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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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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Watercress
by Andrea Wang
A little girl traveling through Ohio in an old car helps her family collect muddy, snail-covered watercress from a ditch in the wild before learning the story of her immigrant heritage and how foraging for fresh food helps her loved ones stay together.
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I Am a Bird
by Hope Lim
A bird-loving little girl gazes at the feathered friends she passes during daily rides to school on the back of her father’s bike, before discovering what a feared elderly lady and she share in common.
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Eyes That Kiss in the Corners
by Joanna Ho
A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers but by drawing from the strength of the powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self-love and empowerment.
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Tiny Feet Between the Mountains
by Hanna Cha
Struggling through her daily chores because of her tiny size, a young Korean girl in a village of large people devises a clever plan to help a spirit tiger who has swallowed the sun by mistake.
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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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Make a Move, Sunny Park!
by Jessica Kim
When her best friend Bailey coerces her into auditioning for the school dance team, seventh grader Sunny Park takes her first steps out from behind Bailey's shadow when she makes the team and must figure out who she wants to be when she's in the spotlight.
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Saving H'non: Chang and the Elephant
by Trang Nguyãäen
Helping rescue an injured and abused Asian elephant named H'Non in Vietnam, Chang learns what it means to show up for your friends, love openly, forgive compassionately, and give people a chance.
This title can be found in Juvenile Graphic Novels
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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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Room to Dream
by Kelly Yang
While visiting family in China, Mia Tang witnesses some of the big changes the country is going through, which makes her think about the changes in her own life that need to be dealt with.
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The Last Fallen Star : A Gifted Clans Novel
by Graci Kim
Looking forward to her older sister’s initiation into their family’s powerful lineage of healing witches, an adopted Korean American girl born without magic triggers unexpected consequences while attempting to participate in her sister’s ceremony.
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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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A Glasshouse of Stars
by Shirley Marr
Moving to the New House in the New Land, Meixing Lim has a hard time fitting in and finds solace in a rundown greenhouse that inexplicably holds the sun and moon—and the secrets of her memory and imagination.
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The Dragon Warrior
by Katie Zhao
Training in secret when the Jade Society shuns them for their half-Chinese heritage, 12-year-old Faryn Liu conquers a demon in San Francisco’s Chinatown before resolving to prove herself by finding the gods’ island home before the end of the Lunar New Year.
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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.
This title can be found in Teen Graphic Novels
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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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The Magic Fish
by Trung Le Nguyen
Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tiâên still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiâên, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay?
This title can be found in Teen Graphic Novels
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Tokyo Ever After
by Emiko Jean
Discovering in her senior year of high school that the father she has never met is the Crown Prince of Japan, Izzy is introduced to the realities of being a princess while trying to understand conniving relatives, a hungry press, a handsome bodyguard, and thousands of years of tradition.
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From Little Tokyo, With Love
by Sarah Kuhn
Growing up under the care of a loving aunt, an orphaned judo student with a mixed heritage reevaluates her perspectives on happy endings while searching for evidence proving that she is related to a famous rom-com celebrity.
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Luck of the Titanic
by Stacey Lee
Stowing away aboard the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage when her British-Chinese heritage bars her from joining her twin in America, a young acrobat struggles to hide and then survive when the unthinkable happens.
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Frankly in Love
by David Yoon
Torn between his love for his white girlfriend and his sense of duty to the matchmaking parents who made hard sacrifices to move to the United States, a Korean American teen and his friend who has a similar problem come up with a scheme to solve both of their problems.
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