Asian American Children’s Literature Resources
A selection of literature by Asian American authors and illustrators for children to read or listen to.
Picture Books
Picture Books
Summer Days and Nights
Child picture book. A little girl enjoys the activities of a warm summer day and night. Age: 2-6.
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Picture Books
Auntie Tiger
Child picture book. In this version of Red Riding Hood set in China, Big Sister sets aside her differences with Little Sister to rescue her from a tiger in disguise. Age: 5-8.
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Picture Books
Good Morning China
Child picture book. This picture book depicts the start of a day in China--children are playing, an artist is painting, and people are exercising and meditating. Each page is a snapshot and the final spread collects them all to give a panorama of daily life in China. Full color. Age: 3-7
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Picture Books
Mina's White Canvas
Child picture book. When young artist Mina looks up at the cold winter sky, she is struck with an idea. As she draws with her crayon, something magical begins. Her canvas expands to the snowy world beyond -- a world in which Mina uses her creativity to help others, forge new friendships, and make memories to warm the heart for seasons to come. Age: 4-8.
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Picture Books
When Spring Comes to the DMZ
Child picture book. Grandfather returns each year to the demilitarized zone, the barrier--and accidental nature preserve--that separates families that live in North and South Korea. The demilitarized zone has become an amazing accidental nature preserve that gives hope for a brighter future for a divided land. Age: 4-12.
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Early Readers
Early Readers
Astrid and Apollo and the Starry Campout
Child early chapter book. Astrid is afraid of the dark and doesn't want to go on her family camping trip. But her twin brother, Apollo, is excited. When they encounter scary things such as crawly bugs and the creepy dark, Apollo helps his twin through them. And when they encounter the scariest thing of all, Astrid might just be the one to save the starry campout. Age: 6-8.
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Early Readers
Ling & Ting : Together in All Weather
Child early reader book, and audiobook with print book. Part of the Ling and Ting series. Twin sisters Ling and Ting have fun together playing in all kinds of weather. Age: 5-7.
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Early Chapter Books
Early Chapter Books
Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen
Child early chapter book. Eager to do something her big sister has not done first, Jasmine Toguchi, eight, decides to pound mochi with the men and boys when her family gets together for New Year's. Age: 8-12.
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Graphic Novel
Graphic Novel
Where's Halmoni?
Child graphic novel. Searching for their missing grandmother, two Korean children follow tracks into a fantastic world filled with beings from folklore who speak in Korean. Includes translations and information about the folkloric characters. Age: 5-9.
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Graphic Novel
Stargazing
Child graphic novel, and e-book. Growing up in the same Chinese-American suburb, perfectionist Christine and artistic, confident, impulsive Moon become unlikely best friends, whose friendship is tested by jealousy, social expectations, and illness. Age: 8-12.
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Graphic Novel
Secret Coders
Child graphic novel, and e-book. Hopper hates her new school, Stately Academy. The kids are mean, the principal is scary, and there's something creepy about the building itself. Hopper and her friend Eni are determined to get to the bottom of it, but the task will take two persistent programmers to figure it out! Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Fiction
Tournament Trouble
Child fiction book. First in the Cross Ups series. Twelve-year-old Jaden loves to play his favorite video game Cross Ups, but has to hide his gaming from his disapproving mom. When an epic match wins him a chance to play in a tournament, Jaden and his friend Devesh hatch a plan to get him there. His strict parents, annoying siblings, bullies, and his growing interest in neighbor Cali, keep getting in his way. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Aru Shah and the End of Time
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. The first in the Pandava series. Twelve-year-old Aru stretches the truth to fit in at her private school, but when she is dared to prove an ancient lamp is cursed, she inadvertently frees an ancient demon. Age: 9-12.
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Fiction
Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier
Child fiction book. Through the stories of a terra-cotta soldier who has survived through the centuries, thirteen-year-old Ming, a village boy in 1970s China, learns the history of Emperor Qin, known both for building the Great Wall of China and for burying scholars alive, and how and why the terra-cotta soldiers came to be. Age: 9+
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Fiction
Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream
Child fiction book. Korean American fourth-grader Clara Lee longs to be Little Miss Apple Pie, and when her luck seems suddenly to change for the better, she overcomes her fear of public speaking and enters the competition. Age: 7-11.
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Fiction
The Night Diary
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Unidentified Suburban Object
Child fiction book. The next person who compares Chloe Cho with famous violinist Abigail Yang is going to HEAR it. Chloe has just about had it with people not knowing the difference between someone who's Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. She's had it with people thinking that everything she does well -- getting good grades, winning first chair in the orchestra, et CETera -- are because she's ASIAN. Of course, her own parents don't want to have anything to DO with their Korean background. Any time Chloe asks them a question they change the subject. They seem perfectly happy to be the only Asian family in town. It's only when Chloe's with her best friend, Shelly, that she doesn't feel like a total alien. Then a new teacher comes to town: Ms. Lee. She's Korean American, and for the first time Chloe has a person to talk to who seems to understand completely. For Ms. Lee's class, Chloe finally gets to explore her family history. But what she unearths is light-years away from what she expected. Age: 9-13.
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Fiction
Cracker! :The Best Dog in Vietnam
Child fiction book, and audiobook on CD. A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his bomb-sniffing dog. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Half a World Away
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. Twelve-year-old Jaden, an emotionally damaged adopted boy fascinated by electricity, feels a connection to a small, weak toddler with special needs in Kazakhstan, where Jaden's family is trying to adopt a "normal" baby. Age: 9+
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Fiction
Kira-Kira
Child fiction book. Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill. Age: 11+
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Fiction
The Thing about Luck
Child fiction book. Just when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers. Age: 9+
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Fiction
Weedflower
Child fiction book. After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop. Age: 11+
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Fiction
Inside Out & Back Again
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
The Year of the Dog
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. It's the Chinese year of the dog! When Pacy's mom tells her that this is a good year for friends, family, and "finding herself," Pacy begins searching right away. As the year goes on, she struggles to find her talent, deals with disappointment, makes a new best friend, and discovers just why the year of the dog is a lucky one for her after all. Age: 8+
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Fiction
The Year of the Rat
Child fiction book. Sequel to The Year of the Dog. In the Chinese Year of the Rat, a young Taiwanese American girl faces many challenges: her best friend moves to California and a new boy comes to her school, she must find the courage to forge ahead with her dream of becoming a writer and illustrator, and she must learn to find the beauty in change. Age: 8+
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Fiction
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish, and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Alvin Ho : Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters
Child fiction book. The second book in the Alvin Ho: Allergic to...... series. When Alvin's father takes him camping to instill a love of nature, like that of their home-town hero Henry David Thoreau, Alvin makes a new friend and learns that he can be brave despite his fear of everything. Age: 6-10.
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Fiction
Ruby Lu, Brave and True
Child fiction book. First in the Ruby Lu series. "Almost-eight-year-old" Ruby Lu spends time with her baby brother, goes to Chinese school, performs magic tricks, learns to drive, and has adventures with both old and new friends. Age 6-10.
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Fiction
Prairie Lotus
Child fiction book, and e-book. 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. Age: 10-12.
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Fiction
Project Mulberry
Child fiction book, and audiobook on CD. While working on a project for an after-school club, Julia, a Korean American girl, and her friend Patrick learn not just about silkworms, but also about tolerance, prejudice, friendship, patience, and more. Between the chapters are short dialogues between the author and main character about the writing of the book. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Amal Unbound
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Twelve-year-old Amal's dream of becoming a teacher one day is dashed in an instant when she accidentally insults a member of her Pakistani village's ruling family. As punishment for her behavior, she is forced to leave her heartbroken family behind and go work at their estate. Amal is distraught but has faced setbacks before. So she summons her courage and begins navigating the complex rules of life as a servant, with all its attendant jealousies and pecking-order woes. Most troubling, though, is Amal's increasing awareness of the deadly measures the Khan family will go to in order to stay in control. It's clear that their hold over her village will never loosen as long as everyone is too afraid to challenge them--so if Amal is to have any chance of ensuring her loved ones' safety and winning back her freedom, she must find a way to work with the other servants to make it happen. Age: 9-14.
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Fiction
Cilla Lee-Jenkins : This Book is a Classic
Child fiction book. Priscilla "Cilla" Lee-Jenkins has just finished writing her (future) bestselling memoir, and now this spunky third grader is ready to write a Classic. In her second book, Cilla celebrates different cultures and traditions in a lively and endearing story about family, friendship, and finding one's voice. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
So Far from the Bamboo Grove
Child fiction book. A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II. Age: 11+
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Fiction
Front Desk
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade class, the other being Mr. Yao's son, Jason. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Arcady's Goal.
Child fiction book, and audiobook on CD. When twelve-year-old Arcady is sent to a children's home after his parents are declared enemies of the state in Soviet Russia, soccer becomes a way to secure extra rations, respect, and protection but it may also be his way out if he can believe in and love another person--and himself. Age: 9-12.
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Fiction
Dragonwings
Child fiction. In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine. Age: 10+
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Nonfiction
Nonfiction
The Paper Crane
Child nonfiction book, and featured on a DVD. Text in English and Hmong. A mysterious man enters a restaurant and pays for his dinner with a paper crane that magically comes alive and dances. Age: 5-8.
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Nonfiction
Mouse Bride : A Chinese Folktale = Lao Shu Qu Xin Niang
Child nonfiction book. Text in English and Chinese. A mouse goes to the sun, cloud, wind, and wall in search of the strongest husband for his daughter, only to find him among his own kind. Age: 5-8.
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Nonfiction
Water Sings Blue : Ocean Poems
Child nonfiction book. Illustrated by Meilo So. Come down to the shore with this rich and vivid celebration of the ocean! With watercolors gorgeous enough to wade in by award-winning artist Meilo So and playful, moving poems by Kate Coombs, Water Sings Blue evokes the beauty and power, the depth and mystery, and the endless resonance of the sea.--Book jacket. Age: 3-10.
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Nonfiction
Fairy Tales
Child nonfiction book. Illustrated by Meilo So. Four tales include "The Old Man Who Said 'Why'," "The Elephant & The Butterfly," "The House That Ate Mosquito Pie," and "The Little Girl Named I." Age: 5-8.
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