Our teen book spotlight this week is all about books which have been written by Asian American and Pacific Islander authors!!! May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month and we are showcasing some amazing and talented individuals. Each author brings their own unique viewpoint and background to each of these titles, providing a point of view which is a must read. There is an incredible mix of realistic, historical, and some science fiction providing options for many tastes and preferences. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #yaaapiauthors as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new teen book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Parachutes by Kelly Yang--Claire Wang is a "parachute," a wealthy teenager from Shanghai sent to the United States to live with a host family and attend a prestigious high school. Dani De La Cruz is Claire's host sister and attends the same high school on scholarship. She resents the privilege of students like Claire, while she cleans houses part-time and works for every success she attains. Both girls merely tolerate each other, until a series of traumatic events caused by male counterparts bring them together.
Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai--At the end of the Vietnam War, hundreds of children were airlifted out and taken to America as refugees. Hang and her three-year-old brother Linh were to be two of those children, but Hang was deemed too old and denied a spot on the helicopter. Linh, however, was torn away from her and taken to a family in Texas. Now eighteen, Hang travels to Texas to find her brother but is devastated to learn that he does not remember her or Vietnam, and has no interest in either. Along with an aspiring cowboy named LeeRoy, Hang gets a job at a ranch and tries to reconnect with her brother with LeeRoy's help.
Warcross by Marie Lu--Warcross--an online video game phenomenon--is a way of life for millions of players around the globe. For impoverished teenage hacker Emika Chen, working as a bounty hunter to track down players who place illegal bets on the game, it's her only means of survival. However, when she tries to hack the opening game of the International Warcross Championships just to make some quick cash, she accidentally glitches herself into the game. Becoming an overnight sensation, Emika is sure she will be arrested, but then she gets a call from the game's creator, who offers her a job as an undercover security agent. Whisked off to Tokyo, Emika quickly uncovers a sinister plot that could bring down the whole Warcross empire.
A Match Made In Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai--Fifteen-year-old Simi Sangha accidentally successfully sets up her cousin with a well-to-do local businessman, proving to her proud parents she has the family gift--she can be an Indian "vichole," a professional matchmaker. Simi, however, wants to be an artist, but when her friend Noah suggests they use this to increase their social standing, Simi and he make an app based on vichole teachings, and it quickly becomes popular in their high school. When popular jock Ethan is matched with a shy wallflower, however, Simi, Noah, and their app become enemy number one with Amanda Taylor, the most popular and vindictive girl in school.
Love, Hate, & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed--Maya Aziz, seventeen, is caught between her India-born parents' world of college and marrying a suitable Muslim boy and her dream world of film school and dating her classmate, Phil, when a terrorist attack changes her life forever.
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee--Seventeen-year-old Chinese American Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the bad-tempered daughter of a wealthy man in 1890s Atlanta. Secretly, however, Jo writes a column for a local newspaper under a pseudonym where she extrapolates on some of high society's lesser qualities. Her column becomes both a hit and a controversy, and people begin to clamor to know the column's true identity, even the city's most notorious criminal. While she questions revealing herself, Jo receives a mysterious letter that sets her on a path of discovery to learn more about the parents who abandoned her.