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Especially to:

Shaun Tan


Lost and Found: Three (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011), finalist for Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year

and Dan Santat


Sidekicks (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011), finalist for Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year

Click here for more information about the Children's Choice Book Awards.

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Growing Up Asian American in Children's Literature, Proposed Edited Collection

“Growing Up Asian American in Children’s Literature” seeks to explore some of the major issues Asian American children and adolescents face growing up in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. Part of the mission of the collection is to define the term Asian American inclusively, to include all the “Asian” ethnicities from the Asian continent, the Pacific Rim, and also from around the world. Some questions the collection will discuss are what does it mean to be Asian and American? Is there a loss of identity in assimilation? How are Asian American children’s experiences different from other minority groups? Are different regions of the country factors in how they grow up? How do they construct themselves racially and culturally?

The collection will be interdisciplinary and may include non-traditional texts, such as picture books, comic books, TV shows or movies, toys, and traditional adolescent classics such as John Okada’s No-No Boy (1957) and Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings (1975), graphic novels, such as Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese (2006), and recently published novels, such as Thanhha Lai’s 2012 Newbery Honor Book Inside Out and Back Again (2011), and N. H. Senzai’s Shooting Kabul (2010).

Possible article topics may include, but are not limited to:

* What it means to be Asian and American
* Identity and assimilation: white on the inside and yellow/brown on the outside
* Race/racism/exoticized and marginalized
* Immigrant (FOB) vs. the second/third generation (ABC or Desi)
* Bi-racialism, ethnicity, and hybridity
* Diaspora, home and homeland, transnationalism
* Globalization, citizenship, and mobility
* Family separations (war-torn homeland/refugees)
* Education and stereotypes of the model minority
* 9/11
* Religion in a Christian country: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.
* Poverty/illegal immigration
* Bilingualism, translation, and the child interpreter
* Alien/foreigner but never “American”
* Gender, sexuality, homosexuality

A major university press has indicated a strong interest in the project. Please submit a detailed 500-1000 word abstract and a brief CV by May 15, 2012 to Ymitri Mathison at [email protected]. Completed articles of 6000-7500 words must be submitted by November 1, 2012, following MLA formatting guidelines. I hope to turn in the collection to the publisher in early 2013 for a possible publication date in late 2013. Inquiries welcome and all emails will be acknowledged.

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Been following him since his Harvard days!

Jeremy Lin: Rising Star by James Buckley, Jr. (Scholastic Paperbacks, 1 April 2012)

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Whoa whoa whoa. Some positive and inspiring words from Mitali Perkins about living between cultures, education, multicultural books for children, and social media. Gotta find a way to get her to do an author visit in the Philippines.

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I can't believe I didn't discover this YouTube series earlier! In the first video, author/illustrator Grace Lin shares a bit about how her artistic style developed. In the second video, she shares a couple of heartbreaking stories =( that really illustrate the need for multicultural children's books.

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The Whole Story of Half a Girl by Veera Hiranandani (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 10 January 2012)

My other blog crush, Ari of Reading In Color, is waiting for this to be released. A half Indian, half Jewish American protagonist? I'm waiting with you, Ari!

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School Library Journal named their picks for the Best Books of 2011, and they include:


The House Baba Built: An Artist's Childhood in China by Ed Young (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Dear Ed Young, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . .


The Twins' Blanket by Hyewon Yum (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers)

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Congratulations for being named some of the Best Children's Books of 2011!


Coral Reefs by Jason Chin (Flash Point)


Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins)


Drawing From Memory by Allen Say (Scholastic Press)

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International Committee, Children's Literature Association

Call for Papers:
Philippine Children’s Literature

39th Annual Children’s Literature Association Conference
Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
June 14-16, 2012

The International Committee of the Children’s Literature Association is planning a special country focus panel on the Philippines, to be presented at the 39th Children’s Literature Association Conference, to be held at Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA from June 14 to 16, 2012. The committee invites paper proposals that focus on any aspect of Philippine children’s literature. Papers may focus on the origins of and/or developments in Philippine children’s texts; issues of regionalism and nationalism; Philippine folklore as children’s texts; Philippine children’s literature in the diaspora; or the state of children’s literature studies in the Philippines. Preference will be given to proposals with the potential to inspire American and international scholars to develop active interest in Philippine children’s literature and to integrate it into their own research.

The authors of two papers selected for the panel to accompany a presentation by a Philippine Distinguished Scholar (invited by the committee) will be awarded a $500 travel grant each. Up to four other proposals may be selected as well, pending the approval of the additional panel by the conference paper selection committee. The papers must be presented in English and must not exceed the twenty-minute reading time. The committee strongly encourages ChLA members and other scholars with an interest in Philippine children’s literature to submit paper proposals for the session.

Send 500-word abstracts accompanied by up to 250-word bios to the International Committee, Children’s Literature Association, P.O. Box 138, Battle Creek, MI 49016-0138, USA; fax +269-965-3568; or electronically to [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2011.

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Vonlai knows that soldiers who guard the Mekong River shoot at anything that moves, but in oppressive Communist Laos, there’s nothing left for him, his spirited sister, Dalah, and his desperate parents. Their only hope is a refugee camp in Thailand—on the other side of the river.

When they reach camp, their struggles are far from over. Na Pho is a forgotten place where life consists of squalid huts, stifling heat, and rationed food. Still, Vonlai tries to carry on as if everything is normal. He pays attention in school, a dusty barrack overcrowded with kids too hungry to learn. And he plays soccer in a field full of rocks to forget his empty stomach.

But when someone inside the camp threatens his family, Vonlai calls on a forbidden skill to protect their future, a future he’s sure is full of promise, if only they can make it out of Na Pho alive.

Hi, everyone! :o) Today's interview is with the beautiful Laura Manivong, author of Escaping the Tiger (HarperCollins, 2010), a treasure for middle graders who want to do some "armchair traveling" and their teachers and librarians who want to integrate literature into a social studies or history curriculum.

The cultural and historical details in Escaping the Tiger feel natural and authentic, and its 1980s setting in Laos and Thailand is never exoticized. At first I was wary of the novel's presentation of America and France as the places of freedom where Vonlai and his family can escape the Pathet Lao and Communist Laos. I am always wary of stories that might portray the West as the "savior" for people in the "exotic" East, and thankfully Laura Manivong does not do this. Escaping the Tiger is nuanced, realistic, and ultimately balanced: while the rule of the Pathet Lao was more often than not cruel, Vonlai was happy in Laos and misses his home; the Na Pho refugee camp in Thailand is simultaneously a microcosm of all that is bad and all that is good in this world; and (spoiler alert!) Vonlai and his family start a very heartening new life in America, but encounter racism there.

While Escaping the Tiger raises social consciousness; teaches empathy and gratitude; and stimulates discussion on the refugee experience, it also a darn good yarn. Most of the story is about Vonlai's years of waiting and waiting and doing almost nothing in Na Pho, but it is never boring, the story has great pace and tension and suspense are nicely built. Young readers will find this an exciting refugee story about hope and strength and HOME.


Welcome, Laura!

What kind of young reader were you? What were your favorite books? Who were your favorite author

0 Comments on Author Interview: Laura Manivong as of 7/9/2011 12:23:00 AM

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