Skim by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki [in Bloomsbury Review]
Meet Kimberly Keiko Cameron, aka “Skim,” a wannabe witch navigating her angst-filled teenage life in a 1990s Toronto high school. In this book created by cousins Mariko and Jillian, making their fabulous collaborative debut, Skim manages...
Get ready for some rollicking fun with this debut novel about super-overachieving Maya, the perfect daughter who gets all As and still manages to help out in her parents’ Thai restaurant.
One small slip-up while her parents...
A 2007 Booker Prize nominee, Sinha’s third title is presented as a series of 23 directly transcribed tapes, spoken by a creature called “Animal,” who was once human before an industrial chemical catastrophe (inspired by the...
The long-awaited follow-up to
Through loosely connected short stories, Wang's second collection straddles both worlds of her native China with her adopted America – and the undefinable spaces in between. From the young Chinese girl who sees too much in...

A lovingly illustrated poem, which was originally submitted anonymously by an adoptive mother to the
Get ready to weep: Dog’s many lives are beautifully recounted in this gorgeous title about life cycles and reincarnation, based on the Buddhist belief of samsara (also found in Hinduism, Sikhism, and other religions).
Born again and...
The poignant shortcomings of soulful slacker Ben Tanaka are artfully presented in this striking volume. And, of course, Ben isn’t the only one with shortcomings. When his live-in relationship in Oakland falls apart and his girlfriend...
Who knew the “godfather of manga” could be this dark? When a mysterious poison gas kills the inhabitants of a Japanese island that was once home to a foreign military base, two survivors are inextricably linked...
As the daughter of struggling Korean immigrants, Casey Han has created a persona defined by her expensive tastes, her magna cum laude Princeton degree, and a wealthy family friend who is always there to lend a...
Alas, summer's over, but that doesn't mean the fun reads have to be thrown aside for more serious fare. If anything, some depth mixed with light fun might make for the ideal transitional book.
A Concise Chinese-English...

Already a runaway bestseller in Vietnam, this diary will break your heart – but offer you hope that in the worst of times, we human beings can be miraculously humane.
As a young doctor working for communist...
I so love
While teenage readers will surely enjoy this manga too, adults can learn a little something about teenage dynamics. Shizuka Shiroyama, a thoughtful, timid young girl, suffers from the mysterious “Translucent Syndrome,” which means she cyclically starts...
Forget pastoral countryside and quaint village life – this is post-Tiananmen China in which money rules and reinvention is the answer to survival in a new society defined by unleashed capitalism and greed. Six stories capture...
Su Qi, a sensitive Chinese Malaysian youth, comes of age in the magical jungles of Borneo, shaped by the cruelty he witnesses at the hands of his abusive father and his loving but withdrawn mother. He...
The latest from one of Japan’s leading novelists is another signature piece in which the unexpected should be anticipated. It’s just before midnight and teenaged Mari reads a thick, unnamed book in a well-lit Denny’s in...
“Beat” Takeshi Kitano, most widely known as an acclaimed filmmaker, is indeed a Renaissance man. Besides making films, he’s an actor, comedian, major TV personality, poet, painter, and novelist – and most likely more. While he...