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#OwnVoices American Asian & Pacific Islanders
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Quick Things You Need To Know:
- In addition to Raising Luminaries/Books For Littles (a Chinese-American organization), here are some more AAPI kidlit-focused organizations that focus on race (but unlike RL, these are mostly only race-focused, less on the intersection of AAPI + other targeted identities.)
- Lee & Low Books (Boston-based kidlit publishers) Quality of engagement for books vary depending on the author.
- Pragmatic Mom – Mia Wenjen is a Gen X Newton-based Chinese & Japanese American mom & kidlit blogger. Most of her work is fairly progressive although not quite as radically progressive, intersectional, and nitpicky as BFL, which is mostly a generational thing. Also less (no) cursing. And her book Sumo Joe is spectacular.
- Tuttle Publishing: Publishers originated in both Vermont & Tokyo. Their books are consistently adorable, although most lean toward didactic non-fiction.
- Mango & Marigold Press: (Formerly Bharat Babies) – Kids books about the South Asian experience, with many books centering on South Asian American experiences. Transparency: The founder, Sailaja Joshi, is one of my patreon-supporters, we’ve done a maker spotlight on her work, and I recently consulted with M&M on an upcoming children’s book.
- Saffron Press: #OwnVoices South Asian Sikh publisher centering on inclusion, sustainability, and kindness. We’ve done a maker spotlight on the founder, Navjot Kaur, who has become dear to me as a friend collaborating in raising kind and courageous humans.
- We tend to evaluate a maker based on the first book we read by them – and that’s a mistake. Almost all of the makers below have at least one great book and a few duds.
2022 Update:
I’m no longer updating this list by hand. Here’s where I’m keeping an up-to-date list of #OwnVoices AAPI kidlit
How I find #OwnVoices AAPI makers
- See the #OwnVoices mainpage for more details on how I research & identify #Ownvoices authors.
- I’ve compiled most of these names based on the bios within book jackets as I’m processing new books. Since my note system includes manual tagging (ex #OwnVoices AAPI) I didn’t bother with finer details, but as I get time, I’ll include home countries, nationality, and cultural info.
- Most often for US-born & based authors, that’s left out of profiles, so the vast majority of these are US & Canadian makers
Systemic hurdles in searching for AAPI makers
- While there are lots of Asians publishing books in US kidlit, Asians are most often illustrators – not authors who get to drive the story. And within that – most Asians have been either forced by publishers to draw white characters (with anthropomorphic animals close behind to appeal to white audiences. Some just choose to, for whatever reason (cough cough internalized racism). In which case – are these really #OwnVoices books? That analysis is going to have to wait until I have time to sub-divide/rank this list.
- I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out how racism is integrated with tech. Trying to search for books by the names of Asian makers with traditional/Indigenous names, sites such as Amazon and Bookshop will return auto-corrected searches trying to twist these names into common English words. There usually isn’t even an option to click “I meant what I fucking typed” like when Google tries to correct a search. For example, it wasn’t until 2020 that Amazon allowed my to search for the work of Qin Leng without including the exact title of one of her books. To underline how ridiculous this is, Leng is a prolific illustrator who has contributed to over 25 well-known books in her career. If you want to find an semi-unknown author with a common last name (ex: Basia Tran), Bookshop will just toss search results with every fucking book remotely using the word ‘tran’ – completely ignoring the ‘Basia‘ from the equation. Which means if you want to search for more books by your favorite AAPI maker, you’re going to have to already know the exact titles of those books. Yay for more erasure of AAPI contributions to art and media! (This is a sarcasm.)
- Except for a few makers here, each name is accompanied by a popular book of theirs. This is mostly for my reference so I can quickly remember who is who. It’s not necessarily my favorite book of theirs, it’s just the one I remember them most by.
- Despite publishers calling in AAPI folks to draw white biographies – Notably missing from this list: ANY books about Grace Lee Boggs, Yuri Kochiyama, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Vincent Chin, Larry Itliong, and other notable biographies within the AAPI civil rights movement because publishers pay us so long as we fall in line (or cook tasty things), but never accept us in leadership roles. (Dang that pesky erasure!)
- There are no picture books in the US about K-Pop. I checked. I’m sad too. And there aren’t any books about AAPI music (outside classic music, yes we have Yo Yo) because…well when is the last time you saw us person allowed to take up space on a stage and get loud? YA DON’T. (Unless it’s K-Pop.)
Who is not included in this list:
- Authors whose work I haven’t had a chance to screen- makers whose work has been vanity & micro-press published usually aren’t available in my local library system, which means I can’t get my hands on them.
- Authors who create those low-quality basic filler books that say nothing new and waste readers’ time.
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Quick & Messy Book List:
In Alpahbetical-ish Order
These are all of the authors and illustrators whose identities I’ve been able to verify identify as American or Canadian Asian & Pacific Islander, members of the API diaspora living on Turtle Island, or native API makers working in their homelands (very popular Korean, Japanese, and Chinese books occasionally get translated into English and make it overseas). Unless otherwise noted, I’ve read at least one (often more) of their books. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend you go out and read them, as the vast majority of them are underwhelming. Just gonna throw these in here and add to the list when I can.
A
- Sandhya Acharya -10 Gulab Jamuns
- Rania Al-Abdullah – sandwich swap
- – Pele Finds A home
- Jamel Akib – Bringing Asha Home
- Hannah Alkaf – The Weight of Our Sky
- Nabi Ali – All the way to the top
- Carl Angel – Lakas and the Manilatown Fish
- – Sita’s Ramayana
B
- Hyun-joo Bae – New Clothes for New Year’s Day
- Ho Baek Lee – Be-Bim Bop!
- Bette Bao Lord – In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
- Jane Bahk – Juna’s Jar
- – When I Found Grandma
- Rashi Bismark, MD, MPH – Finding Om
- Xanthe Bouma – Sand Warrior, Little Sid
- Thi Bui – A Different Pond
C
- Chiie Thao Cha – Dia’s Story Cloth
- Nhia Thao Cha – Dia’s Story Cloth
- Irene Chan – Baby Loves Green Energy!
- Ruth Chan – The Great Outdoors
- Nidhi Chanani – Pashmina
- Mimi Chao – In My World
- Alina Chau – The Nian Monster
- Julie Chen – When I Grow Up
- Jacqueline Chen – Chibird
- Ziyue Chen – Just Right Family, Mela And The Elephant
- Monique Chheda – Bindiya In India
- Jason Chin – Redwoods
- Marcos Chin – Ella
- Oliver Chin – Discovery of Ramen
- Cynthia Chin-Lee – Amelia To Zora
- Margaret Chiu Greanias – Maximillian Villainous
- Tina Cho – The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story
- Carolyn Choi – IntersectionAllies. Disclosure: I got a free copy of Intersection Allies from Dottir Press. I used it as an example to unpack ageism, which you can that in When Kidlit Authors Don’t Respect Kids – Adultism in Kidlit
- Susan Choi – Camp Tiger
- Yangsook Choi – The Name Jar
- Joey Chou – Ruby’s Chinese New Year
- Charlene Chua – Amy Wu And The Perfect Bao
- Aree Chung – I’m only mentioning this maker because ‘Mixed’ is SO damaging and harmful and colorblind fallacy nonsense that I need you to understand how harmful it is. You can find that over in Mixed Race Babies Won’t Solve Racism. Despite his consistent attempts to normalize multiracial Asians, the rest of his work is, at best, forgettable.
- Yin Yang Compestine – Boy Dumplings. While on the surface most of her work is didactic and bland, and the less boring ones could just be read as ‘irreverent,’ when we examine her whole body of work and career, Compestine is aggressively fat-phobic and uses opportunizes fatmisia throughout her work. Not recommended.
- – Dancing To Freedom
D
- – Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant
- Debasmita Dasgupta – Mina Vs. The Monsoon
- Mike Dutton – Food Truck Fest
F
- The Fan Brothers – Ocean Meets Sky
- Reem Faruqi – Lailah’s Lunchbox
- Greg Foley – Kat Writes A Song
- Gyo Fujikawa – Babies
G
- – What Will Grow?
- – A Is For Aloha
- Rukhsanna Guidroz – Leila in Saffron
H
- Bruce Edward Hall – Henry And The Kite Dragon
- Sheila Hamanaka – All The Colors Of The Earth
- Jenny Han – Clara Lee And The Apple Pie Dream
- – I Promise
- Minfong Ho – Hush! A Thai Lullaby
- – Write To Me
- Felicia Hoshino – A Place Where Sunflowers Grow
- Yutaka Houlette – Fred Korematsu Speaks Up
- Lillian Hsu – Dumpling Soup
- Rebecca Huang – Queen of Physics. Disclosure: Little Feminist Book Club (afflink) sent me a free copy of this book so I could critique it for an upcoming book box. (I like it, it passed.)
- – Jingle Dancer
I
- Sanae Ishida – Ba-Chan the Ninja Grandma
- Melissa Iwai – Soup Day
- Nat Iwata – Sumo Joe
J
- – Maya
- Ji-Li Jiang – Magical Monkey King
- Anjali Joshi – Let’s Celebrate Diwali
- Kaylani Juanita – When Aidan Became A Brother
- Mike Jung – Unidentified Suburban Object (Mike’s also #OwnVoices Autistic!)
K
- Anna Kang – We are (not) friends
- – A Dog Named Haiku
- – A Mother For Choco
- Navjot Kaur -Dreams of Hope
- Rukhsana Khan – Big Red Lollipop
- Khatami – Little Black Book
- Supriya Kelkar – The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh
- Aram Kim – No Kimchi For Me
- Jamie Kim – Where Are You From
- Jean Kim – Rabbit Moon
- Julie Kim – Where’s Halmoni?
- – You Are Stardust
- Jama Kim Rattigan – Dumpling Soup
- Taesoo Kim – Nova the Star Eater
- Violet Kim – If You’re Going On A March
- Joy Kogawa – Naomi’s Tree
L
- Remy Lai – Pie In The Sky
- Thao Lam – My Cat Looks Like My Dad
- Amelia Lau Carling – Mama and Papa Have a Store
- – Cora Cooks Pancit
- Minh Lê – Drawn Together
- Dom Lee – Passage To Freedom
- Huy Voun Lee – Red, White, and Boom!
- Jean M. Lee – Bitter Dumplings
- June Jo Lee – Chef Roy Choi
- Keunhee Lee – The Journey Home
- Laura Lee – Cat Eyes
- Michelle Lee – Play With Me
- Milly Lee – Nim And The War Effort
- Suzy Lee – Shadows
- Vickie Lee – Ruby’s Chinese New Year
- Amy Lee-Tai – A Place Where Sunflowers Grow
- Qin Leng – Away
- Hilary Leung – Will Ladybug Hug?
- Julie Leung – Paper Son
- Stevie Lewis -Prince & Knight
- Joanne Lew-Vriethoff – Brave
- Grace Lin – The Ugly Vegetables
- Shao Wei Liu – Magical Starfruit Tree
- – A Morning With Grandpa
- Beth Lo – Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic
- Ginnie Lo – Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic
- Rich Lo – Father’s Chinese Opera
- Virginia Loh-Hagan – Nian The Chinese New Year Dragon
- Lenore Look – Alvin Ho (I’m only including her here preemptively to avoid the ‘What about Lenore Look?‘) Her work is reductive, excuses male toxicity, tokenizes Indigenous cultural symbols, and she excuses it with fragile ‘I just tell it like it is‘ without taking responsibility for showing kids how these actions are problematic or giving alternatives. AVOID.
- – Vera Wang
- William Low – Chinatown
M
- Jillian Ma – In My World. Just this one book is enough to turn me off this illustrator forever. Maybe her other books are fine. But ‘In My World’ promotes the ‘locked in’ myth that autistics have been trying to dismantle for decades. This is a clear example of impact over intent – and the impact of her work is harmful to autistics. I’m not going to blanket tell you to avoid her work, but be very careful cause this book is ableist AF.
- Kyo Maclear – Spork
- Debbi Michiko Florence – Jasmine Toguchi
- Raakhee Mirchandani – Super Satya Saves The Day
- Ken Mochizuki – Water be my friend
- Carmen Mok – Grandmother’s Visit
N
- Il Sung Na – Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit
- Innosanto Nagara – A is for Activist
- – Pilu Of The Woods
- Sopaul Nhem – Half Spoon Of Rice
O
- – Our Favorite Day
- Debbie Ridpath Ohi – Naked!
- Ruth Ohi – Ruth’s Tree
- Man One – Chef Roy Choi
P
- – My Grandpa’s Chair
- Kenard Pak – The Fog
- Soyung Pak – Dear Juno
- Frances Park – Where in earth is my bagel
- Ginger Park – Where in earth is my bagel
- Linda Sue Park – Bee-Bim Bop!
- – That’s Not Fair
- Sanjay Patel – The Little Book of Hindu Deities
- Rajni Perera – Boy & The Bindi
- – A Piece of Cake
- Bao Phi – My Footprints
- Dow Phumiruk – Mela And The Elephant
Q
- Betty Quan – Grandmother’s Visit
R
- Gurleen Rai – Dreams of Hope
- Anushka Ravishankar – To Market, To Market!
- Amber Ren – Because
- Anthony D. Robles – Lakas And The Manilatown Fish
- Isabel Roxas – Let Me Finish
- – Moon Festival
S
- Aisha Saeed – Bilal Cooks Daal
- Nana Sakata – The Garden of Peace
- Jaspreet Sandhu – A Lion’s Mane
- Dan Santat – Drawn Together
- Charles Santoso – Ida Always
- Chris Sasaki – Paper Son
- Allen Say – Grandfather’s Journey
- Sunny Seki – Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll
- Anjali Shah – Kid Chef
- Anne Shen – Bad Girls
- Kashmira Sheth – My Dadima Wears A Sari
- Sheetal Sheth – Always Anjali
- Ellen Shi – School People
- Qian Shi – The Weaver
- Monte Shin – Mirror Play
- Simone Shin – Niko Draws A Feeling
- Vivek Shraya – Boy And The Bindi
- Rina Singh – Diwali Lights
- Icy Smith – Half Spoon of Rice
- Jess X Snow – The Ocean Calls
- – Noodle Magic
- – Rice From Heaven
- Mika Song – Hula Warrior
- Chris Sonpiet – Brothers, Something Beautiful
- Chitra Soundar – You’re Snug With Me
- K-Fai Steele – Noodlephant
- Naoko Stoop – Pup and Bear
- Tracy Subisak – Cy Makes A Friend
- Boya Sun – 5 Worlds
- Sarah Suzuki – Yayoi Kusama (2022 Update, discovered Kusama’s history of rampant anti-Blackness which would have been obvious to an author researching her for a biography. Yeah no thanks nevermind. Not recommended.)
- Anoosha Syed – Bilal Cooks Daal
T
- George Takei – They Called Us Enemy
- – They Say Blue
- Mariko Tamaki – This One Summer
- Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan – Indi-Alphabet
- Kai Cheng Thom – From The Stars In The Sky
- Maggie Tokuda-Hall – Also An Octopus
- Jean Tseng – The Seven Chinese Brothers
- Mou-Sien Tseng – The Seven Chinese Brothers
- Sarah Tsiang – A Flock Of Shoes
- Pauline Ts’o – Whispers of the Wolf
- – Pele Finds A Home
- Andrea Tsurumi – Crab Cake
- – My Footprints
- Christian Trimmer – Teddy’s Favorite Toy
U
- Yoshiko Uchida – The Bracelet
- Chieri Uegaki – Hana Hashimoto
- Kana Urbanowicz– Magic Ramen
W
- Hanako Wakiyama – Cat’s not-so-perfect Sandcastle
- Joyce Wan – We Belong Together
- Andrea Wang – Nian Monster
- Jen Wang – Prince and the Dressmaker
- Lin Wang – The Crane Girl
- Lynn Wang – Shining Star
- Rosalind C. Wang – Magical Starfruit Tree
- Mia Wenjen – Sumo Joe
- Brian Won – Hooray For Hat!
- Janet S. Wong – Apple Pie 4th of July
- Liz Wong – Quackers
- Purple Wong – Milo’s Museum
- Katy Wu – Dumpling Dreams
- Mike Wu – Ellie
X
- Yongsheng Xuan – The Dragon Lover
Y
- Kobi Yamada – What Do You Do With An Idea?
- Katie Yamasaki – When The Cousins Came
- – Teeny Tiny Toady
- – Uncle’s Magic Thrownet
- Gene Luen Yang – American Born Chinese
- Kelly Yang – Front Desk
- Tammy Yee – A is for Aloha
- Lawrence Yep – The Khan’s Daughter
- Shirin Yim Bridges – Ruby’s Wish
- Yin – Brothers
- – Not Quite Black And White
- Victoria Ying Not Quite Black And White
- Paula Yoo – Shining Star
- – Strictly No Elephants
- Ed Young – I, Doko
- Malala Yousafzai – Malala’s Magic Pencil
- – Puddle
Z
- Ange Zhang – Grandfather counts
- Kat Zhang – Amy Wu And The Perfect Bao
- Nancy Zhang – Miss Paul And The President (don’t read that garbage book). I *think* this is a Asian German illustrator who, for whatever reason, white people keep hiring to illustrate their poorly-resarched books. Zhang seems to be exclusively interested in only drawing white people, and also it’s just WEIRD that she was complicit in illustrating a book elevating Alice Paul, known white supremacist who actively DID NOT FIGHT for the rights of Asian women to vote BUT OKAY SURE WHATEVER, you do you, Nancy.)
- Fam – Every time someone recommends a book about a white suffragist, let’s burn some joss paper for Auntie Mabel.
- SUBTEXT: Where are all the f-ing books about Asian activists?
- Farhana Zia – Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-Ji
last updated: July 2020
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2 comments
Hi! Is it appropriate to plug my cousins’ work? https://www.theguambus.com/ They’re Chamorro and make books and art to sustain the Chamorro language and culture. Micro press for sure… but they make cool stuff. Apologies if this was out of line!
This is great!