Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

Chef Roy Choi calls himself a "street cook." He wants outsiders, low-riders, kids, teens, shufflers and skateboarders, to have food cooked with care, with love, with sohn maash. "Sohn maash" is the flavors in our fingertips. It is the love and cooking talent that Korean mothers and grandmothers mix into their handmade foods. For Chef Roy Choi, food means love. It also means culture, not only of Korea where he was born, but the many cultures that make up the streets of Los Angeles, where he was raised. So remixing food from the streets, just like good music--and serving it up from a truck--is true to L.A. food culture. People smiled and talked as they waited in line. Won't you join him as he makes good food smiles? Jacqueline Briggs Martin, author of the Caldecott Medal winner, Snowflake Bentley as well as Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table, and Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious continues her Food Heroes series with Chef Roy Choi on people who change what and how we eat. Together with food ethnographer June Jo Lee and internationally renowned graffiti artist Man One, they bring an exuberant celebration of street food and street art.

Meet Danbi, the new girl at school! Danbi is thrilled to start her new school in America. But a bit nervous too, for when she walks into the classroom, everything goes quiet. Everyone stares. Danbi wants to join in the dances and the games, but she doesn't know the rules and just can't get anything right. Luckily, she isn't one to give up. With a spark of imagination, she makes up a new game and leads her classmates on a parade to remember! Danbi Leads the School Parade introduces readers to an irresistible new character. In this first story, she learns to navigate her two cultures and realizes that when you open your world to others, their world opens up to you.

Ok Lee is determined to find the perfect get-rich-quick scheme in this funny, uplifting novel that bestselling author Gene Luen Yang called "So funny and heartfelt." Ok Lee knows it's his responsibility to help pay the bills. With his father gone and his mother working three jobs and still barely making ends meet, there's really no other choice. If only he could win the cash prize at the school talent contest! But he can't sing or dance, and has no magic up his sleeves, so he tries the next best thing: a hair braiding business. It's too bad the girls at school can't pay him much, and he's being befriended against his will by Mickey McDonald, the unusual girl with a larger-than-life personality. Who needs friends? They'd only distract from his mission, and Ok believes life is better on his own. Then there's Asa Banks, the most popular boy in their grade, who's got it out for Ok. But when the pushy deacon at their Korean church starts wooing Ok's mom, it's the last straw. Ok has to come up with an exit strategy--fast.

Fresh Off the Boat meets Junie B. Jones in this second novel in an adorable new chapter book series about Mindy Kim, a young Asian American girl who is getting ready to celebrate Lunar New Year! Mindy is excited to celebrate the Lunar New Year! Even though it's the first one without her mom, Mindy is determined to enjoy the day. She decides to make traditional Korean New Year food, a rice cake soup that's her favorite. But things aren't going quite to plan, and the celebration doesn't feel the same as it did before. With the help of her family and friends, can Mindy find a way to still enjoy her old holiday traditions, and create new ones along the way?

When a young boy and his mother travel overseas to her childhood home in Korea, the town is not as he imagined. Will he be able to see it the way Mommy does? This gentle, contemplative picture book about family origins invites us to ponder the meaning of home. A young boy loves listening to his mother describe the place where she grew up, a world of tall mountains and friends splashing together in the river. Mommy's stories have let the boy visit her homeland in his thoughts and dreams, and now he's old enough to travel with her to see it for himself. But when mother and son arrive, the town is not as he imagined. Skyscrapers block the mountains, and crowds hurry past. The boy feels like an outsider--until they visit the river where his mother used to play, and he sees that the spirit and happiness of those days remain. Sensitively pitched to a child's-eye view, this vivid story honors the immigrant experience and the timeless bond between parent and child, past and present.

A young girl tries to help her grandfather find a new chair in this moving picture book about loss and how the love of family can warm even the most broken heart. Julie's grandfather is looking for a new chair. But no matter what kind of chair he tries, he can never seem to find the right one. Some chairs are too small; others are too soft. Some are too hard, while others are too fancy. Just when Grandfather thinks he'll never find the right chair, Julie takes him to a park. And there, Grandfather finally finds the perfect seat . . . and discovers that it's not about the chair you sit in, it's about who is sitting next to you.

When a young boy's beloved plum tree falls in a storm, he feels like he's lost both a friend and a connection to his old home. A young boy, recently arrived from Korea, finds a glorious plum tree in his new backyard. It reminds him of a tree his family had back home, and he names it "Plumee" for the deep purple plums on its branches. Whenever the boy is homesick, he knows he can take shelter in Plumee's tall branches. And when a storm brings the old tree down, he and his friends have all kinds of adventures on its branches, as it becomes a dragon, a treehouse, and a ship in their imaginations. But soon it's time to say goodbye when the remains of the tree are taken away. Before long, a new plum tree is planted, new blossoms bloom, and a new friendship takes root. A South Korean immigrant herself, Hope Lim brings her perspective on the struggle for child immigrants to feel at home to bear through spare, poetic text, perfectly matched by soft, lyrical illustrations by Korean artist Il Sung Na.

One lie snowballs into a full-blown double life in this irresistible story about an aspiring stand-up comedian. On the outside, Yumi Chung suffers from #shygirlproblems, a perm-gone-wrong, and kids calling her "Yu-MEAT" because she smells like her family's Korean barbecue restaurant. On the inside, Yumi is ready for her Netflix stand-up special. Her notebook is filled with mortifying memories that she's reworked into comedy gold. All she needs is a stage and courage. Instead of spending the summer studying her favorite YouTube comedians, Yumi is enrolled in test-prep tutoring to qualify for a private school scholarship, which will help in a time of hardship at the restaurant. One day after class, Yumi stumbles on an opportunity that will change her life: a comedy camp for kids taught by one of her favorite YouTube stars. The only problem is that the instructor and all the students think she's a girl named Kay Nakamura--and Yumi doesn't correct them. As this case of mistaken identity unravels, Yumi must decide to stand up and reveal the truth or risk losing her dreams and disappointing everyone she cares about.

The #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist from the bestselling author of Everything, Everything will have you falling in love with Natasha and Daniel as they fall in love with each other. Natasha: I'm a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I'm definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won't be my story. Daniel: I've always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents' high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store--for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? This uplifting story brings Korean folklore to life as a girl goes on a quest to unlock the power of stories and save her grandmother. Some stories refuse to stay bottled up... When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni's Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now they want it back. And when one of the tigers approaches Lily with a deal--return what her grandmother stole in exchange for Halmoni's health--Lily is tempted to agree. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice...and the courage to face a tiger. Tae Keller, the award-winning author of The Science of Breakable Things, shares a sparkling tale about the power of stories and the magic of family. Think Walk Two Moons meets Where the Mountain Meets the Moon!