How To Talk To Your Kids About...
Stop AAPI Hate and Racism Towards the Asian American/Pacific Islander Community
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"The thing that I’ve learned most is not to shy away from talking to [my daughter] about race, or even racism, in a way that she can understand. Kids will let you know if they don’t understand, because they’ll say 'I don’t understand.'" —W. Kamau Bell
Helpful Links For Starting Conversations
With Youth On Anti-Asian/Pacific Islander Racism
Anti-Racism 101: Starting to Talk About Race
AAPI Specific Resources:
STOP AAPI HATE's Guide to Discussing Anti-Asian Racism With Students
Colorful Pages - Books addressing Anti-AAPI Racism and to Empower the AAPI Community
Asian Pacific American History Month Resources for Teachers
Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide (Human Rights Watch article)
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
3-5 Years Old
Colorful Pages is an excellent resource for diverse children's books. Example book lists:
Diverse Fairytales
Diverse Books For Women's History
Eyes That Kiss in the Corners
"A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers'. They have big, round eyes and long lashes. She realizes that her eyes are like her mother’s, her grandmother's, and her little sister's. They have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future. Drawing from the strength of these powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self love and empowerment."
By Joanna Ho, Illustrated by Dung Ho
Kindergarten - 2nd Graders
Colorful Pages is an excellent resource for diverse children's books. Example book lists:
Diverse Fairytales
Diverse Early Chapter Books
Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month
Diverse Books For Women's History
2018 Ultimate List of Diverse Children's Books
Lakeshore: People Colors Crayon Pack
Find Your Local Representatives (For calling and letter writing)
The Name Jar
"Being the new kid in school is hard enough, but what about when nobody can pronounce your name? Having just moved from Korea, Unhei is anxious that American kids will like her. So instead of introducing herself on the first day of school, she tells the class that she will choose a name by the following week. Her new classmates are fascinated by this no-name girl and decide to help out by filling a glass jar with names for her to pick from. But one of her classmates comes to her neighborhood and discovers her real name and its special meaning. On the day of her name choosing, the name jar has mysteriously disappeared. Encouraged by her new friends, Unhei chooses her own Korean name and helps everyone pronounce it—Yoon-Hey."
By Yangsook Choi
Grades 3rd - 5th
Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Supremacy
Find Your Local Representatives (For calling and letter writing)
Colorful Pages: Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month
The Shark King
"From the islands of Hawaii comes the electrifying tale of Nanaue, who has to balance his yearning for Dad's guidance with his desire for Mom's nurture. Award-winning cartoonist R. Kikuo Johnson transports young readers to the lush tropical shores of his native Hawaii. Fluent or not, young readers will be thrilled when they experience the transformative powers of a stirring literary work."
By R. Kikuo Johnson
They Called Us Enemy
"Long before George Takei braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future."
By George Takei
Grades 6th - 8th
Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Supremacy
Find Your Local Representatives (For calling and letter writing)
Front Desk
"Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?"
By Kelly Yang
The Magic Fish
"Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay? A beautifully illustrated story by Trung Le Nguyen that follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales, an instant classic that shows us how we are all connected. The Magic Fish tackles tough subjects in a way that accessible with readers of all ages, and teaches us that no matter what—we can all have our own happy endings."
By Trung Le Nguyen
American Born Chinese
"All Jin Wang 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 his school. Jocks and 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... 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. Adored by his subjects, master of the arts of kung-fu, he is the most powerful monkey on earth. But the Monkey King doesn't want to be a monkey. He wants to be hailed as a god...Chin-Kee is the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and he's ruining his cousin Danny's life. Danny's a popular kid at school, but every year Chin-Kee comes to visit, and every year Danny has to transfer to a new school to escape the shame. This year, though, things quickly go from bad to worse..."
By Gene Luen Yang
Grades 9th+
Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Supremacy
Find Your Local Representatives (For calling and letter writing)
Hello, Universe
"In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his loud and boisterous family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister Gen is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just act normal so that he can concentrate on basketball. They aren’t friends -- at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find the missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms."
By Erin Entrada Kelly
WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration
"Three voices. Three acts of defiance. One mass injustice. The story of camp as you’ve never seen it before. Japanese Americans complied when evicted from their homes in World War II -- but many refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps without a fight. In this groundbreaking graphic novel, meet: JIM AKUTSU, who refuses to be drafted from the camp at Minidoka when classified as a non-citizen, an enemy alien; HIROSHI KASHIWAGI, who resists government pressure to sign a loyalty oath at Tule Lake, but yields to family pressure to renounce his U.S. citizenship; and MITSUYE ENDO, a reluctant recruit to a lawsuit contesting her imprisonment. Based upon painstaking research, We Hereby Refuse presents an original vision of America’s past with disturbing links to the American present."
