Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

Welcome to the Janus Silang blog tour! Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon is a new Filipino young adult novel written by Edgar Calabia Samar and published by Adarna House . We're kicking off the blog tour with a cover reveal and first chapter preview. Check out the cover below! Here is a blurb about the novel: Sa tournament ng TALA Online sa bayan ng Balanga, namatay ang lahat ng manlalaro maliban kay Janus. Sunod-sunod pa ang naging kaso ng pagkamatay ng mga kabataan sa computer shops sai ba’t ibang panig ng bansa. Kinontak si Janus ng nagpakilalang Joey, isa rin umano sa mga nakaligtas sa paglalaro ng TALA na gaya niya. Hindi inasahan ni Janus ang mga matutuklasan niya mula rito na mag-uugnay sa kanya sa misteryo ng kinahuhumalingan niyang RPG—at sa alamat ng Tiyanak mula sa Tábon! And ohohoho you can read the first chapter here or below! Edgar Calabia Samar will be at National Book Store SM North on May 10 at 3 p.m. Please join us for the book...

* This is my second guest blog post for PaperTigers . Please read it to find out about some new Philippine young adult literature. =D * Click here to read about a possible international book bloggers meetup. If it happens, I'll definitely be there! * Fantastic news! Tu Books has announced the first annual New Visions Award . The New Visions Award will be given for a middle grade or young adult fantasy, science fiction, or mystery novel by a writer of color. The winner receives a cash grant of $1000 and a standard publication contract with Tu Books. An honor winner will receive a cash grant of $500. Click here for more details. I look forward to reading the winning novels!

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2 Oct. 2012) I cannot even begin to express all my fangirl feelings right now.

Congratulations to the finalists of the 2011 Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards (the Cybils)! For this blog, I would like to highlight the following finalists. =D Middle Grade Fiction The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers) The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang (Scholastic) Warp Speed by Lisa Yee (Arthur A. Levine) Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy (Arthur A. Levine) Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade) The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty (Harcourt) Poetry Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul B. Janeczko (Candlewick Press) Graphic Novels Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch (Amulet) Sidekicks by Dan Santat (Arthur A. Levine) Level Up by Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham (First Second Books) Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult) Angelfall by Susan Ee (Feral Dream) Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Tor Teen) The winners will be announced on Valentine...

Cat Girl's Day Off by Kimberly Pauley ( Tu Books , April 2012)

Tu Books publishes speculative fiction for children and young adults featuring diverse characters and settings. Our focus is on well-told, exciting, adventurous fantasy, science fiction, and mystery novels featuring people of color set in worlds inspired by non-Western folklore or culture. We welcome Western settings if the main character is a person of color. We are looking specifically for stories for both middle grade (ages 8-12) and young adult (ages 12-18) readers. (We are not looking for picture books, chapter books, or short stories. Please do not send submissions in these formats.) For more information on how to submit, please see our submission guidelines . We are not accepting unagented email submissions at this time. What we’re particularly interested in seeing lately: Asian steampunk, any African culture, contemporary African-American stories, Latino/a stories, First Nations/Native American/Aboriginal fantasy or science fiction written by tribal members, original postapoca...

I was so happy to blog again today. Please click here to read my new interview with Candy Gourlay for Color Online. :o)

For the past couple months I've been working on the proposal for my MA thesis. Yesterday I defended the proposal before a panel of children's literature experts and I am happy and relieved to announce that they approved my thesis topic. They also gave enormously valuable feedback! So here is my final thesis topic (it has gone through four incarnations): I am going to trace the development of Asian American children's literature and determine its contributions to American children's literature. I will do this by doing a critical analysis of the Newbery books (Medal winners and Honor books) written by Asian Americans - Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Dragonwings by Laurence Yep, Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata, and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. My theoretical framework is ethnic studies and postcolonial studies, and I will be reading the books as Asian America...

Hi, everyone! I have another special guest today: Tutu Dutta-Yean. She's at Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind to share a bit about herself and her work in children's literature. Welcome, Tutu! About the Author Tutu Dutta-Yean was born in India, but she grew up in Malaysia. She has traveled and lived in Japan and France as a student and later in Singapore, Nigeria, New York and Cuba as the wife of a diplomat. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from University Putra Malaysia and also devoted a few years researching this subject for a master’s degree in the University of Malaya before embarking on a career in public relations. Her lifelong interest in culture, folklore and children’s literature inspired her to research and write her first book, Timeless Tales of Malaysia . Since then she has published two more books: Eight Fortunes of the Qilin and Eight Jewels of the Phoenix . She has a teenaged daughter, Shona, who was born in Singapore. At present, Tutu i...

Dear Greenwillow Books, I understand that you are worried about the sales of Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon and the potential sales of its sequel, Fury of the Phoenix . Oh, I know that you are not worried that Asian-inspired YA fantasy will not sell. If that was your worry, then you would never have chosen to publish Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix in the first place. The hardcover edition of Silver Phoenix has an Asian model on the cover. The paperback edition of Silver Phoenix and the hardcover edition of Fury of the Phoenix both use a Caucasian model on the cover. I take that to mean that you are worried that American readers will not buy books with Asians on the cover. Whitewashing a book cover does injustice to the book because it misrepresents the book and misleads readers. Moreover, there is racism at work in the whitewashing of book covers because of the underlying assumption that Asian faces are "not good enough" to sell books, or that Asian faces will so...

My favorite food scene in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon , written and illustrated by Grace Lin Minli entered the open air pavilion. At the center, two stools and a small table of elaborately carved gingko wood waited for them. A large, finely woven bamboo basket as tall as Minli's waist stood next to the chairs. The king eagerly lifted off its lid and rich, warm aromas floated in the air, making Minli's stomach grumble. The king took out the plates of delicate pink shrimp dumplings, savory noodles and pork, dragon's beard bean sprouts, emerald green chives, and a bowl of white jade tofu soup. A pot of tea and an assortment of cakes sat on the bottom layer of the basket, to finish off the dinner.

There is a barren mountain aptly called Fruitless Mountain, and by it lies the dark Jade River. In the shadow of the mountain is a poor village where everything is the dull color of mud. In this village live Ba and Ma and their quick-thinking daughter Minli. Ba, Ma, and Minli work hard in the fields every day, yet they only have plain rice to eat for their meals. Ma sighs with discontentment all the time. Minli looks at her weary father, her dissatisfied mother, and her desolate village and wishes she knew how she could change their fortune. Ba has told Minli wonderful stories about the Never-Ending Mountain and the Old Man of the Moon who knows the answer to all important questions, for he alone holds and reads the Book of Fortune. Minli decides to find the Never-Ending Mountain and climb up to the moon so that she can ask the Old Man how she can change her family's fortune. And so begins Minli's journey. Along the way, she makes many new friends, including a dragon, a buffa...

When Ash is around twelve years old, her mother dies and her father dies soon after. But not before marrying a woman with two daughters of her own. Even with a stepmother and two stepsisters, Ash is all alone, for her stepfamily treats her very unkindly and like a servant. And always, always Ash feels the loss of her mother. Ash inherited her mother's love of fairy tales and she reads stories about how fairies can take people to see their deceased loved ones. Ash seeks out fairies because magic reminds her of her mother and she would like to ask the fairies to bring her mother back from the dead. She finds fairies and forms a very peculiar relationship with one named Sidhean. Sidhean is powerful and more handsome than any man Ash has ever seen. He desires Ash and claims her as his own. Though he and Ash are strange friends/companions for many years, they rarely spend time together. Sidhean claims that Ash is not yet ready to stay with him and his people. However, Ash yearns to leav...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on May 24, 2009. Today, I have the privilege of interviewing blogger and YA writer Ellen Oh . I first came across Ellen's popular blog Hello Ello while I was doing research for my interview with Ingrid Law . ( Ellen's oldest daughter had interviewed Ingrid .) I checked out Hello Ello and really liked what I saw and discovered that Ellen had written Seven Kingdoms , a young adult fantasy set in ancient Korea. My interest was further piqued and I immediately emailed Ellen to let her know that I thought Seven Kingdoms sounded AWESOME. Alas, Seven Kingdoms is not yet a published book. But I think it's only a matter of time before we see Ellen's work on bookstore shelves. And the wait will be well worth it. Ellen, can you tell us a bit about your Asian American heritage? I'm an American Gyopo - which is the Korean term for any person of Korean ethnic descent who lived the majority of their lives outside of Korean...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on May 18, 2009.   On the day of her first betrothal meeting--and rejection--Ai Ling discovers a power welling deep within her. She can reach into other people’s spirits, hear their thoughts, see their dreams. And that’s just the beginning. Ai Ling has been marked by the immortals. Her destiny lies in the emperor’s palace, where a terrible evil has lived, stealing souls, for centuries. She must conquer this enemy and rescue her captive father, while mythical demons track her every step. And then she meets Chen Yong, a young man with a quest of his own, whose fate is intertwined with hers. Here is a heart-stopping, breathtaking tale for fans of action, fantasy, and romance--of anything with the making of legend. Hello! Today we continue our celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with an interview of Cindy Pon , author of a new Asian fantasy for young adults, Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia (Greenwillow Books/H...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on July 21, 2008. Translated into English by Cathy Hirano Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit , the first part of a ten-book Japanese fantasy series, introduces readers to the interconnected worlds of Sagu and Nayugu. Sagu is the visible world of humans and Nayugu is the invisible world of creatures like Juchi Ro Gai (the Mud Dwellers) and Yona Ro Gai (the Water Dwellers). Nyunga Ro Im is the Water Spirit from Nayugu that causes rain in both worlds. Once every hundred years, Nyunga Ro Im lays an egg and dies. The egg hatches to become the new Water Spirit and control the weather of the worlds. If the egg is destroyed, Sagu and Nayugu will suffer from a deadly drought. For mysterious reasons, Nyunga Ro Im lays its egg inside one of the To Ro Gai (the Land Dwellers of Sagu) - a human. That human is known as the Moribito, the Guardian of the Spirit. In this fast-paced, action-packed epic, the Moribito is Prince Chagum, the second son of the Mi...