Unlike Any Other Day by Joseph A. Dandurand

Joseph A. Dandurand is a Kwantlen Aboriginal poet and playwright, whose work extends into archeology. His plays include “Where Two Rivers Meet” and “Shake”, and his poetry is anthologized in three collections, including “dead and scratching for the poor”. His poem “Unlike Any Other Day” is rooted in the west coast landscape Dandurand calls home, tying the long, deep history of his people, both tragic and triumphant, to the land itself.

Consider the place you live. What connects you to it? What makes it your home?

Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell

“Nicola Campbell is Nłeʔkepmx, Syilx and Métis from the Nicola Valley, British Columbia. She is the author of, Shi-shi-etko, Shin-chi’s Canoe,and Grandpa’s Girls. A Day With Yayah, published by Tradewind Books is her most recent children’s book. A Day with Yayahshares a story of a grandmother passing on important land-based cultural teachings about harvesting traditional foods and medicines to her grandchildren. Nicola writes adult and children’s free-verse poetry, fiction and non-fiction prose and has two books forthcoming in Fall 2019 and 2020. Campbell is a finalist for numerous children’s literary awards and was recipient of the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s literature award, 2009 USBBYOutstanding International Books Listand shared the 2006 Anskohk Aboriginal Children’s Book of the Year Award. Currently a student at UBC Okanagan, her Ph.D. research is draws upon Indigenous scholarship with a focus on contemporary and traditional Indigenous storytelling practices.” - from Vancouver Public Library

Sometimes I Feel Like A Fox by Danielle Daniel

What animal do you feel most like? This picture book explores the Anishinaabe First Nation’s tradition of totem animals. These creatures can guide us and help us better understand ourselves and others.

Danielle Daniel is a Métis author who lives in the traditional territory of the Atikameksheng Anishnaabeg, (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada). Her first novel for kids, Forever Birchwood, is coming out in 2022.
What totem animal would you choose? Explain why that animal represents who you are.

(Good) Girls Dont Hitchhike by Selina Boan

Based out of Vancouver, Selina Boantter.com/selina_boan?lang=en has been a standout on the Canadian poetry scene since she was shortlisted for the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize. Since then she’s repeated that feat and published a collection of poems titled “Undoing Hours”. She claims white settler-nehiyaw identity, and her work has engaged with both of those heritages. Her poem "(Good) Girls Don’t Hitchhike” is an unflinching look at the horrific history of the “Highway of Tears” in northern British Columbia.

Sometimes the things that make us angry are things that happen to us, but because we are empathetic creatures, we often feel anger about injustices done to others. What’s something that makes you mad not on your own behalf, but on behalf of others? Why?

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Inside Our and Back Again follows the story of Ha, a girl who grew up in Saigon but was forced to leave Vietnam and immigrate to Alabama after the Fall of Saigon. The story follows her journey as they flee the country and embark on a journey to America. This is a great story that explores a difficult transition in a young girl's life.

What is a time where you had to face a difficult transition?

Thao by Thao Lam

“Thao Lam has been creating pictures for as long as she can remember. For her, drawing has always felt as natural as breathing. She has an insatiable love for coloured and textured papers, which she uses to create her exuberant collages.

Passionate about children’s books, Thao is especially interested in visual storytelling. She draws inspiration from the stories she hears, from the beauty in everyday things, and from the work of the many illustrators she admires. As an art buyer for an educational publishing company, she has the opportunity to work with thousands of different artists from all around the world.

Since studying illustration for three years at Sheridan College in Toronto, Thao has developed her dual careers of illustrating and art buying. Her art works have appeared in publications such as Cricket and Highlight magazines. In 2008, she won the Highlights Five Pewter Plate award for verse illustration of the year. She has twice been chosen for the American Illustration Awards.” from Thaolam.com

Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

Love, Hate, and Other Filters tells the story of seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz, an Indian-American-Muslim high school student. Maya struggles against her parent's wishes of having her marry a proper Muslim boy and of attending a nearby college in Chicago versus her own wishes of going to film school in New York and pursuing the boy she is interested in. Amidst this, she must battle Islamaphobia in the aftermath of a horrific terrorist attack that reveals the bigotry that was lying just under the surface of her hometown.

Samira Ahmed was born in Bombay, India and grew up in Illinois. After graduating from the University of Chicago, she taught English in high schools and become an advocate of funding for public schools. Love, Hate, and Other Filters was her first novel and received numerous awards including a Seventeen Magazine Best YA Book of 2018, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2018, and a Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinalist in 2018.

Share about a time where you and your parents disagreed on your future.

Spirits of the Railway by Paul Yee

Paul Yee is a highly-regarded writer of Canadian literature and winner of multiple recognitions and awards, including the Governer General's Award for English language children's literature in 1996 for "Ghost Train". He also writes history, notably the story of the Chinese in Vancouver, called "Saltwater City". His story "Spirits of the Railway" reckons with Canada's troubled, racist history of immigration and the building of the railroad. It injects a little of the supernatural into the story, heightening both the spookiness and the tragedy of the tale.

Writing prompt: Ghosts can be a great metaphor in a story about past injustice, regret or unhealed wounds. Try your hand at writing a ghost story where the ghost represents some aspect of an unresolved past.

The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

In The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi, a Korean girl arrives at school in North America. The kids at school struggle to say her name and start suggesting new names for her. In the end, she chooses to keep her own name.

Yangsook Choi grew up in Korea and now lives in New York. She is an author and illustrator and started telling stories at age four to try and scare her grandma!

Write down the story of how you got your name. Does your name have a meaning in a different language? Is it the same name as one of your ancestors? Why did your parents choose that name for you?

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Front Desk follows the story of Mia and her parents, immigrants who moved from China to the US and are now responsible for cleaning and managing the front desk of a motel in order to make ends meet. Her parents help hide immigrants in empty rooms of the motel for free, but must keep it a secret from the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao. Mia discovers a passion for writing, but is advised against pursuing such a path due to the fact that English is her second language. This is a story of determination, passion, and drive.

What do you have a passion for?

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

These Violent Delights is a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920's Shanghai amidst two feuding gangs, the Scarlet Gang led by Juliette Cai and the White Flowers led by their heir, Roma Montagov. However, when a mysterious sickness tears through Shanghai, Juliette and Roma must put aside their differences to save their home city before a Monster, and their feelings for each other, devours them all.

Chloe Gong wrote These Violent Delights while studying English and International Relations at the University of Pennsylvannia. These Violent Delights was listed as a ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults - Top Ten book as well as a Buzzfeed Best Young Adult Book of 2020. Its sequel, Our Violent Ends was released in November 2021.

What reimagining of a Shakespeare story have you enjoyed?

Ojichan's Gift by Chieri Uegaki

Ojichan's Gift explores the relationship between a grandfather, Ojichan, who lives in Japan and a grandaughter, Mayumi, who lives in North America. When Mayumi was born, Ojichan built a garden for her, one that they tend together every summer when Mayumi visits Japan. When Ojichan gets too old to care for both his home and garden, Mayumi hasto find a way to keep their tradition alive.

What is a responsibility you have that started at a very young age?

I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

I Believe in a Thing Called Love tells the story of hard-working high school senior, Desi Lee, who is successful in all her academic pursuits, but has never had a boyfriend. Determined to capture the heart of her crush, Luca, Desi decides to do what she does best, study. Desi creates her "K Drama Rules for True Love" and attempts to win Luca over through imitating techniques and tropes found in Korean Dramas.

Maurene Goo has written several YA novels including Somewhere Only We Know and The Way You Make Me Feel. She has also written for the Silk series in the Marvel universe. I Believe in a Thing Called Love was a Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year, NPR Best Book of the Year, and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

If you could recommend one non-English TV show for a friend to watch, what would it be?

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

When You Trap a Tiger tells the story of Lily and her family who move in with her ill and aging grandmother to take care of her. However, soon after, Lily encounters a magical tiger spirit from her Halmoni's Korean folk stories. The tiger offers Lily a deal: return something that her Halmoni stole from them during her childhood in exchange for her Halmoni's health. Lily must now decide if she can trust this tiger to save her Halmoni.

Tae Keller is also the author of The Science of Breakable Things and wrote When You Trap a Tiger as a way to explore the stories she heard growing up. When You Trap a Tiger won the Newberry Medal in 2021 and also received the APALA literature award.

What are some stories that have stuck with you from your childhood?

Peaches by Adrienne Su

Inspired by a crate of peaches she bought one day, Adrienne Su's poem, Peaches, explores Asian immigrant identity through the speaker's family's practice of procuring and storing large amounts of food at a time in order to ward off hunger. Through beautiful, lyrical lines, Peaches contrasts the physical hunger that first generation immigrants might feel against the comfort and safety that their children experience while growing up.

Adrienne Su is a poet who currently directs the Creative Writing program at Dickinson College and resides in Pennsylvania. She has received numerous awards for her work including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and inclusion in Best American Poetry

How has your family shown their love to you through food?

Stand up Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim

Stand Up, Yumi Chung tells the story of Yumi Chung, a shy Korean-American girl who has one dream, to become a standup comedian. However, that is hard to accomplish when her parents barely make enough from their Korean BBQ restaurant to pay the bills. One day, Yumi stumbles into an after-school comedy camp run by one of her favourite YouTube idols. Yumi is mistaken for a student who is absent, Kay Nakamura, and begins to follow her dreams of striking comedy gold while keeping her mistaken identity a secret from everyone else.

Jessica Kim was educated at UC Berkeley and spent a decade as a public school teacher. Stand Up, Yumi Chung was listed as a Kirkus Best Children's Book 2020 and Amazon Best Books of the Month March 2020.

What do you dream of being when you grow up?

Mindy Kim and the Lunar New Year Parade by Lyla Lee

Mindy Kim is excited to celebrate Lunar New Year, and to share the event with one of her new friends! But things get a little bit complicated when she feels forced to choose between special traditions and new experiences.

Author Lyla Lee was born in South Korea, but lived in many areas of the United States. There are now 6 books in the heartwarming Mindy Kim Series.

What is a holiday that you celebrate? Does everyone you know celebrate it? If you were to share it with someone new, what would you want to tell them about it?

Frankly in Love by David Yoon

Frankly in Love tells the story of Frank Li, a Korean-American, who feels disconnected from his Korean heritage. Despite this, his parents still expect him to only date Korean girls, but Frank has fallen in love with Brit, who is white. Frank's friend, Joy Song, also has a similar problem with managing her parent's expectations of only dating Korean boys while she is dating someone who is Chinese. Together, Frank and Joy hatch a plan to fake-date each other to fool their parents and to allow them to follow their hearts. What could go wrong? [Content Warning: Mature language and at least one instance of mature subject matter]

David Yoon is married to novelist Nicola Yoon, the author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star. Frankly in Love was a William C. Morris Award finalist, an APALA Honour Book, and a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Have you ever had any expectations placed upon you about dating and race?

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

Patron Saints of Nothing tells the story of Jay Reguero, a Filipino-American high school senior, who learns that his cousin was murdered in the Philippines due to President Duteurte's war on drugs. Desperate for answers, Jay travels back to the Philippines where he uncovers a tangled web of family secrets, immigrant identity, and his own unknowing role in the fate of his cousin. [Content Warning: Mature themes and mature language]

Randy Ribay holds a Master's Degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education and currently teaches English while living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Patron Saints of Nothing has received numerous awards including being a National Book Award Finalist, an NPR Best Book of the Year, and a NBC News Best Asian American Young Adult Book of the Year.

How has your family helped you shape your identity?

I'm OK by Patti Kim

I'm Ok tells the story of Ok Lee, a Korean-American middle school student who recently lost his father. With his mother working three jobs, he knows that it is also his responsibility to find money for his family. Between starting a hairbraiding business for the girls at his school and entering the school's talent show, which has a big cash prize, Ok must also find the time to protect his mother from the advances of a particularly annoying deacon at his family's church.

Patti Kim immigrated to the United States from Busan, South Korea when she as just four-years-old. She holds an MFA and is the author of the picture book Here I Am as well as I'm Ok and its sequel. I'm Ok is an APALA Honor Book and has been selected as a New York Public Library Best Book for Kids.

How do you help your family?