Recent Immigrants from Asia

Is it just me, or do most contemporary immigrant stories hash over the same themes and plot lines, just with different cultural details? Protagonist has difficult life in native country, parents bring them here, they experience culture shock, start to adapt, must help parents adapt, conflict between traditional parents’ way of doing things and new American ways. Etc, etc.

There’s an obvious reason for this, of course. The fact that it IS generally the immigrant story makes it the right story and the right theme for most authors. This is especially important to kids who have been in a similar situation, when they can find a book on the shelves that they can relate to. Non-immigrants can learn a lot from these stories as well. Not only do they pick up on cultural details that they would not have known otherwise, but more importantly, they realize that things so familiar to them look so different to others. Isn’t this why any of us read? To experience being someone else or someplace else. Reading is the best way to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and the more we all do it, the more tolerant our world will be.

Here are some contemporary novels about immigrants from smaller Asian countries or cultural groups perfectly suited toward expanding everyone’s understanding of the many different cultural identities that make up our American melting pot.

Blue Jasmine by Kashmira Sheth: a twelve-year old Indian girl and her family move to Iowa City.

Little Cricket by Jacki Brown: Kia, a twelve-year old Hmong girl, and her family flee Laos and live in a Thai refugee camp. After three years, paperwork allows only Kia, her brother, and her grandfather to move to Minnesota.

Tangled Threads by Pegi Deitz Shea: Thirteen-year old Mai and her grandmother are allowed to immigrate to the US after spending ten years in a camp for Hmong refugees.

The Trouble Begins by Linda Himelblau: Du’s family immigrated from Vietnam to California when he was a baby, but he and his grandmother had been forced to stay behind. Now, ten years later, he is finally able to enter the US. Not only does he need to adapt to this new country, but he barely recognizes his own family.

Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming: Nine-year old Lowji moves from India to Illinois at the beginning of the summer, so he must keep himself occupied before school starts. This book is different in that it is lighthearted and comic.