Asian American Lives
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A Pho Love Story
by Loan Le
Bao Nguyen would describe himself as steady and strong: his grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents' pho restaurant - as his parents' fifth favorite employee. Linh Mai would describe herself as a firecracker: stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and fire. She dreams of pursuing a career in art, while working practically full-time at her family's pho restaurant. Bao and Linh have never even had a class together - but after a chance encounter, sparks fly. Can this relationship survive their families' feud?
Almost American Girl
by Robin Ha
A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life.
Dragon Hoops
by Gene Luen Yang
Gene understands stories - comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him 'Stick' and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragon's lives, but his own life as well.--Provided by publisher.
Emergency Contact
by Mary H. K. Choi
After a chance encounter, Penny and Sam become each other's emergency contacts and find themselves falling in love digitally, without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.
Flamer
by Mike Curato
It's the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone's going through changes--but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can't stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.
Follow Me Back to You
by Mitali Perkins
Told in separate voices, Kat and Robin leave Boston on a church mission to help combat human trafficking in India while Kat recovers from a sexual assault and Robin seeks his birth mother.
Frankly in Love
by David Yoon
High school senior Frank Li takes a risk to go after a girl his parents would never approve of, but his plans will leave him wondering if he ever really understood love--or himself--at all.
Girl on the Verge
by Pintip Dunn
Kanchana is a Thai-American high school senior in a small Kansas town. She struggles with a disapproving grandparent and her inability to fit in with her white peers. By secretly designing clothing that reflects both cultures, she creates something uniquely her own. When her mother agrees to provide a home for Shelly, a teenage girl, the girl seems to want everything Kanchana has-- even the boy she has a crush on. Just how far will Shelly go to belong?
I Believe In a Thing Called Love
by Maurene Goo
A disaster in romance, high school senior Desi Lee decides to tackle her flirting failures by watching Korean television dramas, where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It's a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. She goes after moody artist Luca Drakos-- utilizing boat rescues, love triangles, and staged car crashes.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Loveboat, Taipei
by Abigail Hing Wen
When Ever Wong's parents sent her away for the summer, she's expecting Chien Tan: a strict, educational immersion program in Taiwan. Instead, she finds the infamous "Loveboat." There, Ever is surrounded by prodigies, like Rick Woo, Chinese American wonder boy and longtime bane of her existence; Ever's roommate, the confident and clever Sophia Ha, as glamorous as she is sharp; and the intimidatingly cool Xavier Yeh, heir to an international tech empire. But her classmates are more interested in the nonstop Taipei nightlife than anything to do with the curriculum. Hookups abound, snake-blood sake flows, and adult supervision is nonexistent. For the first time ever, Ever is discovering what freedom tastes like and it's exhilarating. But summer will end and Ever will be back to her parents and the future they've planned for her. Will she let this glimpse of freedom go - or will Loveboat give her the courage to pursue the future she dreams of, and the Ever Wong she wants to be?
Parachutes
by Kelly Yang
They're called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the US while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she'd be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger's house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out. Dani De La Cruz, Claire's new host sister, couldn't be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate-team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. When her debate coach starts working with her privately, Dani's game plan veers unexpectedly off course. Desperately trying to avoid each other under the same roof, Dani and Claire find themselves on a collision course, intertwining in deeper and more complicated ways, as they grapple with life-altering experiences.
Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
When seventeen-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.
Rebelwing
by Andrea Tang
At New Columbia Preparatory Academy in a near-future Washington, D.C., black market smuggler Prudence Wu and friends Anabel, Alex, and Cat become key players in a conflict with the United Continental Confederacy.
The Downstairs Girl
by Stacey Lee
1890, Atlanta. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for 'the genteel Southern lady.
The Henna Wars
by Adiba Jaigirdar
Nishat's parents say she can be anyone she wants-- as long as she isn't a lesbian. She doesn't want to lose her family, but she also doesn't want to hide who she is. When childhood friend Flávia walks back into her life, Nishat falls for her instantly. Then a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, and both Flávia and Nishat decide to showcase their talent as henna artists. As the competition heats up, Nishat has a decision to make: stay in the closet for her family, or put aside her differences with Flávia and give their relationship a chance.
The Magic Fish
by Trung Le Nguyen
Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tiên 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 Tiên, 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?
The Perfect Escape
by Suzanne Park
Told in two voices, Nate Jae-Woo Kim and Kate Anderson team up in a survivalist competition hoping the prize money will help his proud Korean family and enable her to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.
Warcross
by Marie Lu
When teenage coder Emika Chen hacks her way into the opening tournament of the Warcross Championships, she glitches herself into the game as well as a sinister plot with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
When Dimple Met Rishi
by Sandhya Menon
When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents' obsession with "marriage prospects" but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting arranged marriage with him.
Updated 03/20/2021