American Son by Brian Ascalon Roley
Gabe struggles to hide his older brother’s gang activities but finds himself drawn closer and closer into the dangerous underworld. (YA FIC ROLEY, B)

Angelfish by Lawrence Yep
Robin, a young ballet dancer who is biracial, works in a fish store for Mr. Tsow, a brusque Chinese who accuses her of being a half-person and who harbors a bitter secret. (YA FIC YEP, L)

Beacon Hill Boys by Ken Mochizuki
A teenager in a Japanese American family struggles for his own identity, along with a group of three friends who share his anger and confusion. (YA FIC MOCHIZUKI, K)

Bindi Babes by Narinder Dhami
Fashionista sisters Amber, Jazz, and Geena Dhillon must concoct a clever scheme to get rid of their interfering Auntie from India who has ordered their father to put the kibosh on designer clothes and expensive shoes. (YA FIC DHAMI, N)

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
Orchid, a beautiful girl from an aristocratic but poor family, goes from being a low ranking concubine to the last empress of China. (YA FIC MIN, A)

Growing Up Filipino edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
29 stories about Filipino family, angst, friendship, love and home that emphasize growing up and what the introduction calls "growing into Filipino-ness, growing with Filipinos, and growing in or growing away from the Philippines." (YA FIC GROW)

In Full Bloom by Carolyn Hwang
Disagreeing with her traditional mother, who believes that career satisfaction is irrelevant compared to a steady paycheck and who wants her to find a professional Korean husband, Ginger Lee plans to sabotage her blind dates while working toward a promotion, with unexpected results. (YA FIC HWANG, C)

Legend of Fire Horse Woman by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Sayo, who comes to America for an arranged marriage, ends up being imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II. (YA FIC HOUSTON, J)

Name Me Nobody by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Emi-Lou struggles to come of age in her middle school years in Hawaii. (YA FIC YAMANAKA, L)

Motherland by Vineeta Vijayaraghavan
A fifteen-year-old Indian girl reluctantly returns to India, where she confronts her heritage head on in the person of her grandmother. (YA FIC VIJAYRAGHAVAN, V)

Split Image: A Story in Poems by Mel Glenn
A series of poems reflect the thoughts and feelings of various people--students, the librarian, parents, the principal, and others--about the seemingly perfect Laura Li and her life inside and out of Tower High School. (YA 811.54 GLE)

Rice Without Rain by Minfong Ho
Seventeen-year-old Jinda struggles to cope with a harsh political awakening when, in the midst of a drought, a group of university students, social revolutionaries out to further their own cause, offers help to her rural Thailand village. (YA FIC HO, M)

A Step From Heaven by An Na
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America. (YA FIC NA)

Tangled Threads by Peggy Deitz Shea
After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza, shopping, and beer, while her grandmother and new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.

Wandering Warrior by Da Chen
Eleven-year-old Luka, destined to become the future emperor of China, is trained in the ways of the kung fu wandering warriors by the wise monk Atami.
(YA FIC CHEN, D)

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely. (YA FIC PARK)

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
A mother, a young boy, a teenage girl and a father have different experiences after being held in a Japanese American internment camp for three years. (YA FIC OTSUKA, J)

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea. Sequels: Echoes of the White Giraffe and Gathering of Pearls. (YA FIC CHOI, S)

Zazoo by Richard Mosher
Amid old secrets revealed and rifts healed, a thirteen-year-old Vietnamese orphan raised in rural France by her aging "Grand-Pierre" learns about life, death, and love. (YA FIC MOSHER)

Biography & Nonfiction

China’s Son: Growing Up in the Cultural Revolution by Da Chen
Despite being an excellent student, Da Chen's dreams of a successful future end when he is forced to quit school during the Cultural Revolution. But after Mao's death, Da decides to try again and soon is performing well, earning him a seat at Beijing University. (YA 92 CHEN)

The Chinese Cinderella: the True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
After her mother dies giving birth to her, Adeline's siblings, who consider her bad luck, scapegoat her, and her wealthy father and vain stepmother deprive her of friends and send her away to school. Sequel: Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society. (YA 92 MAH)

The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka
The author recounts her life as she and her sister left their homes in Korea and were adopted by a family in Minnesota, describing her lack of ethnic identity and her eventual reconnection with her birth mother. (YA 92 TRENKA)

Yao: A Life in Two Worlds by Yao Ming
The China-born center for the Houston Rockets chronicles his odyssey from his Shanghai youth, through his first year in the NBA and the challenges he has faced, to his role as an international sports icon. (YA 92 MING)

Other Asian American Authors worth checking out

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Tanuja Desai Hidier Gish Jen
Cynthia Kadohata Marie G. Lee Victoria Nam Lensey Namioka
Stan Sakai Amy Tan Yoshiko Uchida Janet S. Wong

13 April 2006