We heard that Jacobs just started a new Asian American & Pacific Islander Club. Here are some great teen books about or by a member of that community! Don’t have time to stop into the library? Most of these are available as eBooks or eAudiobooks that you can checkout virtually from your phone.
Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
eBook, eAudiobook
When seventeen-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
eBook, eAudiobook
Stranded on a spaceship speeding away from Earth, Romy is euphoric when she gets word that she will soon be joined by another ship, but as the Eternity gets closer, Romy begins to suspect that the captain has a mission all of their own.
A Pho Love Story by Loan Le
eBook, eAudiobook
Bảo Nguyen would describe himself as steady and strong: his grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents’ phở restaurant–as his parents’ fifth favorite employee. Linh Mai would describe herself as a firecracker: stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and fire. She dreams of pursuing a career in art, while working practically full-time at her family’s phở restaurant. Bao and Linh have never even had a class together–but after a chance encounter, sparks fly.
Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon
eBook, eAudiobook
When self-proclaimed nerd Sunny Dae meets Cirrus Soh, she mistakes Sunny’s older brother Gray’s bedroom, with its electric guitars and rock posters, for Sunny’s own. He sort of, kind of, accidentally winds up telling her he’s the front man of a rock band. Now Sunny is knee-deep in the lie, and begs his best friends into forming a fake band with him. When Cirrus asks to see them play, people start noticing him in the hallways. Now Sunny is going to football games and parties, feeling more confident, falling in love–and having fun. As his lies begin to catch up, was it all worth it?
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily Pan
eBook, eAudiobook
After her mother’s suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.
Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story by Sonia Patel
In Hawaii, Jaya Mehta is a transgender outsider with depressive tendencies. The stunningly beautiful Rasa Santos thinks sex is her only power. Rasa meets Xander, who beats her, cuts her, and makes her prostitute herself. Will their love transcend and pull them forward or will they remain stuck, separate, in the chaos of their pasts.
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
eBook
An intimate look at one family’s journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
Mad, Bad, & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed
eAudiobook
Told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, the latest novel from bestselling author Samira Ahmed traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of familial burdens and cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by various authors
eAudiobook
Fifteen authors of Asian descent reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia, in short stories ranging from fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge.
Yolk by Mary Choi
eBook, eAudiobook
Jayne and June are nothing alike. Their family moved from Seoul to San Antonio and finally New York. The sisters don’t want anything to do with each other… until June gets cancer. And Jayne becomes the only one who can help her. Now, flung together by sickness, bound by family secrets, they learn more about themselves and each other than they may be willing to confront.
Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali
eBook, eAudiobook
Fifteen-year-old Janna Yusuf, a Flannery O’Connor-obsessed book nerd and the daughter of the only divorced mother at their mosque, tries to make sense of the events that follow when her best friend’s cousin–a holy star in the Muslim community–attempts to assault her at the end of sophomore year.
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
eBook, eAudiobook
Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian–half, his mom’s side–and his first ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes.
Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi
eBook
At thirteen, bright-eyed, straight-A student Sara Saedi uncovered a terrible family secret: she was breaking the law simply by living in the United States. Only two years old when her parents fled Iran, she didn’t learn of her ‘illegal immigrant’ status until her older sister wanted to apply for an after-school job, but couldn’t because she didn’t have a Social Security number. Fear of deportation kept Sara up at night, but it didn’t keep her from being a teenager. She desperately wanted a green card, along with clear skin, her own car, and a boyfriend.
American Betiya by Anuradha Rajurkar
eBook, eAudiobook
Rani Kelkar never lied to her parents– until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in– his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art– make him her mother’s worst nightmare. When Oliver’s troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give. When a twist of fate leads Rani from Evanston, Illinois to Pune, India for a summer, she has a reckoning with herself… and what’s really brewing beneath the surface of her first love.
The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur
eBook, eAudiobook
In 1426 in Joseon, a year after her father vanishes while investigating the disappearance of thirteen girls, eighteen-year-old Min Hwani returns to the island of Jeju to pick up his trail with the help of her estranged sister.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
eBook, eAudiobook
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
eBook
When Ever Wong’s parents sent her away for the summer, she’s expecting Chien Tan: a strict, educational immersion program in Taiwan. Instead, she finds the infamous “Loveboat.” There, Ever is surrounded by prodigies, like Rick Woo, Chinese American wonder boy and longtime bane of her existence; Ever’s roommate, the confident and clever Sophia Ha, as glamorous as she is sharp; and the intimidatingly cool Xavier Yeh, heir to an international tech empire. But her classmates are more interested in the nonstop Taipei nightlife than anything to do with the curriculum.
A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen
eBook, eAudiobook
To her friends, high school senior Liza Yang is nearly perfect. But to her mom, Liza is anything but. Compared to her older sister Jeannie, Liza is stubborn, rebellious, and worst of all, determined to push back against all of Mrs. Yang’s traditional values, especially when it comes to dating. The one thing mother and daughter do agree on is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang is the owner of Houston’s popular Yin & Yang Bakery. With college just around the corner, Liza agrees to help out at the bakery’s annual junior competition to prove to her mom that she’s more than her rebellious tendencies once and for all. But when Liza arrives on the first day of the bake-off, she realizes there’s a catch: all of the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has handpicked for Liza to date.
The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala
eBook, eAudiobook
A first entry in a planned trilogy inspired by South Indian culture follows the efforts of a legendary girl rebel to assassinate a ruthless general in the face of her growing love for her target’s loyal but freedom-seeking nephew.
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
eBook, eAudiobook
They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the US while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out.
If I Tell You the Truth by Jasmin Kaur
eBook, eAudiobook
Kiran leaves her home in Punjab for a new start in Canada after a sexual assault leaves her pregnant. But overstaying her visa and living undocumented brings its own perils for both her and her daughter, Sahaara. Sahaara would do anything to protect her mother. When she learns the truth about Kiran’s past, she feels compelled to seek justice–even if it means challenging a powerful and dangerous man.
The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim
eBook, eAudiobook
To cure her post-senior year slump, made worse by the loss of her aunt Sonia, Noreen decides to follow her mom on a gap year trip to New Delhi, hoping India can lessen her grief and bring her voice back. In the world’s most polluted city, Noreen soon meets kind, handsome Kabir, who introduces her to the wonders of this magical, complicated place. With the help of Kabir–plus Bollywood celebrities, fourteenth-century ruins, karaoke parties, and Sufi saints–Noreen discovers new meanings for home. But when a family scandal erupts, Noreen and Kabir must face complex questions in their own relationship: What does it mean to truly stand by someone…and what are the boundaries of love?
I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee
eBook, eAudiobook
Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her. She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else. When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV.
I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi
eBook, eAudiobook
News stations across the country are reporting mysterious messages that Earth has been receiving from a planet–Alma–claiming to be its creator. If they’re being interpreted correctly, in seven days Alma will hit the kill switch on their “colony” Earth. True or not, for teenagers Jesse Hewitt, Cate Collins, and Adeem Khan, the prospect of this ticking time bomb will change their lives forever.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
eBook, eAudiobook
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another school. It’s an extremely turbulent time for the world, but also for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. But she’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments–even the physical violence–she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day…But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin.
For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig
eBook, eAudiobook
Jetta, a teen who possesses secret, forbidden powers, must gain access to a hidden spring and negotiate a world roiling with intrigue and the beginnings of war.
Almost American Girl by Robin Ha
eBook
For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation–following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married–Robin is devastated. Overnight, her life changes.
More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed Masood
When self-proclaimed ‘not very bright’ nineteen-year-old Danyal Jilani is chosen for a prestigious academic contest, he hopes to impress a potential arranged marriage match, only to begin falling for the girl helping him study instead.
Emergency Contact by Mary Choi
eBook, eAudiobook
After a chance encounter, Penny and Sam become each other’s emergency contacts and find themselves falling in love digitally, without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.
Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo
eBook, eAudiobook
Told from two viewpoints, teens Lucky, a very famous K-pop star, and Jack, a part-time paparazzo who is trying to find himself, fall for each other against the odds through the course of one stolen day.