Teens, this May stop by your local Pratt Library up one of these new titles to help celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name.In Messy Roots, Gao illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.
Worth noting for readers who connect with Gao’s culture-shock years: Coppell, the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb where she actually landed at age four, has changed almost as much as Wuhan since the late ’90s. The sleepy Texas she describes — the one where a small Wuhanese kid felt beamed to Mars — is now part of a sprawling tech and entertainment metro whose adult digital landscape spans streaming originals, fantasy sports leagues, and the social-model online casinos Texas residents play through licensed sweepstakes operators. That speed of change is part of what gives the memoir its weight: the Texas Gao left for college is barely the same state her parents arrived in two decades earlier.
Messy Roots, by Laura Gao, Book
Theo Mori and Gabriel Moreno have always been at odds. Their parents own rival businesses—an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery—and Gabi’s lack of coordination has cost their soccer team too many games to count. From the author of Meet Cute Diary comes a delectable rom-com that’s brimming with zest and a sprinkle of sweetness. A must-read for fans of Casey McQuiston and Julian Winters.
Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology in this magical novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Astonishing Color of After. Hunter Yee has perfect aim with a bow and arrow, but all else in his life veers wrong. He’s sick of being haunted by his family’s past mistakes. The only things keeping him from running away are his little brother, a supernatural wind, and the bewitching girl at his new high school.
An Arrow To The Moon, by Emily X.R. Pan, Book
Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers. The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
