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LEE & LOW BOOKS celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year and to recognize how far the company has come, we are featuring one title a week to see how it is being used in classrooms today as well, as hear from the authors and illustrators.

Featured Title: Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story

Author: Paula Yoo

Illustrator: Lin Wang

Synopsis: Born in 1905, Anna May Wong spent her childhood working in her family’s laundry in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. Whenever she could afford it, Anna May slipped off to the movies, escaping to a world of adventure, glamour, and excitement. After seeing a movie being filmed in her neighborhood, young Anna May was hooked. She decided she would become a movie star!

Anna May struggled to pursue an acting career in Hollywood in the 1930s. There were very few roles for Asian Americans, and many were demeaning and stereotypical. Anna May made the most of each limited part. She worked hard and always gave her best performance. Finally, after years of unfulfilling roles, Anna May began crusading for more meaningful roles for herself and other Asian American actors.

Anna May Wong—the first Chinese American movie star—was a pioneer of the cinema. Her spirited determination in the face of discrimination is an inspiration to all who must overcome obstacles so that their dreams may come true.

Awards and Honors:

• Carter G. Woodson Award, NCSS
• Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education
• Choices, Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)

Resources for teaching with Shining Star:

• Video: Paula Yoo Interview 
• Video: Anna May Wong In Her Own Words from Women Make Movies
• Shining Star Reading and Craft Tips from Reading to Kids
• Toolkit for “I am Asian American” from Teaching Tolerance
• Asian Pacific American Heritage Teaching Resources from the Smithsonian
• “Anna May Wong Did it Right” from Time Magazine

Check out these Book Collections featuring Shining Star:

• Asian Pacific American Heritage Collection
• Asian/Asian American Collection Grades 3-5
• Women’s History Collection
• Biography and Memoir Grades 3-6 Collection
• Art and The Arts Collection
• California Books Collection

Book Activity: Create your own Hollywood Movie Star from Reading to Kids.

Have you used Shining Star? Let us know in the comments!

Celebrate with us! Check out the Lee & Low 25 Years Anniversary Collection.

Veronica has a degree from Mount Saint Mary College and joined LEE & LOW in the fall of 2014. She has a background in education and holds a New York State childhood education (1-6) and students with disabilities (1-6) certification. When she’s not wondering around New York City, you can find her hiking with her dog Milo in her hometown in the Hudson Valley, NY.

I had to get up and turn the heat up before starting this post. It is definitely getting colder outside. Yesterday was Cookies and Cocktails and I spent the day baking cookies with my sister. No doubt it was a long, long day but it’s a tradition we do not want to give up any time soon. I’ve boxes wrapped and ready to ship off to family and friends who I hope will enjoy eating them as much as we did baking them! I’ve also contacted several people for my annual Cookie Traditions posts and hopefully those will begin rolling in soon.

Zetta Elliott has beem working on completing her annual list of MG and YA books by African American authors.

In doing this work, Zetta urged me to collate my list according to ethnicity so that we can see how many books were compiled by Native Americans, Asian Americans and Latino/as as well. I cleaned up my list removing nonfiction titles and a few that I decided are too young for MG readers and categorized the books I found. I added the titles I didn’t have that Zetta found and some from Debbie Reese as well. I am sure there are books written by authors of color and published by traditional publishers that I have missed, and hope that you will mention them in the comments.

Does this matter? Of course, it does. I’ve been saying for months the numbers and dropping and I’d like to figure out why, particularly since the overall number of children’s books is up this year. This year we say Neesha Meminger, L. Divine and B.A. Binns all self publish. Don’t you think its time for another YA from Cindy Pon? Alex Sanchez? Medeia Shariff? Dia Reeves?

“In the Margins Committee  

What is it?  A group of librarians creating a committee to seek out and highlight books:  preschool through adult fiction and non-fiction titles of high-interest appeal to boys or girls, ages 9-18  who may fit into one or all of the following categories:

 multicultural (primarily African American and Latino)  from a street culture  in restrictive custody  reluctant readers  What does it do?  The committee will select and review the best books of the year, specifically for the population listed above. Titles of interest will be unusual, possibly unreviewed,  have multicultural characters, dealing with difficult situations including (but not limited to) street life, marginalized populations, crime, justice, war, violence, abuse, addiction, etc. The first year we will also review a few older titles that may not have been reviewed previously but which are deserving of attention.

 Committee membership and requirements:   research and nominate titles that are self published, independently and published by small presses  provide written review of books, and read for special content for detention facilities  read all nominated titles  work with or do outreach to teens in custody and/or from street culture.  get feedback from at least 3-10 teens on each title  actively participate in email discussions  meet 1-4 times a year via video conferencing and/or in person  opportunity to blog in column about your and your youth’s experiences with a certain title or author  Don’t delay – Apply today!”

No doubt incarcerated teens need books which will interest them as these teens often have incredibly poor reading skills. And I think the intent of this committee is to review books for those who work with incarcerated teens.  If I read correctly, these reviews will appear in SLJ as the chair of the In the Margins Committee now has a blog on SLJ’s site. Will this blog be balanced with one that gives a wider representation to African American and Latino (and Native American and Asian American) literature?  What effort will SLJ make to educate readers about the vast contrtibutions writers of color make to teen literature and the even broader reading preferences of teens of color?

This is what the CCBC reported  for 2011:  We received approximately 3,400 books at the CCBC in 2011. Of those,

• 123 books had significant African or African American content

• 79 books were by Black authors and/or illustrators

• 28 books had American Indian themes, topics, or characters

• 12 books were by American Indian authors and/or illustrators

• 91 books had significant Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content

• 76 books were by authors and/or illustrators of Asian/Pacific heritage

• 58 books had significant Latino content

• 52 books were by Latino authors and/or illustrators

This is what I found so far for 2012.

MULTI-ETHNIC

1. Diverse Energies edited by Tobias Buchnell and Joe Monti; Tu Books, November

NATIVE AMERICAN
1. Chronal Engine by Greg Leitich Smith, illus. by Blake Henry;Clarion Books,  Feb. 22
2. Outcasts of River Falls: sequel to Belle of Batoche by Jaqueline Guest; Regina Coteau Books for Kids, 1 Apr
3. Diabolical by Cynthia Leitich Smith; Candlewick Press; 14 Feb

ASIAN AMERICAN
1. The friendship matchmater by Randa Abdel-Fattah; Frances Lincoln, 6 Sept
2. What’s Left of Me: The Hybrid Chronicles, Book One by Kat Zhang; Harper Collins, 18 September MG
3. Adaptation by Malinda Lo; Litte, Brown Books for Young Readers 18 Sept
4. Ash Mistry and the savage fortress by Sadwat Chadda; Harper Collins, October
5. The girl who lept through time  by Yasutaka Tsutsui and David Karashima; Alma Books 1 Sept
6. Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee and Dan Santant;  Scholastic, 1 Aug
7. A beautiful lie  by Irfan Master; Albert Whitman & Company, 1 August
8. The choke artist: confessions of a chronic underachiever by David Yoo; Grand Central, 19 June
9. Reincarnation (Legend of Snow Wolf series) by Fred Lit Yu; China Books,   1 June
10. Article 5 by Kristen Simmons; Tor, 2012
11.     Dumpling Days by Grace Lin; Little Brown Books for Young Readers; 2 Jan
12.    Tina’s mouth: an existential comic diary by Keshni Kashyap and Mari Araki; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 3 January
13.     The whole story of half a girl by Veera Hirandandani; Delacorte Books for Young Readers; 2012
14.     Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani; HarperTeen; 17 Jan
15. Fair Coin  by E. C. Myers; Pyr, 27 March
16. Another Jekyl another Hyde  by Daniel and Dina Nayeri; 27  March, Candlewick
17. The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda; St Martin’s  Griffin, Apr. 19
18. The mapmaker and the Ghost by Sarvenaz Tash; Walker Book Childrens, 24 April

LATINO/A
1. A Thunderous Whisper by Christina Diaz Gonzalez; Knopf Books for Young Readers 9 October
2. Summer of the Mariposas by Guadelupe Garcia McCall; Tu Books, October
3. BorderTown #4: No Second Chances by Malin Alegria; Scholastic Nov.
4. The revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano; Scholastic, 1 Sept
5. Con carino/Love Amalia by Alma Flor Ada; Atheneum Books for Young Readers; 10 July
6.  Choke by Diana Lopez; Point; 12 July
7. Border Town #2: Quince Clash by Malin Alegria; Scholastic, 1 July
8. Bordertown #1 Crossing the line  by Malin Alegria; Scholastic, May MG
9. Body Slammed! by Ray Villareal; Pinata Books, 30 Apr
10.     Border Town#1: Crossing the line by Malin Alegria; Scholastic 1 May
11.     Prom dates to die for by Kelly Parra; Buzz Books; 1 May
12. Irises  by Francisco X. Stork; Authur A. Levine; Jan 2012
13.     Facts of life: stories by Gary Soto; Graphia, January
14.     The glass collector by Anna Perera; Albert Whitman and Co. 1 Feb
15. Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz; Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 21 Feb
16. The girl who could silence the wind by Meg Medina; Candlewick, 13 March
17. The Temptation: A Kindred Novel by Alisa Valdes; HarperTeen, Apr. 4

AFRICAN AMERICAN
1. Hollywood High by Ni Ni Simone and Amir Abrams; Kensington 12 Sept
2. No Boyz Allowed by Ni-Ni Simone; Dafina Books, 31 July
3. Hollywood High by Ni-Ni Simone and Amir Abrams, Dafina Books, 25 Sept
4. Pinned by Sharon Flake; Scholastic, 1 October MG
5. Time to Shine by Nikki Carter; Dafina Books, 30 Oct
6. Crazy Love by Amir Abrams; Dafina Books, 27 Nov
7. Dork Diaries 5: Tales from a not so smart miss know it all by Rachel Renee Russell; Aladdin, October
8. Fading Amber: The cambion chronicles #3 by Jaime Reed; K’Teen Dafina 26 December
9. Kiki doin’ it (Juicy Central)  Saddleback, 1 Sept
10. Marnyke: the fake date  (Juicy Central); Saddleback
11. Tia Diva, (Juicy Central) Saddleback Sept
12. Sherise Stalked,(Juicy Central) Saddleback, Sept.
13. Nishell Tempted by Stephanie Perry Moore (Juicy Central); Saddleback, 1 Sept
14. Settle down/be real Cheer Drama/Baller Swag; Lockwood High Series by Stephanie Perry Moore; Saddleback
15. The diary of B. B. Bright possible princess by Alice Randall, Caroline Randall Williams and Shadra Strickland (illustrator); Turner Publishing 4 Sept
16. Charly’s Epic Fiasco by Kelli London, Dafina Books, 28 Aug
17.     A Certain October by Angela Johnson; Simon and Schuster; August
18.     Denim diaries 6 Lying to live by Darrian Lee; Urban Books, 28 August
19.     Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon; Aladdin, August
20.     The Cruisers 3: A star is born by Walter Dean Myers; Scholastic 1 Aug
21.     Dork diaries 4: Tales from a not so graceful ice princess by Rachel Renee Russell; Aladdin, June
22.      Back to me by Earl Sewll; Kimani Tru 1 July
23. Always upbeat Cheer Drama (Lockwood High Series)by Stephanie Perry Moore; Saddleback, 1 June
24.     Keep jumping/no hating Cheer Drama (Lockwood High Series) by Stephanie Perry Moore; Saddleback 1 June
25.     Settle down/be real Cheer Drama (Lockwood High Series)by Stephanie Perry Moore; Saddleback 1 June
26.     Yell out/Do you Cheer Drama (Lockwood High Series) by Stephanie Perry Moore; Saddleback 1 June
27.     Back to me  by Earl Sewell; Kimani Tru; 19 June
28.     Lone bean by Chudney Ross; Amistad, June
29. Download Drama  by Celeste O. Norfleet; Kimani Tru, May 20
30.     37 Things I Love (In No Particular Order) by Kekla Magoon; Henry Holt, May 3
31.     Happy families  by Tanita Davis; Knopf Books for Young Readers, 8 May
32.     Burning Emerald: The Cambion Chronicles #2 by Jaime Reed; K-Teen/Dafina; May
33. Creeping with the enemy (Langdon Prep)by Kimberyly Reid; Dafina, 24 April
34. Black Boy White School by Brian F. Walker; HarperTeen 3 Jan
35.     The mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis; Wendy A. Lamb Books, January MG
36.     The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards; HarperCollins, 17 Jan
37.     Best shot in the west: the adventures of Nat Love by Patricia C. McKissack, Frederick L. McKissack and Randy Duburke; Chronicle Books,  18 January GRAPHIC NOVEL
38.     Mesmerize  by Artist Arthur; Kimani Tru, January
39.     The clone codes #3: the visitors by Patricia C. McKissack, Fredrick McKissack and Pat McKissack; Scholastic, 1 February
40.     Beneath a meth moon  by Jacqueline Woodson; Nancy Paulsen Books, February
41.     No crystal stair  by Vaunda Michaux Nelson; Carolrhoda Press, February
42.     DJ Rising by Love Maia; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 6 Feb
43. Power Hitter  by M. C. Higgins; Darby Creek Pub, March
44. Boyfriend season: Cali boys  by Kelli London; K’Teen, 27 March
45. Creeping with the enemy (Langdon Prep)by Kimberyly Reid; Dafina, 24 April
46. All the right stuff  by Walter Dean Myers; Amistad, 24 April
47. The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson;  Margaret K. McElderry Books , 17 April
48. On the flip side: A fab life novel #4 by Nikki Carter; KTeen Dafina; 28 February
49. Ship of souls by Zetta Elliott; AmazonEncore, 28 Feb
50. Bad boy by Dream Jordan; St. Martin Griffin, 28 Feb
51. The Agency 3: Traitor in the Tunnel by Y. S. Lee; Candelwick, 28 Feb

What’s missing??

Continuing our Asian-North American theme, we are delighted to welecome artist Joung Un Kim to the PaperTigers Gallery.  Joung uses what she herself calls a “mix-and-match collage style” in her art, and through the course of her career she has illustrated many delightful picture books.  These include Sumi’s First Day of School Ever by Soyung Pak (Viking Juvenile, 2003) and, most recently, Neighbors: The Yard Critters Book 1, poems by George Held (Filsinger & Company, 2011).  Its sequel Neighbors: The Yard Critters Book Too will be coming out next year.

I love the way Joung incorporates printed paper in her work – in our Gallery you will see examples that include printed text, and also graph paper, music and a map.  My favourite work among the selection presented here is “Snow Birds”, a personal piece.  What’s yours?

PS Early in the year, Pragmatic Mom included Sumi’s First Day of School Ever in her great (Updated 5) list of “Top 10: Books That Teach Kids Compassion (ages 2-14)“

Looking for a lovely calendar for 2012? Be sure to check out award winning author/illustrator Grace Lin‘s Red Threads Calendar, the sales of which will go to assist orphans in China.

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of picture books, early readers and middle grade novels. Her book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was a huge success and won many awards including the prestigious Newbery Honor.  It was chosen as one of seven books in our Spirit of Paper Tigers Book Set and Grace was one of our nominations for the  2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Don’t miss our interview with Grace or her two Gallery features here and here.

The winners of the 2011 Growing Up Asian in America art and essay contest have been announced!

The largest program in the USA to celebrate Asian heritage, Growing Up Asian in America is a signature program of the Asian Pacific Fund and provides a unique forum for youth in grade K to 12 to celebrate being both Asian and American and to express this through creative writing and art. The program is also an important community re source, helping people better understand the experiences of young Asian Americans and learn more about life in a place as diverse as the San Francisco Bay Area.

Each year more than 1,000 Bay Area students compete for prizes totaling $27,000. A new theme is selected each year and for 2011 is “Lost and Found”. Organizers note:

Our hunch was that children and youth of all ages experience loss and discovery throughout their young lives and might not find opportunities to reflect on those changes.

Local Bay Area libraries are hosting exhibits that display the winning entries and honorable mentions of the Bay Area students from now until February, 2012. There you can see Hyejin Ahn’s winning art, “Never Be Lost Again,” a film strip image of war and goodbyes.  Grace Wang’s essay that suggests to her good friend who is adopted that maybe her [birth] mother might have accidentally lost her.  How Payal Ahuja felt lost when she first came to America at age eight; she missed her family and friends in India. Then she found that her library in Mountain View was “a constant source of joy.” Through our 2011 program we learn that loss and discovery are an important part of our experience, especially for those who have traveled thousands of miles to become American.

The exhibit schedule can be found here and is a must see for adults and children! You will be amazed at the insight, creativity, wisdom and talent of these students! One of my favorite winning entries in the art category is pictured above. The image is by Aniketh Umesh, winner in the K-5 art category, and is titled “Lost Out: On Good Times With Grandpa In India; Found: Land Of Opportunity In The United States”.

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This girl is reading the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act out loud. [Act of Law]

Why no smoking signs actually ENCOURAGE smokers to light up [Daily Mail]

Think there’s no point in keeping print books around? I respectfully disagree. [Unshelved]

Here are some kitties crashing into each other. [YouTube]

100,000 staples arranged over 40 hours and other awesome staple art [NextWeb]

What does your literary tote bag say about you? [Vol1Brooklyn]

QUIZ: Can you tell Arial from Helvetica? [Ironicsans]

INFOGRAPHIC: The hardest languages to learn [Column Five]

This article on “Asian-American overachievers” is certainly creating a stir. [NYMag]

Incredible photos of the Great Flood of 1927 [Buzzfeed]

I feel bit of a Johnny-Come-Lately introducing this wonderful young adult graphic novel called American Born Chinese by Gene Yang.   PaperTigers has already done a lot with this ground-breaking Asian American graphic novel; for example, you can see Yang’s work featured in the PT gallery.  But the book really only came to my attention through this blog called An Introduction to Comics by Paul Moffett.

When my son was younger, he sometimes requested a comic book for me to read to him at bedtime.   He developed an appetite for the form quite early.  Now, he reads to himself at night and he prefers graphic novels or comics.  I picked up American Born Chinese, more or less, hoping that he would read it on my recommendation.  But then, I got hooked!  And then my husband got hooked, too.   What I found compelling about Yang’s novel was its incorporation and intertwining of the Judeo-Christian story with the mythical one of the Monkey King.  While the Monkey King struggles with his identity as a monkey, so too, does the boy Jin Wang struggle with his identity as Chinese American.  Although at first these stories seem unconnected, they join up at the end in an unusually satisfying way.  Monkey King’s advice to Jin Wang?  — “You know, Jin, I would have saved myself from five hundred years’ imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey.”

May is Asian Heritage Month or Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and if there’s ONE book you might consider reading for it, I would recommend American Born Chinese.  It’s destined to become an Asian American classic.  Soon after my husband and I were finished with the book, I saw my son casually pick it up, peruse its pages, and carry it off to his bedroom for his own night-time reading.

Today is the official launch of Asian Heritage Month Official Launch in Canada and a special celebration will be held at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Parliamentarians, government officials, community leaders and the general public are invited to share in an evening celebration hosted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, that will include welcoming remarks, several cultural performances and a reception.

For more information on Asian Heritage Month events being held throughout Canada click here.

Asian Heritage Month is also celebrated in May in the USA where it is known as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. On May 1st,  the Smithsonian Museum, located in Washington, DC, is hosting their free kickoff celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.  Held in conjunction with the exhibition The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946 the day will include many events, a highlight of which will be tales from storyteller Anne Shimojima. Anne always receives rave reviews for the way she delights youth and adult audiences of all sizes with her graceful and spirited tellings of folktales from her Asian heritage!

If you’re looking for some great reads to take you through the month, take a look at this year’s winners and honor books of the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature. These awards, given by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage based on literary and artistic merit. Bear these books in mind for any time of the year!

For a full calendar of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month events happening across the USA click here.

Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong is an unusual young adult book because it is written entirely in verse.  Following the life of Emily Wu, a sixteen year old Chinese American living in Richmond, Virginia, the book is set out in poetic episodes of first person narrative.  It begins in the Chinese restaurant of Emily’s parents where she helps out part-time.  The first section titled “Golden Palace” begins with a poem called “Flirting.”  It is clear from this opening that Emily is embarking on a journey of adolescent awakening.  However, it is not just a sexual awakening that Emily experiences but also an awakening to her identity as an Asian American woman.  Typically, feelings of shame — towards her parents’ eating habits, for example — mingle with her protective affection for them.  Similarly, her feelings of ambivalence towards a talented Chinese school mate, Alex Huang, are in direct opposition to the near adulation of  her first boyfriend, Nick, who, she realizes later, cannot see beyond her Asian features to the girl inside.

Emily is also an artist.  Throughout the book, Emily works first on drawings, and then on a mural project for her school.  She chooses a tiger to paint for the mural and uses it as a metaphor for things going on in her personal life:

As I started another tiger sketch
I thought of Nick
and felt the stirrings of heat within,
the quickening of my heartbeat
rhythmic and insistent
as the pounding of drums
echoing through the foliage of
the tiger’s jungle home.

The gift of perceiving reality through metaphor is the poet’s and that is why poetry is a suitable medium for Wong’s characterization of Emily.  The poetic narrative works here to good effect in a way that would appeal to a young adult reader.

This week’s Poetry Friday host is Sylvia Vardell at Poetry for Children.

Edward A. Zelinsky is the Morris and Annie Trachman Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. He is the author of The Origins of Ownership Society: How the Defined Contribution Paradigm Changed America which looks at how defined contributions (IRAs, 401(k) accounts, 529 programs, FSAs, HRAs, HSAs…) have transformed tax and social policy in fundamental ways. In the article below Zelinksy turns his sight towards health care reform.

The financing of medicine has emerged as the central domestic issue of the 2008 presidential campaign. Hovering over this debate is the memory of the failed health care initiative spearheaded by the then First Lady in 1993. Senator Clinton’s supporters suggest that Senator Clinton has learned from that earlier, unsuccessful experience. Her opponents contend otherwise. (more…)

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