Asian and Asian American Fiction
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All the Broken Pieces Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past. subjects: Vietnam War, Novels in Verse, Vietnamese Americans, Adoption |
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American Born Chinese Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format. subjects: Chinese American, Identity, Schools, Cartoons and Comics |
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Ask Me No Questions Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family. subjects: Illegal Aliens, Bangladeshi Americans, Family Life, High Schools, New York (N.Y.) |
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Born Confused Seventeen-year-old Dimple, whose family is from India, discovers that she is not Indian enough for the Indians and not American enough for the Americans, as she sees her hypnotically beautiful, manipulative best friend taking possession of both her heritage and the boy she likes. subjects: East Indian Americans, Identity, Best Friends, Friendship, Photography |
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Escaping the Tiger In 1982 twelve-year-old Vonlai, his parents, and sister Dalah, escape from Laos to a Thai refugee camp where they spend four long years struggling to survive in hopes of one day reaching America. subjects: Refugees, Laotians, Emigration and Immigration, Brothers and Sisters, Family Life, Laos, Thailand |
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The Fold Korean American high school student Joyce Kim feels like a nonentity compared to her beautiful older sister, and when her aunt offers to pay for plastic surgery on her eyes, she jumps at the chance, thinking it will change her life for the better. subjects: Korean Americans, Personal Beauty, Identity (Philosophical Concept), Interpersonal Relations, Self-Confidence |
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Good Enough A Korean American teenager tries to please her parents by getting into an Ivy League college, but a new guy in school and her love of the violin tempt her in new directions. subjects: Korean Americans, Gifted Children, Musicians, Violin, Parent and Child, Self-Realization |
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Iqbal A fictionalized account of the Pakistani child who escaped from bondage in a carpet factory and went on to help liberate other children like him before being gunned down at the age of thirteen. subjects: Child Labor, Child Abuse, Rug and Carpet Industry, Pakistan |
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Monsoon Summer Secretly in love with her best friend and business partner Steve, fifteen-year-old Jazz must spend the summer away from him when her family goes to India during that country’s rainy season to help set up a clinic. subjects: India, Best Friends, Friendship, Family Life-India, Business Enterprises |
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Nothing but the Truth (and a Few White Lies) Fifteen-year-old Patty Ho, half Taiwanese and half white, feels she never fits in, but when her overly-strict mother ships her off to math camp at Stanford, instead being miserable, Patty starts to become comfortable with her true self. subjects: Standford University, Racially Mixed People, Self-Esteem, Mothers and Daughters, Prejudices, Single-Parent Families, Taiwanese Americans |
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Revolution is not a Dinner Party Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter. subjects: Persecution, Family Life, Physicians, Communism, Cultural Revolution |
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Samurai Shortstop While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father. subjects: Samurai, Fathers and Sons, Baseball, Boarding School, Japan History-Meigi Period |
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Secret Keeper In 1974 when her father leaves New Delhi, India, to seek a job in New York, Ashi, a tomboy at the advanced age of sixteen, feels thwarted in the home of her extended family in Calcutta where she, her mother, and sister must stay, and when her father dies before he can send for them, they must remain with their relatives and observe the old-fashioned traditions that Ashi hates. subjects: Sisters, Individuality, Family, India |
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Sold Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, though poor, enjoys her life until the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops and she is sold to a brothel in India by her stepfather. She remembers her mother's wisdom, "Simply to endure is to triumph," until the day comes that she can reclaim her life. subjects: Teenage Girls, Family Problems, Friendship, Child Prostitution, India |
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Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before Albert Kim seems destined to be a social outcast until he begins dating Mia Stone, a co-worker at Albert's summer job and part of the in-crowd at his school. Unfortunately, Mia is also the ex-girlfriend of Ryan Stackhouse, the reigning king of the Bern High and a big-time jerk. When Ryan is diagnosed with cancer, the entire school rallies behind him, and Albert is faced with losing both his girlfriend and whatever shot at popularity he may have had. subjects: First Loves, High School Students |
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When My Name Was Keoko 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. subjects: Korea-History-1910-1945, Family Life, Military Occupation, Patriotism |
| NON-FICTION | |
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Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide The gripping story of a young boy who survived the atrocities in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and escaped to the United States. subjects: Political Refugees, Political Atrocities, Cambodia |
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Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution In front of Baba's eyes, they flung book after book onto the stone floor. One of them reached into a lower shelf for Baba's rare books. Dragging them out by their silk strings, he yanked them open. "Please," Baba pleaded, trying to free himself from the hands of his guard. "Don't touch those." The guard pulled Baba's arms back and tied a rope around them. Then the soldiers dumped all our books into large hemp sacks that they pulled from the back of the truck. "The paper factory will turn this trash into pulp in no time," they announced. When Lao Lao tried to plead with them, a soldier just pushed her away. Dragging the sacks through our gate, they flung them, one after another, onto the open truck. Then, hurling Baba on top of the bulging bags, the soldiers drove away in a cloud of dust, leaving my grandmother filled with sorrow... subjects: China, Cultural Revolution |
List updated May 2010—Patti Cook
