Books for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

The May/June issue of LibrarySparks arrived in my mailbox today. There are many features in this issue supporting Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Take a look at this terrific Table of Contents. Each month in the column So Many Books ... So Little Time, the news on children’s books is shared by the experts at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC). This month's article is entitled, Asian Pacific American Voices. Here is an excerpt.

At the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), we document the books we receive annually that are by and about people of color. Last year, we received about 3,000 newly published books that CCBC. Of those, we counted sixty-five about Asian Pacific and Asian Pacific Americans. Many were formula nonfiction books about specific countries--titles that may be handy for reports, but offer children few opportunities for engagement. And it doesn't take significant math skills to calculate that sixty-five books out of 3,000 won't go far in representing the diversity of the many different ethnic groups comprising Asian Pacific heritage.

While this introduction presents some disturbing news, the article does a fine job highlighting Asian Pacific American writers whose "fresh voices join a number of writers who have been creating books for years, providing readers with a slowly but ever-increasing number of stories and perspectives." A few of my FAVORITE authors and illustrators are listed here. They include:

• Lisa Yee
• Grace Lin
• Linda Sue Park
• Janet Wong

There are others listed, and I was introduced to few authors new to me, including Kashmira Sheth. However, I was greatly disappointed to see that Mitali Perkins, author of the fabulous books Monsoon Summer and Rickshaw Girl, is MISSING!

The Curriculum Connections article contains background information about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and includes an annotated bibliography, web sites, games, activities, discussion ideas and more. Sadly, no works by Mitali Perkins appear here either. :(

Despite this glaring omission, there is still a wealth of useful resources in this issue, including a terrific Meet the Author column on Lowis Lowry. If you would like to learn more, you can sign up for a free sample issue.