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Here are some of our favorite books that depict Asian cultures for children and teens. The teen selections on this list include both middle and high school titles.
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Wish Soup: a Celebration of Seollal
by Junghwa Park
During Korean Lunar New Year, Sohee's quest to become a big girl by eating tteokguk, a special Korean soup said to make the person who eats it one year older with each bowl, is thwarted by holiday-related chores and silly setbacks.
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My Day with Gong Gong
by Sennah Yee
A day in Chinatown takes an unexpected turn when a bored little girl makes a connection with her grandpa. May isn't having fun on her trip through Chinatown with her grandfather. Gong Gong doesn't speak much English, and May can't understand Chinese. She's hungry, and bored with Gong Gong's errands. Plus, it seems like Gong Gong's friends are making fun of her! But just when May can't take any more, Gong Gong surprises her with a gift that reveals he's been paying more attention than she thought. A glossary at the end of the book features translations of the Chinese words from the story into Chinese characters and English.
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Grandfather's Journey
by Allen Say
In this Caldecott-winning classic, Allen Say offers a poignant account of a family's unique cross-cultural experience in America and Japan, in a story that warmly conveys his own love for the two countries, and the strong and constant desire to be in both places at once.
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Words Between Us
by Angela Pham Krans
When his Grandma arrives from Vietnam, Felix is excited to spend time with her, except she doesn't know English and he doesn't know much Vietnamese, until they decide to teach each other, connecting over their shared love of pizza and words.
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Scroll
by Hui Li
After learning how to draw Chinese characters, Lulu and her dog Dumpling step into a magical world where the characters come to life.
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Mommy's Hometown
by Hope Lim
When he and his Mommy travel to her childhood home in Korea, the town is not as he imagined until he visits the river where she used to play and sees that the spirit and happiness of those days remain.
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Hundred Years of Happiness
by Thanhháa Lòai
When her grandmother gets trapped in her cloudy memories, An and her grandfather Ong come up with a plan to bring her back to a happy moment so she can remember her wedding wish with Ong: hundred years of happiness.
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The Paper Kingdom
by Helena Ku Rhee
Accompanying his parents to their night-shift jobs as office cleaners, young Daniel reluctantly joins in as they use their imaginations to transform the deserted building into a magnificent paper kingdom where he might one day rule.
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I Am Golden
by Eva Chen
This moving ode to the immigrant experience, as well as a manifesto of self-love for Chinese American children, is a jubilant celebration of accepting who you are.
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When Clouds Touch Us
by Thanhháa Lòai
This breathtaking novel in verse, inspired by the author's experience, follows Hà and her family, refugees from the Vietnam War, as they move to Texas for a new job. Despite not wanting to start over again, Hà discovers unwanted change can bring a good opportunity.
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Finally Heard
by Kelly Yang
When her mom's video on social media takes off, 10-year-old Lina Gao sets out to go viral herself but discovers there's a lot more to social media than she ever imagined and must find the courage to be her authentic self in this fast-paced world.
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Winston Chu vs. the Wingmeisters
by Stacey Lee
To save San Francisco from magpie-turned-human Mr. Gu, the frontrunner for the city's next mayor, 12-year-old Winston Chu, sensing something fowl is afoot, must turn to his old nemesis and Mr. Gu's brother, Mr. Pang, for help.
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Starry River of the Sky
by Grace Lin
Discovering that the moon has disappeared from the sky above a Chinese village where he works, runaway Rendi wonders about strange local behaviors until a mysterious storyteller arrives at the town's inn and astonishing transformations begin to happen. By the award-winning creator of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
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A Spoonful of Time
by Flora Ahn
When she discovers she and her grandmother, Halmunee, can time-travel through Halmunee's Korean cooking, Maya eats her way through the past until a shocking discovery changes everything she thought she knew about family, friendship, loss, and time itself.
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Jasmine Toguchi, Brave Explorer
by Debbi Michiko Florence
Eight-year-old Jasmine is enthusiastic about her family's vacation to Japan, but once in Tokyo she is distracted by her older sister's grumpiness and her own blunders--will she be able to cheer up her sister while finding her own footing?
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Clues to the Universe
by Christina Li
As friends Ro and Benji face bullying, grief, and their own differences, they must try to piece together clues to some of the biggest questions in the universe.
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When You Trap a Tiger
by Tae Keller
Moving with her parents into the home of her sick grandmother, young Lily forges a complicated pact with a magical tiger in a story inspired by Korean folktales.
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View From Pagoda Hill
by Michaela MacColl
Ning, a Chinese American girl, struggles to find her place in the world and is forced to leave her home in Shanghai to go to America with a father she barely knows.
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Rebel Skies
by Ann Sei Lin
When her ship is attacked, servant Kurara is taught how to hunt the wild paper spirits sought after by the Princess of Mikoshima, soon discovering that her fate, and perhaps even the world, may rest in her hands.
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The Secret Battle of Evan Pao
by Wendy Wan Long Shang
Evan Pao and his family move to Haddington, Virginia in hopes of keeping his father's notoriety a secret, but a small southern town is not an easy place for a Chinese-American boy to fit in, and one kid, Brady Griggs, seems determined to make things difficult.
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Summer at Squee
by Andrea Wang
A senior camper at Summertime Chinese Culture, Wellness and Enrichment Experience (Squee), Chinese American tween Phoenny Fang finds her summer even more transformative than she could've imagined, with new friendships, her first crush, and a bigger love for and understanding of her community.
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Throwback
by Maurene Goo
Sent back to the ‘90s where she finds herself in high school with her 17-year-old mother, Samantha Kang finds the right romance at the wrong time while trying to fit into an analog world and make things right with her mom.
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This Time it's Real
by Ann Liang
To keep a massive secret from coming out, 17-year-old Eliza Lin asks the famous actor in her class to pose as her fake boyfriend in exchange for writing his college applications—an agreement that starts to feel all too real, threatening her carefully laid plans.
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Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam
by Thien Pham
Told through the lens of meaningful food and meals, this graphic novel chronicles the author's childhood immigration to America where food takes on new meaning as he and his family search for belonging, for happiness, and for the American dream.
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The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly-Mei
by Christina Matula
Moving to Hong Kong for her mother's job, Holly-Mei Jones couldn't be happier until she makes a frenemy at school and must use all of her determination, stubbornness, and sparkle to turn her life in this new city into the ultimate adventure.
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The Many Meanings of Meilan
by Andrea Wang
A family feud before the start of seventh grade propels Meilan from Boston's Chinatown to rural Ohio, where she must tap into her inner strength and sense of justice to make a new place for herself.
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Six Crimson Cranes
by Elizabeth Lim
The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.
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