The Small Virtual Library

Available in the library and on APL Libby

A Newbery Honor Book

Moon Shadow was eight when he sailed from China to join his father Windrider in America. Windrider lived in San Francisco's Chinatown and worked in a laundry. Moon Shadow had never seen him.

But he soon loved and respected this father, a man of genius, a man with a fabulous dream. And with Moon Shadow's help, Windrider was willing to endure the mockery of the other Chinese, the poverty, and the longing for his wife and his own country to make his dream come true.

Inspired by the account of a Chinese immigrant who made a flying machine in 1909, Laurence Yep's historical novel beautifully portrays the rich traditions of the Chinese community as it made its way in a hostile new world.

2020 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Gene understands stories--comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins.

But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him "Stick" and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships.
Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragon's lives, but his own life as well.

Available in the library, on MackinVia, and Sora

Newbery Medal Winner

When their grandmother falls ill, a magical tiger straight from her Korean folktales appears and offers Lily and her sister a deal. Weaving Korean folklore with magical realism, this is a moving story about longing, connection, and finding your voice.

When Priyanka Das is given a chance to travel to India and reconnect with her mother’s past (and possibly discover the identity of her father), she and her magical pashmina embark on a journey of self-discovery.

Available in the library and on Sora

Illustrated by Ann Xu | Newly emmigrated from Taiwan, 12-year-old Cici wants her grandmother to visit more than anything else. Channeling her inner Julia Child, Cici tries to win the cooking contest to pay for a plane ticket, all the while dealing with microaggressions.

The lives of four misfits are intertwined when a bully's prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well. Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him.

Ha’s graphic memoir explores her journey to a new country and her struggles with culture shock and loneliness. It delves into the idea of straddling two cultures and simultaneously feeling a part of both and neither.

While on vacation in San Francisco, Kiku finds herself transported back to 1940s America—to the same Japanese incarceration camp her grandmother was relocated to. She experiences the anger, hopelessness, perseverance, and resistance of the Nisei and Issei.

Available in the library and on Sora

Young Tiến wants to tell his mother he’s gay, but he doesn’t know how. His mother struggles with English, and he doesn’t know the right words in Vietnamese. But through the language of fairy tales, Tiến and his mother find a way to connect and create their own happily-ever-after.

Simi's best friend Noah convinces her to follow in her mother's and grandmother’s footsteps and become a matchmaker. When they create an app based on the family business, it goes viral, and life at their suburban New Jersey high school is turned upside down.

To Dimple Shah, technology camp at Stanford is a breath of fresh air from her mother's obsession with finding her a husband. For Rishi Patel, it's a chance to woo his future wife. When opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

Graphic Novel

George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.
In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.
They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

Amal has big dreams, until a nightmarish encounter . . .
Twelve-year-old Amal's dream of becoming a teacher one day is dashed in an instant when she accidentally insults a member of her Pakistani village's ruling family. As punishment for her behavior, she is forced to leave her heartbroken family behind and go work at their estate.
Amal is distraught but has faced setbacks before. So she summons her courage and begins navigating the complex rules of life as a servant, with all its attendant jealousies and pecking-order woes. Most troubling, though, is Amal's increasing awareness of the deadly measures the Khan family will go to in order to stay in control. It's clear that their hold over her village will never loosen as long as everyone is too afraid to challenge them--so if Amal is to have any chance of ensuring her loved ones' safety and winning back her freedom, she must find a way to work with the other servants to make it happen.

One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her.
With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind.
Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heartwrenching choice after another.

When Lalani Sarita’s mother falls ill with an incurable disease, Lalani embarks on a dangerous journey across the sea in the hope of safeguarding her own future. Inspired by Filipino folklore, this engrossing fantasy is for readers who loved Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Disney’s Moana.

Lalani of the Distant Sea is exquisitely written from many different perspectives, focusing mainly on that of Lalani, a young girl who will do anything to protect her people — her mother and friends most of all. Erin Entrada Kelly speaks through this lovely story, telling us that within sorrow, strength can be found, and in ruin, paradise can be discovered by those willing to search for it.

Hà has only ever known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope—toward America. This moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing received four starred reviews, including one from Kirkus which proclaimed it "enlightening, poignant, and unexpectedly funny.

Available on Sora

Valora Luck has two things: a ticket for the biggest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world, and a dream of leaving England behind and making a life for herself as a circus performer in New York. Much to her surprise though, she's turned away at the gangway; apparently, Chinese aren't allowed into America.
But Val has to get on that ship. Her twin brother Jamie, who has spent two long years at sea, is there, as is an influential circus owner, whom Val hopes to audition for. Thankfully, there's not much a trained acrobat like Val can't overcome when she puts her mind to it.
As a stowaway, Val should keep her head down and stay out of sight. But the clock is ticking and she has just seven days as the ship makes its way across the Atlantic to find Jamie, perform for the circus owner, and convince him to help get them both into America.
Then one night the unthinkable happens, and suddenly Val's dreams of a new life are crushed under the weight of the only thing that matters: survival.

By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie." When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light.

All Samantha wanted was to move back to New York and pursue her music, which was difficult enough being a Chinese girl in Missouri, 1849. Then her fate takes a turn for the worse after a tragic accident leaves her with nothing and she breaks the law in self-defense. With help from Annamae, a runaway slave she met at the scene of her crime, the two flee town for the unknown frontier.
But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls. Disguised as Sammy and Andy, two boys heading for the California gold rush, each search for a link to their past and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. Until they merge paths with a band of cowboys turned allies, and Samantha can’t stop herself from falling for one. But the law is closing in on them and new setbacks come each day, and the girls will quickly learn there are not many places one can hide on the open trail.

San Francisco, 1906: Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong is determined to break from the poverty of Chinatown, and an education at St. Clare’s School for Girls is her best hope. Although St. Clare’s is off-limits to all but the wealthiest white girls, Mercy gains admittance through a mix of cunning and a little bribery, only to discover that getting in was the easiest part. Not to be undone by a bunch of spoiled heiresses, Mercy stands strong—until disaster strikes.
On April 18, a historic earthquake rocks San Francisco, destroying Mercy’s home and school. Now she’s forced to wait with her classmates for their families in a temporary park encampment. Though fires might rage, and the city may be in shambles, Mercy can’t sit by while they wait for the army to bring help—she still has the “bossy” cheeks that mark her as someone who gets things done. But what can one teenage girl do to heal so many suffering in her broken city?

Amina Khokar is grappling with a lot of changes as she enters middle school, all while balancing her family’s traditional Pakistani culture and customs. This is a heartfelt story about bringing a diverse community together and finding the courage in your own voice.

In the companion novel to the beloved and award-winning Amina’s Voice, Amina once again uses her voice to bridge the places, people, and communities she loves—this time across continents.

Available in the library and on MackinVia

Depicts the true story of nine-year-old Nawuth and his survival during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Describes the loss of his family, his enslavement, and his escape to Thailand where he, after two years in a refugee camp, emigrated to the United States.