Fiction books that have Asians or Asian Americans as lead characters.
Middle Grade Titles
This story spins together three perspectives: Malia, who is prepared to risk anything for her activism, Ari, who knows the right path but fears what it will cost, and Ginger Juice, the caged orangutan who still remembers the forest and her mother. The choices the young people make will have consequences for themselves, for Ginger Juice, and for others.
When 10-year-old Kinjal hears a strange noise in the middle of the night, he grabs his twin sister Kiya and the two go searching in the forest. There, they find Snowy and Midnight, two winged pakkhiraj horses from the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers who have come to this dimension to seek help: bees are disappearing, along with the nectar the pakkhiraj horses need to survive.
Told in alternating points of view, at Hurston Airport, four unlikely kids' lives are changed forever when their flight is grounded by weather following a Muslim convention.
Twelve-year-old Anna must dig deep into her Hawaiian roots in order to save her best friend and her island from an angry fire goddess.
Unable to find their rhythm, once-close twin sisters Maya and Chaya make a bet: they'll switch places at summer camp and whoever can keep the ruse going the longest will get to make a life-changing decision, which isn't as easy as it sounds.
When the three meanest girls in school start casting spells, 12-year-old Shakti draws on ancient Indian magic to stop them but instead curses the entire town and must harness her own strength, power and empathy to save those she loves and end the hate.
Journey into a land of magic and powerful girls in this feminist graphic novel retelling of three Indonesian folktales, lushly reimagined by a debut author-illustrator. In this collection, the girls are the ones with power. The power to fight evil, to protect others, and to grow as people.
Equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful, Tiger Daughter is an award-winning novel about finding your voice amidst the pressures of growing up in an immigrant home told from the perspective of a remarkable young Chinese girl.
In this modern-day retelling of the Japanese folktale The Melon Princess and the Amanjaku, twelve-year-old Melony befriends a wish-granting demon who encourages her to rebel against her overprotective parents, all while using her for his own evil scheme.
Ha and her family have worked hard to make a life for themselves in the US, but it hasn't come easy. Ha has only just started to feel settled when Mother decides that the family will move to Texas for a new job.
YA Titles
When Bobby is unwillingly outed he turns to boxing, finding a hero in Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, but when Pacquiao publicly denounces homosexuality, Bobby must discover a hero within himself.
This pun-filled contemporary romance finds a teenage girl competing in a televised baking competition, with contestants including her ex-girlfriend and a potential new crush.
This homage to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men tells the tragic story of a Korean American teen who fights to protect herself and her neurodivergent older brother from a hostile community. Hurt You is a deep exploration of family, society, and the bond between siblings and reflects the reality that people with intellectual disabilities are far more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, not the perpetrator.
This is an incisive, laugh-out-loud, provocative read about feeling like a misfit caught between very different worlds, what it means to be belong, and what it takes to build a future for yourself.
From debut author Vichet Chum comes a celebration of Khmer identity, queerness, and embracing the complicated histories that shape who we are and want to be.
Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today.
This is the story of sixteen-year-old Khadija, who flees her home in a stolen hot air balloon to escape life in an arranged marriage. A fantasy adventure exploring prejudice, the deep roots of hatred, and the reality of the world that this heroine hopes to save.
Told in two voices, when half-siblings Samira and Henry discover each other they join forces to find their absent father, uncovering the complexities of truth and the lasting impact of withheld family information.
After getting rejected from her dream college, sixteen-year-old Filipino American Perla Perez forges her own acceptance and commits to living a lie at university.
It's a classic story: girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, boy finally notices girl when he sees her in a homemade costume. At least, that's what Sonia Patil is hoping for when she plans to meet her crush at the local comic-con in cosplay. But instead of winning her crush over, Sonia rescues him after he faints into a canal and, suddenly, everything changes. Sonia finds herself hiding from social media detectives and trying to connect with her crush and his family. Can Sonia hide in plain sight forever?