May - More Asian American and Pacific Islander Books

Here are some new books I've read recently that I LOVE. They are very different books but ones you might enjoy adding to your own collection! Click on any image to purchase online from my store.

This book, a new release in 2021, was worth all the hype. A young girl is driving down the road with her parents when they suddenly stop and pull over. The family gets out with paper bags and old rusty scissors and cut the watercress they have spotted on the side of the road. By the time they get home with their find, the girl refuses to eat. She's embarrassed by their need to find food, furniture, and clothes. When she learns a bit of her family's past in China, she learns that sometimes we can reimagine our situation and appreciate all that we have. This is a true story based on the author's own family story of immigration. Tender, gorgeous illustrations, and a story for any family.

Up Down Inside Out by JooHee Yoon delivers comical illustrations to 21 aphorisms, brief sayings, that will make you laugh. What makes this even more fun is that Yoon adds flaps and holes to pages to make it that much more interesting. While Oscar may not have understood the phrase, "A watched pot never boils," he loved the illustrations! 

I'll admit, at first I wasn't sold on this book. TBH it was the font that threw me off. However, I'm SO glad I moved past that and picked it up. Miu Lan is born on a special night, as their mother tells them. And just like every baby, Miu Lan grows up knowing their mother's unending love. Miu Lan is unsure about what they want to be so they decide to be a bit of everything - a girl, a boy, a cat, a fish, a bird, and so on. That is until Miu Lan goes to school and the other kids aren't sure how someone like Miu Lan fits in. Miu Lan's mother sings the phrase she has sung since birth, "Whatever you dream of, I believe you can be, from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea." What a beautiful story of acceptance. Mom goals, amiright?

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