Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary

Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary
Keshni Kashyap, Illus. by Mari Araki
GN K151t


In the tradition of Persepolis and American Born Chinese, a wise and funny high school heroine comes of age.


Tina M., sophomore, is a wry observer of the cliques and mores of Yarborough Academy, and of the foibles of her Southern California intellectual Indian family. She's on a first-name basis with Jean-Paul Sartre, the result of an English honors class assignment to keep an “existential diary.”
Keshni Kashyap’s compulsively readable graphic novel packs in existential high school drama—from Tina getting dumped by her smart-girl ally to a kiss on the mouth (Tina’s mouth, but not technically her first kiss) from a cute skateboarder, Neil Strumminger. And it memorably answers the pressing question: Can an English honors assignment be one fifteen-year-old girl’s path to enlightenment? (Publisher's description)

The Drowned Cities

Paolo Bacigalupi

Fiction B125d

Squel to Ship Breaker

Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.

In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure (Publisher's description).

Jasper Jones

Jasper Jones

Craig Silvey

Fiction Si399j

A 2012 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Charlie Bucktin, a bookish thirteen year old, is startled one summer night by an urgent knock on his bedroom window. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in their small mining town, and he has come to ask for Charlie's help. Terribly afraid but desperate to impress, Charlie follows him into the night.

Jasper takes him to his secret glade, where Charlie witnesses Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion. He locks horns with his tempestuous mother, falls nervously in love, and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

Wandering Son, Volume 1

Wandering Son

Shimura Takako

GN Sh629w:E v. 1

The fifth grade. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Written and drawn by one of today’s most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura portrays Shuishi and Yoshino’s very private journey with affection, sensitivity, gentle humor, and unmistakable flair and grace. Book One introduces our two protagonists and the friends and family whose lives intersect with their own. Yoshino is rudely reminded of her sex by immature boys whose budding interest in girls takes clumsily cruel forms. Shuichi’s secret is discovered by Saori, a perceptive and eccentric classmate. And it is Saori who suggests that the fifth graders put on a production of The Rose of Versailles for the farewell ceremony for the sixth graders - with boys playing the roles of women, and girls playing the roles of men. Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga translated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn. (Publisher's description)

Karma

Karma
Cathy Ostlere
Fiction Os77k
A novel written in verse. After her Hindu mother's suicide, 15-year-old Maya and her Sikh father travel from Canada to India for a traditional burial. The year is 1984, and on the night of their arrival in New Delhi, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her Sikh guards. When the city erupts in chaos, both Maya and her father find themselves in great danger. Through a sequence of horrifying events, father and daughter are separated, and Maya is left alone in a violent foreign country where she must rely on the help of strangers to reach safety. (Booklist)

Girl in Translation

Girl in Translation
Jean Kwok
Fiction K979g
When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life-like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family's future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition-Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles. (Product description)

Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon
Cara Chow
Fiction C459b
Frances, a Chinese-American student at an academically competitive school in San Francisco, has always had it drilled into her to be obedient to her mother and to be a straight-A student so that she can go to Med school.  But is being a doctor what she wants?  It has never even occurred to Frances to question her own feelings and desires until she accidentally winds up in speech class and finds herself with a hidden talent.  Does she dare to challenge the mother who has sacrificed everything for her? (Product Description)

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
Yiyun Li
Fiction L6123g
These spellbinding short stories are filled with suspense, depth, and beauty, in which history, politics, and folklore magnificently illuminate the human condition. (Book jacket)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Lisa See
Fiction Se31s
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart. (Publisher)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
Fiction H794t
Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a maid and a businessman, who is given away in marriage at 15 to Rasheed, a man three times her age; their union is not a loving one. Laila is born to educated, liberal parents in Kabul the night the Communists take over Afghanistan. Adored by her father but neglected in favor of her older brothers by her mother, Laila finds her true love early on in Tariq, a thoughtful, chivalrous boy who lost a leg in an explosion. But when tensions between the Communists and the mujahideen make the city unsafe, Tariq and his family flee to Pakistan. A devastating tragedy brings Laila to the house of Rasheed and Mariam, where she is forced to make a horrific choice to secure her future. At the heart of the novel is the bond between Mariam and Laila, two very different women brought together by dire circumstances. (Booklist)

American Dragons: Twenty-Five Asian American Voices

   

American Dragons: Twenty-Five Asian American Voices 

Yep, Laurence

810.8 AM3523

Yep brings together twenty-five talented writers, each with a different story about the Asian American experience.

American Eyes

   

American Eyes  

Carlson, Lori 

813.08 Am35391996 

This book contains ten very different stories about what it means to be an Asian-American teenager.

Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

  

Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

Yang, Jeff

GN Se252

This book contains twenty-six original stories centered around Asian American superheroes.

American Born Chinese

  

American Born Chinese

Yang, Greg Luen

GN.Y163a

Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

    

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

Fleming, Ann Marie

GN F629m

Who was Long Tack Sam? He was born in 1885. He ran away from Shangdung Province to join the circus. He was an acrobat. A magician. A comic. An impresario. A restaurateur. A theater owner. A world traveler. An East-West ambassador. A mentor to Orson Welles. He was considered the greatest act in the history of vaudeville.

Indian by Choice

  

Indian by Choice

Dasgupta, Amit

GN D26i

This book tackles the complex theme of identity; it is a journey through the myriad human relationships that help us see things in perspective and in context.

The Yellow Jar

  

The Yellow Jar

Atangan, Patrick

GN At87ye2003

This book, drawn in ukiyo-e style, features The Yellow Jar, a story centered on a simple fisherman and a beautiful maiden he takes as a wife after finding her in a magic jar.

Good Enough

   

Good Enough 

Yoo, Paula

Fiction Y8g 

A Korean American teenager tries to please her parents by getting into an Ivy League college, but a new guy in school and her love of the violin tempt her in new directions. 

Mountain Light

  

Mountain Light

Yep, Laurence

Fiction Y43mo1997

When he takes part in a rebellion against the Manchus in China, nineteen- year-old Squeaky wins Cassia’s heart. But to truly prove his worth as a man to Cassia and his village, Squeaky leaves China to seek his fortune in the gold fields of California.