Picture Books That Celebrate Asian American Families
We love picture books that celebrate Asian and Asian American families, which help children see themselves in stories and show readers Asian representation in children’s books. Many of these recommendations are rooted in personal experiences with stories about relationships, food, traditions, celebrations, heritage, and immigration from Asian and Asian-American families of different countries and cultures.
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Add to BookshelfWatercress
by Andrea Wang
A Newbery Honor and Caldecott Award-winner, this powerful, lyrical story is based on the author’s childhood. A girl feels embarrassed when her family stops to pick watercress by the roadside. But after her family cooks the watercress for dinner and her mother shares a childhood memory about the importance of watercress during a famine in China, the girl’s feelings change to understanding and pride.
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Broken
by X. Fang
Oh, no! Who broke Ama’s cup? Mei Mei doesn’t want to admit she is at fault. Finally, Mei Mei tells the truth and is surprised by Ama’s easy forgiveness. The emotion-filled character art pops off the page, fitting the relatable story about a child feeling guilty after making a mistake.
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Curry Means More
by Maria Marianayagam
How can Shirin explain curry to her friend when there are so many different kinds? As Shirin’s mom cooks a curry with Shirin and her friend, Shirin finds many meanings in it: the smell of home, a way to show love, family stories, and a canvas for creativity. This is a sensory, savory story about the power of food to connect us to culture, heritage, and each other.
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Navigating Night
by Julie Leung
In this tender story with atmospheric artwork, a girl helps her dad with his nightly deliveries of Chinese take-out since he doesn’t speak much English. But the girl doesn’t like it and wishes she were more like other kids. After she tells him, the dad shares his immigration story, which helps the girl see her father and her life with gratitude and appreciation.
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The Jade Bracelet
by HĂ Dinh
When the other girls at school show their flashy new bracelets, Tiên, a recent immigrant from Vietnam, feels embarrassed by her simple Vietnamese jade bracelet. Her empathetic Má takes Tiên shopping for a different bracelet, and Tiên remembers the jade bracelet’s significance to her heritage and decides to wear it proudly. This story about honoring one’s heritage is based on the author’s personal experience.
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With You In Spirit
by Jenny Liao
In this story of family, tradition, and grief, a girl and her family visit Yeh Yeh’s gravesite on Qing Ming Day to honor his memory with traditions like burning joss paper and eating his favorite foods. The girl feels sad and worries that she will forget her Yeh Yeh’s memory, but then she remembers his laugh and smile. Those memories fill her heart with joy and love.
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7
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My Name Is Long as a River
by Suma Subramaniam
Traveling to a festival, a girl named Kaveri Thanjavur Jayalakshmi Ganesan, who goes by “Kav,” listens to her family’s stories about the inspiration for all her names: a powerful river, her birthplace, and a protector goddess. Once at the festival with her relatives, Kav is surprised to discover that all her relatives can say her whole name correctly, and she finally feels proud of her long-as-a-river name.
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8
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The Ocean Calls
by Tina Cho
Dayeon’s grandmother is a haenyeo, a treasure-hunting free diver (“mermaid”) in Korea. Dayeon can’t wait to carry on the diving tradition, but she’s afraid of the strange ocean creatures until her Grandma tethers them together and shows Dayeon the beauty beneath the water. With immersive, saturated illustrations, this story honors loving, generational relationships, connecting with nature, and a historic Korean tradition.
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9
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Once Upon a Sari
by Zenia Wadhwani
In a warmhearted story about tradition, heritage, and family, Avani can’t resist looking through her mother’s saris, but she makes a big mess. When her mother sees it, instead of getting upset, she shares memories of where each sari came from, including stories of wearing the saris at significant events, the sari worn on the grandparents’ journey during the Partition, and the different types of saris.
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10
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Dancing Dumplings for My One and Only
by Eva Wong Nava
A young girl loves making dumplings with her grandma. But when Grandma falls ill and can’t make dumplings, the granddaughter decides to cook them for her grandma until she feels better. This is a sweet intergenerational story about the importance of food in connecting and healing.
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11
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Picking Tea with Baba
by Xu Bin
In this sensory, slice-of-life story with stunning illustrations, we follow a close-knit family of tea pickers as they travel up a mountain with Baba singing and the brothers delighting in the natural world. When they arrive at their garden, the whole family pitches in to carefully pick the tea leaves. Then, after a long day, the family returns home with their baskets full of tea leaves, ready to be delivered to the factories.
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12
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Action Jasmine
by Kristen Mai Giang
In her dreams, Jasmine imagines she’s a superhero character named Action Jasmine, an alter ego who isn’t scared or shy. One day, at the park with her grandpa, Jasmine is too nervous to play freely until she sees a boy all by himself, and Jasmine uses the courage of Action Jasmine to make a new friend.
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