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May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month. Why May?<\/a> The first Japanese people immigrated to the United States on May 7, 1843, and the transcontinental railroad \u2013 built mostly with immigrant Chinese labor \u2013 was completed on May 10, 1869. In 1977, Congressional legislation commemorating U.S. Asians and Pacific Islanders was initiated and became public law in 1992, designating May APA Heritage Month. Still, despite a North American presence older than the nation \u2013 Filipino sailors landed in California in the 16th century \u2013 Americans of Asian descent are too often viewed as foreign and \u201cother.\u201d<\/p>\n Books are full of opportunities to share, learn, and enjoy all manner of experiences, and audiobooks can make those experiences more immediate. Amid growing Islamophobia, many of these 2018 and 2019 APA titles feature Muslim American characters, created by Muslim American authors. So pull up a chair or grab a headset, and listen in.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n MIDDLE GRADE<\/strong><\/p>\n Everlasting Nora<\/a> by Marie Miranda Cruz, read by Amielynn Abellera. Macmillan Audio.<\/strong><\/p>\n If the middle grade Filipino American market had an audio representative, Abellera would be the reigning voice. Already the narrator of two of Newbery Medal winner and Filipina American Erin Entrada Kelly\u2019s three middle grade titles, she is an energetic cipher for Cruz\u2019s feisty 12-year-old Nora. Losing her home and father to fire, Nora moves with her mother, Lorna, into Manila\u2019s North Cemetery shantytown, where the living coexist with their dead. They survive by doing other people\u2019s laundry, but Lorna gambles away their meager funds playing mahjong. When Lorna disappears, Nora relies on the kindness of strangers to get her back.<\/p>\n The Night Diary<\/a> by Veera Hiranandani, read by Priya Ayyar. Listening Library.<\/strong><\/p>\n In her first-ever diary, 12-year-old Nisha records her family\u2019s perilous journey from Pakistan to India during the 1947 Partition. Ayyar is an ideal narrator, embracing Nisha\u2019s evolution from reluctant and reticent to bold and brave. The addition of Hiranandani\u2019s reading of her author\u2019s note \u2013 in which she reveals her father\u2019s family\u2019s 1947 exodus along Nisha\u2019s family\u2019s route from Mirpur Khas to Jodhpur \u2013 is especially gratifying.<\/p>\n The Science of Breakable Things<\/a> by Tae Keller, read by Jennifer Kim. Listening Library.<\/strong><\/p>\n In one of those \u201cdorky old composition notebooks,\u201d seventh grader Natalie is \u201csupposed to observe something that interests us and spend all year applying the scientific process to our capital-Q Question.\u201d She takes an unconventional approach, filling the pages with salient observations about her brilliant botanist mother, who can\u2019t seem to get out of bed. Natalie concocts plans to spark her mother to care again and rallies friends to prove her hypotheses. Surprising results follow.<\/p>\n Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, read by Priya Ayyar. Listening Library.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a small Pakistani village where everyone knows everybody else, young Amal wants nothing more than to go to school and become a teacher. When she inadvertently insults the overprivileged son of a powerful landowner, her family must commit her to indentured servitude as punishment. Encouraged by the kindness of the estate matriarch, Amal figures out how to fight for justice.<\/p>\n Front Desk by Kelly Yang, read by Sunny Lu. Listening Library.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mia Tang is only 10, but she runs the front desk of the motel where her immigrant parents are overworked and underpaid by the greedy owner, Mr. Yao. Despite drawbacks, Mia has made wonderful new friends, especially among the long-term guests, while her parents use the empty rooms to provide a temporary safe haven for other immigrants. Though her family is remarkably resourceful, abusive Mr. Yao \u2013 and his spoiled son \u2013 still controls their lives, until Mia hatches a plan to save them all.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n YOUNG ADULT<\/strong><\/p>\n Internment by Samira Ahmed, read by Soneela Nankani. Hachette Audio.<\/strong><\/p>\n Following precedent set by real-life Executive Order 9066, which imprisoned 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, Muslim Americans are rounded up and incarcerated in an alternate but all-too-familiar United States after the 2016 presidential election. Layla, 17, and her parents are forcibly removed from their L.A. home and transported to desert prison Mobius. Layla finds surprising allies \u2013 even inside barbed wire \u2013 willing to fight for freedom. Nankani also voiced Ahmed\u2019s debut, Love, Hate and Other Filters<\/em>.<\/p>\n Emergency Contact<\/a> by Mary H.K. Choi, read by Joy Osmanski & Jacques Roy. S + S. Audio.<\/strong><\/p>\n In debut novelist Choi\u2019s quirky love-story-of-sorts, narrators Osmanski and Roy convincingly propel two misfits toward each other. Osmanski\u2019s Penny is slightly detached, avoiding her mother\u2019s orbit by escaping to UT Austin, hoping to find a whole new world. Roy voices Sam, Penny\u2019s roommate\u2019s 21-year-old ex-uncle-by-marriage (got all that?). Penny and Sam\u2019s chance second meeting involves a panic-not-heart-attack. They fatefully designate each other \u201cemergency contacts,\u201d and their texting begins ….<\/p>\n Mariam Sharma Hits the Road by Sheba Karim, read by Soneela Nankani. Harper Audio.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mariam, Ghazala, and Umar are three best friends, their aural personalities immediately differentiated by chameleonic Nankani. Despite sharing Pakistani American and New Jersey backgrounds, their families couldn\u2019t be more different. When Ghaz gets shamed by their pious Muslim community for posing (scantily clad) for a clothing ad that appears sky high in Times Square, her conservative parents lock her in her room. Mariam and Umar orchestrate her breakout, embarking on a road trip through the South that gives Mars the chance to confront her deadbeat dad, while Umar contemplates coming out to his homophobic parents.<\/p>\n Darius the Great Is Not Okay<\/a> by Adib Khorram, read by Michael Levi Harris. Listening Library.<\/strong><\/p>\n Darius Kellner, 16, is a self-described \u201cfractional Persian\u201d: His mother is an Iranian immigrant, his father a \u201cTeutonic \u00dcbermensch.\u201d But like Dad, Darius is clinically depressed, and their only noncombative interactions involve watching Star Trek<\/em> episodes. When Darius\u2019s grandfather falls terminally ill, the Kellners trek 32 hours to Yazd, Iran, for an overdue family reunion. The visit proves life-changing, as Darius experiences his first true friendship.<\/p>\n A Very Large Expanse of Sea<\/a> by Tahereh Mafi, read by Priya Ayyar. Harper Audio.<\/strong><\/p>\n Best-selling author Mafi grounds her latest in reality in this can\u2019t-turn-away, timely story about teens falling in love despite intolerant peer pressure, difficult family situations, and cultural divides. This post-9\/11 coming-of-age story of Persian American teen Shirin should be an effective catalyst for engaging important family conversations.<\/p>\n A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman, read by Kim Mai Guest & Vikas Adam. Harper Audio.<\/strong><\/p>\n Myths and tales with East and South Asian roots get vibrantly reimagined by 15 best-selling, award-winning authors of Asian descent. Alyssa Wong, a fifth-generation Chinese American, sets hungry ghosts in Arizona, where \u201cthere\u2019s a long history of Chinese immigrants.\u201d E.C. Myers uses gaming and cosplay to create a \u201cmash-up of the greatest hits of Korean mythology and folk literature.\u201d Aisha Saeed gives agency to a dancing courtesan of the Mughal Empire. Guest narrates 12 of the 15, occasionally faltering on Asian words. Adam affectingly reads the rest. Quibbles aside, the impressive collection lingers.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/05\/SLJ-APA-Audios-800x205.jpg\")
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