Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (teens)

"Alma's life is a constant of halfways: She's half-Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting, and the other half silent; and, at thirteen, she's halfway through becoming a woman. Then comes the year when everything changes, and her life is overtaken by constant endings: friends move away, romances bloom and wither, her parents file for divorce, and just like that her childhood seems to be over. Among this world of confusing beginnings,...

Story 1: "All Jin Wing wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at the school. Jocki and his bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl." Story 2: "Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables....

In the final days of the Viet Nam War, Hang takes her little brother, Linh, to the airport, determined to find a way to safety in America. In a split second, Linh is ripped from her arms--and Hang is left behind in the war-torn country. Six years later, Hang has made the brutal journey from Viet Nam and is now in Texas as a refugee. She doesn't know how she will find the little brother who was taken from her until she meets LeeRoy, a city boy with...

"A life-long speech competitor, Leela loves nothing more than crushing the competition, all while wearing a smile. But when she meets the incorrigible Firoze Darcy, a debater from an elitist private school, Leela can't stand him. Unfortunately, he'll be competing in the state league, so their paths are set to collide. But why attempt to tolerate Firoze when Leela can one-up him? The situation is more complicated than Leela anticipated, though, and...

Twelve-year-old Iranian refugee Khosrou moves to Oklahoma where he goes by Daniel and models himself after the legendary storyteller Scheherazade as he weaves tales that reflect his perseverance and reinvention. At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a...

When Sirscha Ashwyn restores her best friend Saengo to life, Sirscha is drawn into the domain of the Spider King and events surrounding the Dead Wood. After years of training to become the queen's next royal spy, Sirscha Ashwyn's plans are derailed when shamans attack and kill her best friend Saengo. Then Sirscha, somehow, restores Saengo to life. Unveiled as the first soulguide in living memory, Sirscha is summoned to the domain of the Spider King....

"If Rika's life seems like the beginning of a familiar fairy tale--being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in her aunts' business--she would be the first to reject that foolish notion. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney characters), and with her biracial background, amazing judo skills and red-hot temper, she doesn't quite fit the princess mold. All that changes the instant she locks eyes with...

Struggling with her parent's divorce and her grandmother's dementia, fifteen-year-old Sarah Khan tries to distract herself in a home renovation project but instead finds the house is full of dark family secrets that give rise to ghostly apparitions.

Jamie Ruan is the queen bee of Sinclair Prep. Until one day she's ... dead. Her former closest friends have no idea what happened to her. Or do they? An anonymous poster, calling themselves The Proctor, points a finger: Jamie has four former friends. Each friend has a secret. On day, Jamie goes missing. Which friend is guilty and deserves punishment? Akil Patel is Sinclair Prep's track star ... but can he outrun his secrets and the one who's out to...

"Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her when her friends don't invite her to parties. Some are big, like that fact that her father may be having an affair. And then there's the one that she can barely even admit to herself -- the one about how she might have a crush on her best friend. When Sana and her family move to California she begins to wonder if it's finally time for some honesty, especially...