Asian American and Pacific Islander Characters and Social/Cultural Themes

Twelve-year-old Sora and her eight-year-old brother, Youngsoo, must try to escape North Korea’s oppressive Communist regime and survive three hundred miles of warzone in winter in 1950.

Twelve-year-old Korean American Junie Kim, who’s kept quiet about the bullying and racism she encounters at school, is diagnosed with depression but is later inspired to speak out after learning about her grandparents’ experiences during the Korean War.

Four lives are intertwined and changed when a bully’s prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well and Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him. 

Vietnamese American teen Tien and his mother like to read fairy tales together to learn English, yet Tien struggles to find the right words to come out to his parents as gay.

Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans at the end of World War II.

In Dakota Territory in the 1880s, half-Chinese Hanna and her White father face racism and resistance to change as they try to make a home for themselves.

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. When Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time and find her mother, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. A luminous debut novel about finding oneself through family history, art, bravery, and love. Winner of the 2019 Walter Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature Honor.

In 1983 during South Korea’s Fifth Republic, apolitical Kim Hyun Sook seeks refuge in books at college and finds herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. 

In 1890, seventeen-year-old Chinese American Jo Kuan works by day as a lady’s maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.”

Frank’s parents insist that he only date Koreans, so when he falls for Brit, who is white, he teams up with Joy so they can pretend to date each other, giving them both the freedom to spend time to date who they like.

In 1954, seventeen-year-old Chinese-American Lily Hu, is secretly excited and intrigued by an ad for a show at the Telegraph Club featuring a male impersonator. Her White friend, Kathleen takes her to the San Francisco lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality and their relationship.

Educator’s guide available from Malinda Lo’s website.

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley’s dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There’s just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend. As their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it’s really Laura Dean that’s the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love. This sweet and spirited graphic novel asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need. Accolades include Booklist 2019 Editor’s Choice.

Claire Wang, a wealthy 11th grader in Shanghai, is suddenly sent on her own or “parachuted” to California to finish private high school and finds herself boarding with Dani, a scholarship student at her new school.

When seventeen-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.

In 1935, ten-year-old Japanese American Alex Maki of Bainbridge Island, Washington, is horrified to discover that his new pen pal, Charlie Lévy of Paris, France, is a girl. In spite of his initial reluctance, their letters continue over the years and they fight for their friendship even as Jewish Charlie endures the Nazi occupation and Alex leaves his family in an internment camp and joins the Army.

Teens Haruko, a Japanese American, and Margot, a German American, form a life-changing friendship as everything around them starts falling apart in the Crystal City family internment camp during World War II.

The lives of a tight-knit group of 14 young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.  

Watch as Traci Chee reads a short excerpt from We Are Not Free

Two Japanese American sisters grow up in post World War II America in this Newbery winning book. Katie is the little sister to Lynn, and Lynn is her mentor and friend. When Lynn develops a terminal illness, Katie must try to keep her spirit alive and “kira-kira.” This is also a wonderful audiobook.

Three storylines — contemporary and mythic — intersect in this tale of a boy who is not comfortable with his culture or himself. This fresh, sometimes surprising, revealing novel is told in image and text. This graphic novel was the first of its format to win the Printz Award for best work of Young Adult Literature.

Jen Dik Seong, aka “Dixie,” is dirt poor and living on the ragged edge of LA’s Koreatown. Her only outlet is the ancient martial art of hapkido, and shes on the verge of winning a championship—until she falls for surfer boy Adam. 

Young Yu is only four years old when she takes an airplane from Korea to California, feeling she is only “a step from Heaven.” Her narration subtly matures as she grows into a capable young woman, ready to go off to college in this sophisticated, moving first novel. Winner of the “Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature” in 2002.

Japanese Americans in Hawaii during World War II identified themselves as Americans, but their fellow enlisted soldiers didn’t necessarily see them that way. In this historical novel, Eddy and his friends join the Army to defend their country, only to be the victims of vicious discrimination by their commanders.