Asian-Americans in Young Adult Fiction Booklist May 6, 2007

When we were chatting, we tried to come up with a list of books with Asian-American protagonists.

Gayle: Fresh Off the Boat, Yell-Oh Girls, the Samurai Girl series, the Flirt series, Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies), Mismatch, Name Me Nobody.

Trisha: Also A Step from Heaven, which I didn’t finish. And Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins and Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos. Which is another thing we can talk about. I mean, when I think of Asian-American books/characters, it’s the East Asian ones who come to mind, not Indian subcontinent.*

Gayle: You mean like Born Confused by Desai.

Trisha: Yeah! I totally forgot about that one.

Gayle: Even defining Asian Americans gets pretty tough.

Jolene: True.

So, how would you define “Asian-American” and “Asian-American Young Adult literature”? Are Filipino-Americans Hispanic or Asian? How long do you have to live in America to be Asian-American? I included Tangled Threads on the following booklist, even though it’s subtitled A Hmong Girl’s Story. Should it be on the list?

And what titles did we miss in this booklist of YA books with Asian-American or part-Asian protagonists?

• Samurai Girl series by Carrie Asai
• Celebrity Skin by Liane Bonin
• Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos
• American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults edited by Lori Carlson
• Children of the River by Linda Crew
• Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
• Fresh of the Boat by Melissa de la Cruz
• Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
• Shadow of the Dragon by Sherry Garland
• Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headley
• Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
• Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
• Finding My Voice by Marie G. Lee
• Necessary Roughness by Marie G. Lee
• Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart
• The War Between the Classes by Gloria Miklowitz
• Beacon Hill Boys by Ken Mochizuki
• A Step from Heaven by An Na
• Wait for Me by An Na
• April and the Dragon Lady by Lensey Namioka
• Mismatch by Lensey Namioka
• Love Stories #8: The Language of Love by Kate Emburg
• Sweet Valley High #50: Out of Reach by Francine Pascal **
• Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins
• Chloe Leiberman (Sometimes Wong) by Carrie Rosten
• Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury
• Tangled Threads by Pegi Deitz Shea
• Finding My Hat by John Son
• Black Mirror by Nancy Werlin
• Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong
• Name Me Nobody by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• Girls for Breakfast by David Yoo

Hmm, this is more books than I thought. But if you omit the books about hapa kids and immigrants, how many are left?

* I blame this on the fact that the three of us are Japanese-American and Hawaii isn’t exactly known for having a large Indian-American population.

** I feel slightly embarrassed putting this on the list, but it is the first YA book I remember reading that had an Asian-American protagonist.