimal, dynamic match. Rapinoe made international headlines – and fielded a vicious media onslaught – when she emulated Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protests against racism targeting...

Sisters of the War: Two Remarkable True Stories of Survival and Hope in Syria by Rania Abouzeid [in School Library Journal]

14 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab American, Audio, Nonfiction, Repost, Syrian, Young Adult Readers

Adapted from No Turning Back, award-winning Lebanese Australian journalist Rania Abouzeid narrows her focus here to younger characters forced to witness Syria’s decimation under President Bashar Hafez al-Assad. In 2011, Hanin is 8, the middle of three sisters living in the “fringes” of Damascus. Although the...

How to Fight Racism Young Reader’s Edition: A Guide to Standing Up for Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby [in School Library Journal]

13 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Jemar Tisby, who continues here as his own narrator, is a patient, thoughtful reader, remaining consistently gracious even when discussing egregious history and contemporary injustice. Tisby gets immediately personal, introducing his younger self when he realized that the predominantly white school had “all the nice...

Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul [in School Library Journal]

12 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW First came Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, awarded the 2016 National Book Award. Then Jason Reynolds with Kendi presented (and narrated) “ A Remix” with 2020’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You for young adults. Middle grade audiences get their own version, distilled by...

Take No Names by Daniel Nieh [in Shelf Awareness]

11 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Daniel Nieh, a former international model and Chinese-English translator, introduced his protagonist Victor Li in the gripping Beijing Payback, published in 2019. Nieh's sophomore thriller, Take No Names, heightens the gasp-inducing wild ride of Victor's debut. Although both titles are easily consumable as stand-alone novels – Nieh...

We’re Better Than This: Young Readers’ Edition: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy by Elijah Cummings and Hilary Beard [in School Library Journal]

07 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The adults got (mostly) Laurence Fishburne, but Adam Lazarre-White is distinctly the softer, better choice for younger listeners to get to know the late congressman in his own words. Elijah Cummings was born to South Carolina sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore “looking for a better life.”...

Tomorrow in Shanghai by May-lee Chai [in Booklist]

05 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

In her newest story collection, May-lee Chai (Useful Phrases for Immigrants, 2018) shifts dexterously between the personal and the fantastical. Four of the eight stories feature autobiographical stand-ins who are, like Chai, the daughter of a Chinese father and white mother whose formative years are defined...

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson [in School Library Journal]

04 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction, Repost

Nikole Hannah-Jones’s seminal The 1619 Project becomes a 24-minute lyrical gift for youngest readers, rendered with Newbery Honoree Renée Watson. Hannah-Jones voices the affecting verses: gentle through the horror, solemn to encourage empowerment, inviting to share the joy. A Black girl’s school assignment to “trace your...

The Selfless Act of Breathing by JJ Bola [in Booklist]

01 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

JJ Bola opens with a shocking promise: “I quit my job; I am taking my life savings, $9,021, and when it runs out, I am going to kill myself.” Nigerian British actor Oseloka Obi commands immediate attention in his debut narration in a solo adult...

A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero [in Christian Science Monitor]

30 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Ethiopian, Ethiopian American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

From the particular to the universal: Cross-cultural stories A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Ethiopian American writer Meron Hadero highlights immigrant stories of dislocation and identity. Displacement – often by outside force, rarely by personal choice – haunts Meron Hadero’s superb debut short story...

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff [in Booklist]

29 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Prolific, perennially youthful-voiced Cassandra Morris channels her infectious energy for Kyle Lukoff’s (Too Bright to See) newest vivacious protagonist, Annabelle, of Tahoma Falls, a small town just 40 minutes (but distinctly far) from Seattle. As a sixth grader, she’s about to start her final year at...

Self-Portrait with Ghost by Meng Jin [in Booklist]

28 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Following her extraordinary novel Little Gods (2020), Meng Jin presents a fascinating 10-story collection divided into four sections. One-line drawings of profiles interrupt, switching directions as if cleverly reminding readers to shift perspectives. Death haunts the first three titles. In “Philip Is Dead,” the narrator insistently...

Flip the Script by Lyla Lee [in Shelf Awareness]

20 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Readers familiar with Lyla Lee's exuberant YA debut, I'll Be the One, will be tickled to see that singer/dancer Skye Shin is "topping the charts" in Lee's equally ebullient sophomore YA novel, Flip the Script. Like Skye, Lee's new protagonist, Hana Jin, is a Korean American...

French Braid by Anne Tyler [in Booklist]

17 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Okay, Anne Tyler devotees and newbies (are there any?): settle in for another utterly engrossing multi-generational saga of Baltimoreans (who scatter), gently, absorbingly read by versatile Kimberly Farr. In her third iteration as Tyler’s cipher, Farr effortlessly adapts to Tyler’s distinct phrasings and rhythms,...

Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves edited by Nicole Chung and Matt Ortile [in Booklist]

16 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Chinese American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Editors Nicole Chung (All You Can Ever Know, 2018) and Matt Ortile (The Groom Will Keep His Name, 2020) present 30 essays that reveal how diverse bodies “move within (and against) expectations of race, gender, health, and ability.” Gabrielle Bellot, a Black trans woman,...

The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian [in Booklist]

14 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Iranian American, Persian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Vikas Adam, who was one-third of the terrific trio that voiced Abdi Nazemian’s Like a Love Story (2019), returns solo to adroitly cipher the diverse boarding-school cast here (Nazemian closes the recording with his own author’s-note narration). Chandler Academy is tiny enough, but to be...

Tokyo Dreaming [Tokyo Ever After, Book 2] by Emiko Jean [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Japanese American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The empowering delight of Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After continues in Tokyo Dreaming as Her Imperial Highness Princess Izumi tries to fit into an ancient hierarchy. When the second book opens, Izumi and her mother are ensconced in Tokyo's Tōgū Palace with their somewhat malodorous pup, Tamagotchi, who's been...

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho [in Booklist]

10 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

Listeners familiar with Natalie Naudus’s performances – she’s amassed almost 200 narrating credits – will surely have begun to notice that she has two narrative modes for girlfriends: one with aural gravitas, the other (usually deemed “the pretty one”) pitched a few notes higher, reminiscent...

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid [in Booklist]

09 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Fiction, Repost

Three boys – Youssef, Iseul, Dayo – are born in Saudi Arabia in 1990. Their distant fathers – from Pakistan, Korea, Nigeria – are Muslim students at the University of Markab, where they meet Salim, who will become the boys’ adoptive father. Salim flees Saudi...

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