Dr. Lora L. Tyson Education Curriculum Resource Center

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's a Fractional Persian -- half, his mom's side -- and his first ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he's sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn't exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they're spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city's skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush -- the original Farsi version of his name -- and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab.

"Bunheads can't do anything right," Mr. Tsow told Robin. After accidentally breaking the front window of a pet fish store, Robin commits to working off the cost of the window after ballet class-even though that means enduring insults from a grouchy old man who calls her a "half-person" because she is only half Chinese. Robin works extra hard to prove Mr. Tsow wrong and marvels over the uncharacteristically tender way he takes care of the fish, especially the beautiful angelfish. He is just like the Beast in the ballet Robin is rehearsing. Robin is curious about what turned him into such a beast, and she and her feisty grandmother search for clues about his past. Their digging leads to a shocking story about the Cultural Revolution, and Robin learns how much Mr. Tsow has overcome just to be here, much less have a soft spot-even for fish.

Having fled Cambodia four years earlier to escape the Khmer Rouge army, seventeen-year-old Sundara is torn between remaining faithful to her own people and enjoying life in her Oregon high school as a "regular" American.

Told from two viewpoints, sixth-graders Karina and Chris use social media to stand up to racism in Houston, Texas, after an attack puts Karina's Indian American grandfather in the hospital.

In 1881 twelve-year-old Renny, who resists his father's efforts to turn him into a rough, tough, brawling boy, earns the disapproval of the entire mining camp when he befriends a newly arrived Chinese boy.

Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II.

Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?

Chronicles the history of Japanese Americans from immigration to the World War II internment, as told through the eyes of a young girl and her grandfather.

Inspired by the author's childhood experience as a refugee--fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama--this coming-of-age debut novel told in verse has been celebrated for its touching child's-eye view of family and immigration. For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food . . . and the strength of her very own family.

Based on Yushiko Uchida's personal experiences, this is the moving story of one girl's struggle to remain brave during the Japanese internment of World War II. In a bleak and dusty prison camp, 11-year-old Yuki and her family experience both true friendship and heart-wrenching tragedy. Journey To Topaz explores the consequences of prejudice and the capacities of the human spirit

Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill. kira-kira (kee’ ra kee’ ra): glittering; shining Glittering. That’s how Katie Takeshima’s sister, Lynn, makes everything seem.

Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen visits her estranged grandparents, who own and run a Chinese restaurant in Last Chance, Minnesota. As her visit lengthens, she makes unexpected discoveries about her family's history and herself.

A collection of seven tales of plantation life from decades past center around the lives of Marita Kim and her four younger brothers and sisters.

Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? This uplifting story brings Korean folklore to life as a girl goes on a quest to unlock the power of stories and save her grandmother. Some stories refuse to stay bottled up. When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni's Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history.

Ben flees Nazi Germany only to find himself in a battle for his life and his soul.

In 1841, a Japanese fishing vessel sinks. Its crew is forced to swim to a small, unknown island, where they are rescued by a passing American ship. Japan's borders remain closed to all Western nations, so the crew sets off to America, learning English on the way.Manjiro, a fourteen-year-old boy, is curious and eager to learn everything he can about this new culture. Eventually the captain adopts Manjiro and takes him to his home in New England. The boy lives for some time in New England, and then heads to San Francisco to pan for gold. After many years, he makes it back to Japan, only to be imprisoned as an outsider. With his hard-won knowledge of the West, Manjiro is in a unique position to persuade the shogun to ease open the boundaries around Japan; he may even achieve his unlikely dream of becoming a samurai.

Despite a warm relationship with her mother, stepfather, and half brother, sixteen-year-old Kim feels the need to find answers about the Japanese American father she never knew.

Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917, one of several hundred Japanese "picture brides" whose arranged marriages brought them to America in the early 1900s.

Escaping from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, eleven-year-old Fadi and his family immigrate to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fadi schemes to return to the Pakistani refugee camp where his little sister was accidentally left behind.

The powerful, poignant, bestselling National Book Award Finalist gives voice to a young girl robbed of her childhood, yet determined to find the strength to triumph. Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. She is offered a job in the city as a maid, only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India- and that there is no hope of escape.

A young girl describes her family's bittersweet experience in the United States after their emigration from Korea. Four years old on the flight to California, Young Ju concludes that America is heaven. But when they arrive, they are weighed down by the difficulty of learning English, their insular family life, and the traditions of the country they left behind.

American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable.

From servants in fancy homes to workers in the fields, through earthquakes, riots, a World's Fair, war, and Prohibition--the true story of four young Japanese men who pursued their dreams in the rough and tumble of American history.

Asian/Pacific American Award Winner - Young Adult 2022 Winner
Living in a new country is no walk in the park--Nao, Hyejung, and Tina can all attest to that. The three of them became fast friends through living together in the Himawari House in Tokyo and attending the same Japanese cram school. Nao came to Japan to reconnect with her Japanese heritage, while Hyejung and Tina came to find freedom and their own paths. Though each of them has her own motivations and challenges, they all deal with language barriers, being a fish out of water, self discovery, love, and family.

Passed down through the ages, these colorful stories depict the rich history, tribal customs, explanations of natural phenomena, and values so important to the Vietnamese people.

A reward of one grain of rice doubles day by day into millions of grains of rice when a selfish raja is outwitted by a clever village girl.

This version of the Cinderella story, in which a young girl overcomes the wickedness of her stepsister and stepmother to become the bride of a prince, is based on ancient Chinese manuscripts written 1000 years before the earliest European version.

Fred Korematsu liked listening to music on the radio, playing tennis, and hanging around with his friends--just like lots of other Americans. But everything changed when the United States went to war with Japan in 1941 and the government forced all people of Japanese ancestry to leave their homes on the West Coast and move to distant prison camps. This included Fred, whose parents had immigrated to the United States from Japan many years before. But Fred refused to go. He knew thatwhat the government was doing was unfair. And when he got put in jail for resisting, he knew he couldn't give up. Inspired by the award-winning book for adultsWherever There's a Fight, the Fighting for Justice series introduces young readers to real-life heroes and heroines of social progress. The story of Fred Korematsu's fight against discrimination explores the life of one courageous person who made the United States a fairer place for all Americans, and it encourages all of us to speak up for justice.

In this dramatic memoir of early-twentieth century immigration, the author shares her family's difficult but ultimately triumphant journey from their small village in rural China, through detention and interrogation at Angel Island, to a new life in Oakland's Chinatown.

After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffaloes and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars--at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name. In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

Ji-li was faced with the most dreadful decision of her young life: denounce her father and break with her family, or refuse to testify against him and sacrifice her future in her beloved Communist Party.

A biography of Chinese American film star Anna May Wong who, in spite of limited opportunities, achieved her dream of becoming an actress and worked to represent her race on screen in a truthful, positive manner.

Just seventy-five years ago, the American government did something that most would consider unthinkable today- it rounded up over 100,000 of its own citizens based on nothing more than their ancestry and, suspicious of their loyalty, kept them in concentration camps for the better part of four years. How could this have happened? Uprooted takes a close look at the history of racism in America and carefully follows the treacherous path that led one of our nation's most beloved presidents to make this decision. Meanwhile, it also illuminates the history of Japan and its own struggles with racism and xenophobia, which led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ultimately tying the two countries together. Today, America is still filled with racial tension, and personal liberty in wartime is as relevant a topic as ever. Moving and impactful, National Book Award finalist Albert Marrin's sobering exploration of this monumental injustice shines as bright a light on current events as it does on the past.

Presents the basic tenets of these three Asian religions and discusses the religious history and experience of their practitioners after immigration to the United States.

The author explains how leaders within various groups advocate for their members to improve their political and social treatment.

A groundbreaking portrait of Vincent Chin and the murder case that took America's Asian American community to the streets in protest of injustice. America in 1982. Japanese car companies are on the rise and believed to be putting American autoworkers out of their jobs. Anti-Asian American sentiments simmer, especially in Detroit. A bar fight turns fatal, leaving Vincent Chin--a Chinese American man--beaten to death at the hands of two white men, autoworker Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is a searing examination of the killing and the trial and verdicts that followed.

Based on firsthand accounts, oral histories, and essays from school newspapers and yearbooks, this is the story of the Japanese American children who were evacuated with their families to live in government-run internment camps during World War II.