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Titles that we recommend are featured below with cover images. The ones with reviews are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat. At the end of this page, we provide a list of titles on this theme, with reviews, that we do not recommend.
Early Childhood | Upper Elementary and Middle School | Young Adult | Adult | Learn More
Eyes That Kiss in the Corners
By Joanna Ho and Dung Ho (Illustrator)
Eyes That Speak to the Stars
By Joanna Ho and Dung Ho (Illustrator)
Home Is in Between *
By Mitali Perkins and Lavanya Naidu (Illustrator)
Ho'onani: Hula Warrior
By Heather Gale and illustrated by Mika Song
I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story
By Martha Brockenbrough, Grace Lin and Julia Kuo (Illustrator)
Rise Up and Write It: With Real Mail, Posters, and More!
By Nandini Ahuja and Anoosha Syed (Illustrator)
Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain
By Russell Freedman
Baseball Saved Us
By Ken Mochizuki, Dom Lee
Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix
By Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee
Cilla Lee-Jenkins: The Epic Story
By Susan Tan and Dana Wulfekotte (Illustrator)
A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America *
By Ronald T. Takaki
Dragonwings
By Laurence Yep
Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
By Ken Mochizuki, Dom Lee (Illustrator)
Stand Up, Yumi Chung!
By Jessica Kim
See Sarah Park Dahlen's: Discussion Guide for Stand Up, Yumi Chung!
We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States
By Naomi Hirahara
More information at the Smithsonian Learning Lab: Asian Pacific American Center
American Born Chinese
By Gene Luen Yang
The Cargo Rebellion: Those Who Chose Freedom
By Jason Chang, Alexi Dudden, Ben Barson, and Kim Inthavong (Illustrator)
A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America *
By Ronald T. Takaki
Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America
By David H. T. Wong
Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
By Lawson Fusao Inada (Editor), Patricia Wakida (Preface by), William M. Hohri (Afterword by)
We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration
By Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura and Ross Ishikawa (Illustrator)
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
By Maxine Hong Kingston
A Good Fall
By Ha Jin
Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama
By Diane C. Fujino
Insurrecto
By Gina Apostol
Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism, Second Edition
By Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin
Strangers from a Different Shore
By Ronald Takaki
Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans *
Edited by Edith Wen Chen and Glenn Omatsu
A Tale for the Time Being
By Ruth Ozeki
Learn More
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- Dear Educators, It Is Time to Fight for Asian America by Wayne Au and Moé Yonamine in Rethinking Schools
- Teaching Asian American History through Children's Literature NCSS 2016 presentation by Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, Iowa State University
- In Search of Mirrors: An Asian Critical Race Theory Content Analysis of Asian American Picturebooks from 2007 to 2017 by Noreen N. Rodriguez and Esther J. Kim in the Journal of Children's Literature, 2018
- 15 Titles for Young Readers Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage by Sarah Park Dahlen and Noreen Naseem Rodríguez May 26, 2020 in School Library Journal
- Addressing Anti-Asian Bias from Learning for Justice
- Asian American and Pacific Islander people’s history at the Zinn Education Project
- APALA Rubric to Evaluate Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Literature at the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association
- The Asian American Education Project
Not recommended
- Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
Learn about our criteria for selecting titles at Social Justice Books. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome.
Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform) and / or Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.