My Life: Growing up Asian in America

MY LIFE: GROWING UP ASIAN IN AMERICA is edited by CAPE, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, a non-profit whose focus is on “creating opportunities and driving Asian and Pacific Islander success in Hollywood.” They have gathered essays, poems, and comics from over two dozen people, including novelists such as Melissa da la Cruz and Marie Lu, business leaders like Ellen K. Pao, plus journalists and TV and film writers. Each story centers on some aspect of growing up Asian American. In “A Pair of Shorts” Kao Kalia Yang (The Latehomecomer), for example, reflects on an incident form her childhood and tells readers, “I want to please both of them, my mother and my grandmother. But I also want to look like the other kids at school, the ones whose legs climb into the sky when they swing high and move fast ahead of me after balls in the school yard. … And by the end of the school day, I come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what I wear; I’ll never fit in, be a regular American kid.”  PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz shares “The Ring” which begins shortly after 9/11 and in which she says, “I hid part of myself, minimized part of myself. I did all this to avoid the scrutiny, the questions, and the hostility of others.” There is much to contemplate and discuss: Nawaz reflects on her ancestors who “chose to believe that America could be as good and great as she says she is. My girls will know the work it takes, and will continue to take, for their generation and the next, to make that true for everyone.” I know our students will appreciate the hope these authors share as they speak to their younger selves and to their own children.

A short biography of each of the contributors appears at the end of MY LIFE: GROWING UP ASIAN IN AMERICA and quotes from other Asian Americans are dispersed between selections. I saw only the digital preview, but hopefully the print edition has a Table of Contents to assist readers as they sample different selections. I am encouraging teachers to do that this summer as they prepare curriculum choices for next year. This collection received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus.