AAPI Heritage Reading List for Kids & Teens

Follows Papa and his granddaughter as they spend another Thursday together.

Indian-American teen, Priyanka "Pri" Das, attempts to reconnect with her mother's homeland through a magical pashmina shawl. Presented in comic book format. Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri's mom avoids these questions and the topic of India is permanently closed. For Pri,...

"Dayeon wants to be a haenyeo just like Grandma. The h]aenyeo dive off the coast of Jeju Island to pluck treasures from the sea–generations of Korean women have done so for centuries. To Dayeon, the haenyeo are as strong and graceful as mermaids . . . [So] when Grandma suits up for her next dive, Dayeon grabs her suit, flippers, and goggles. A scary memory of the sea keeps Dayeon clinging to the shore, but with Grandma’s guidance, Dayeon comes...

"Yoomi hates stinky spicy kimchi--until Grandma makes kimchi pancakes for her!"--

"A mother and son use their imagination to have fun on a rainy day"--

"When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni's Korean folktales arrives. The tiger offers Lily a deal- if Lily will open her grandmother's star jars and return what she stole, the tiger will heal her grandmother. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice . . . and the courage to face a tiger. Tae Keller,...

While exploring her grandmother's past at an ashram in India with her cousin Anandi, seventeen-year-old Raya finds herself and, perhaps, true love in this modern retelling of the legend of Dushyanta and Shakuntala.

"A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life--perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Hey, Kiddo. For as long as she can remember, it's been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn't always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes...

"Though she was on vacation in present-day San Francisco just moments before, Kiku now finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese American internment camp where her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated during World War II. Kiku is stuck, with no choice but to live alongside Ernestina and other Japanese American citizens in the internment camp. During her time with them, she witnesses the lives of people who were denied civil liberties...

A disaster in romance, high school senior Desi Lee decides to tackle her flirting failures by watching Korean television dramas, where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten.