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A School Librarian Sharing Books & #ClassroomBookADay

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22 Asian American #ownvoices Picture Books for #classroombookaday

March 19, 2020

With everything happening and changing quickly with the concerns around Covid-19 and most schools being closed, I wanted to do some posts recommending picture books that you could record to share as virtual read alouds for your students (sharing in password-protected/closed groups or unlisted on YouTube preferably) to keep your #classroombookaday community going…if you are in an area where all families have access and the school supported providing devices if necessary. If not, then these recommendations would be good for you to read and add to your list for when we are back in school again. 
Most publishers have provided temporary open permissions during this time, but please see their sites for the complete detailed requirements before you record. Kate Messner is keeping an updated list of them here.& SLJ has an updated list here.
*Starred titles are from publishers who I have not yet seen a permissions statement from for video read alouds.
As I was contemplating how to focus this recommendation list, I saw this tweet from Kate, which clarified it for me. *Edited 3/19 4:45pm: I was called in on the fact that using Asian instead of Asian American is not the best way to word this as it “others” and erases the American identity that Asian Americans have. I have corrected each of my uses of the term & share to make my learning transparent and to help others learn also.

One of the ways I use my #classroombookaday choices intentionally is to help combat racism, bias, and stereotypes. What better chance than now to make this impact by featuring books from Asian American creators? 

I also highly recommend this more extensive book list from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association that was shared by Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen, who is a scholar in the area of Asian representation in children’s literature, for further recommendations for all levels.

22 Asian American #ownvoices Picture Books for #classroombookaday

Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao
by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua
35964863. sx318
 (Chinese)

Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic
by Ginnie Lo, illustrated by Beth Lo
14342572
(Chinese)

Bee-bim Bop! 
by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Ho Baek Lee
133472. sx318
(Korean)

A Big Bed for Little Snow 
by Grace Lin
43885033. sx318
(Chinese)

A Big Mooncake for Little Star 
by Grace Lin
34362953. sx318
(Chinese)

Dumpling Dreams: How Joyce Chen Brought the Dumpling from Beijing to Cambridge
by Carrie Clickard, illustrated by Katy Wu
34228305. sx318
(Chinese)

Drawn Together
by Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat
34791219
(Vietnamese & Thai)

Grand Canyon
by Jason Chin
29102876. sx318
(Chinese)

Grandmother’s Visit*
by Betty Quan, illustrated by Carmen Mok
36963360. sx318
(Chinese)

Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando*
by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Kana Urbanowicz
40539203. sx318
(Japanese)

A Map Into the World
by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Seo Kim
43272260. sx318
(Hmong)

A Morning with Grandpa
by Sylvia Liu, illustrated by Christina Forshay
27791901. sx318
(Chinese)

My Footprints*
by Bao Phi, illustrated by Basia Tran
41453583. sx318
(Vietnamese)

The Name Jar
 by Yangsook Choi
7774665
(Korean)

The Nian Monster*
by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Alina Chau
30201531. sx318
(Chinese)

Ojiichans Gift*
by Chieri Uegaki, illustrated by Genevieve Simms
41214332. sx318
(Japanese)

One Hug
by Katrina Moore, illustrated by Julia Woolf
42123852. sx318
(Chinese)

Sam & Eva
by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
34228365. sx318
(Japanese)

Suki’s Kimono*
by Chieri Uegaki, illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch
13797
(Japanese)

Sumo Joe
by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Nat Iwata
42171986. sx318
(Japanese)

Tiny Feet Between the Mountains 
by Hanna Cha
42667812. sx318
(Korean)

The Turtle Ship*
by Helena Ku Rhee, illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage
40490264
(Korean)

Please support your independent bookstores during this time!!
You can support my work & indies by shopping this list at my bookshop.org affiliate link.

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Filed Under: #ClassroomBookADay, Picture Books

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