Happy Birthday PaperTigers! Here’s my contribution to the Top 10 Lists!
Happy 10th Birthday PaperTigers!
I’ve been blessed to be a part of the PaperTigers’ team since December 2006 when I took on the role of Eventful World Coordinator just prior to the launch of the PaperTigers blog. As the years passed and PaperTigers continued to grow, evolve and expand (most noticeably with the launch of our Spirit of PaperTigers Book Sets and Outreach Program) my role within the organization changed too. In 2010 I was offered the job of Associate Editor and since then have worked closely alongside our wonderful and very talented editor Marjorie Coughlan to produce PaperTigers’ three components: the website, the blog and the Outreach site .
I consider myself so lucky to be doing a job that I love in a field that I love! Children’s literature has always been my passion and during my years with PaperTigers I’ve not been the only one in my family to benefit from the pile of books that just have to be read for work. (Insert a big smiley face here because really…how wonderful is it to have to read books!) When I started working at PaperTigers my children were in elementary school so naturally we focused a lot of our reading time at home on children’s and junior books. However as PaperTigers and my kids grew I found myself developing more and more interest in Young Adult books. Now I have to say that although children’s picture books will always hold a very special place in my heart , Young Adult books tug strongly at my heart too! So when it came time to do a Top 10 list for PaperTigers’ anniversary celebration, it only made sense for me to select my favorite Young Adult books. Drum roll please….in random order I present:
1. Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins (Delacorte Press, 2009)
When her unemployed father leaves India to look for work in America, Asha, her mother and sister move in with family in Calcutta. When news comes that her father is accidentally killed in America and her family’s financial difficulties intensify, Asha makes a heartwrenching, secret decision that solves many problems and creates others.
2. Borderline by Allan Stratton (Harper Collins Children’s Books, 2010)
When Sami catches his father in a lie, he gets suspicious as does the FBI who descend on his home, and Sami’s family (the only Muslims in the neighbourhood) becomes the center of an international terrorist investigation.
3. Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth (Hyperion Books for Children , 2008)
12-year-old Leela’s husband unexpectedly dies and custom requires her confinement at home for a year, “keeping corner.” Prohibited from ever remarrying, Leela faces a barren future: however, her brother has the courage to buck tradition and hire a tutor to educate her. This powerful and enchanting novel juxtaposes Leela’s journey to self-determination with the parallel struggle of her family and community to follow Gandhi on the road to independence from British rule.
4. I am a Taxi by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood Books, 2006)
12-year-old Diego is deep in the Bolivian jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again. As well as being a great read, I am a Taxi packs in a store of information about Bolivia and the exploitation of children in the drug-trade, and raises polemics about the growth of the coca plant.
5. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (Harper Collins, 2011)
During the Vietnam War Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.
6. Karma by Cathy Ostlere
On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi is gunned down by two Sikh bodyguards. The murder sparks riots in Delhi and for three days Sikh families are targeted and killed in retribution for the Prime Minister’s death. It is into this chaos that fifteen-year-old Maya and her Sikh father, Amar, arrive from their home in Canada. India’s political instability is the backdrop and catalyst for Maya’s awakening to the world. Karma is the story of how a young woman, straddling two cultures and enduring personal loss, learns forgiveness, acceptance and love.
7. Orchards by Holly Thompson
After a bullied classmate commits suicide, Kana Goldberg – a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American- is sent to her family’s home in Japan for the summer. Kana wasn’t the bully, not exactly, but she didn’t do anything to stop what happened, either. As Kana begins to process the pain and guilt she feels, news from home sends her world spinning out of orbit all over again.
8. Tall Story by Candy Gourlay (David Fickling Books, 2010)
Andi hasn’t seen her brother for eight years and when he steps off the plane from the Philippines, she cannot believe her eyes. He’s tall. EIGHT FOOT TALL. But Bernardo is not what he seems. Bernardo is a hero, Bernardo works miracles, and Bernardo has an amazing story to tell. In a novel packed with quirkiness and humor, Gourlay explores a touching sibling relationship and the clash of two very different cultures.
9. Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Lee and Low Books, 2011)
As the oldest of eight siblings, Lupita is used to taking the lead—and staying busy behind the scenes to help keep everyone together. But when she discovers Mami has been diagnosed with cancer, Lupita is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit Mexican American family. Suddenly Lupita must face a whole new set of challenges, with new roles to play, and no one is handing her the script.
10. Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan (Groundwood Books, 2009)
Set in war-torn Afghanistan, post-Taliban and just after the American invasion in 2001, Wanting Mor brings a ravaged landscape to life and portrays the effects of war on civilians caught up in conflict, especially on children. Based on a true story about a girl who ended up in one of the orphanages Rukhsana sponsors in Afghanistan through the royalties of her book The Roses in My Carpets.
October 27th, 2012 at 5:10 am
Thank you for sharing such a great YA Asian American book list!
October 27th, 2012 at 8:15 am
Thanks for this great list, Corinne. There are a couple of my favourites there too, plus some I’ve been wanting to read and haven’t got round to yet, plus some new ones for me that now join them on the list!
October 28th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
What a great list, Corinne. And I see a few of my favorites up here and quite a number of unfamiliar ones too! Will go hunt for them soon!
I’m sure they’re fabulous as they’re recommended by you, dah-lin! 
October 29th, 2012 at 12:28 am
Just wanted to clarify–I saw this pinned on Pinterest as an Asian American list, but is this list intended to be an Asian American list, or just your top 10 favorite multicultural YA books? Because several aren’t set in the US, and Under the Mesquite is a Latina book, not Asian American.
October 29th, 2012 at 3:42 am
Stacy, I know Corinne has been away over the week-end, so I’ll jump in and reply, though I know Corinne will do so herself when she’s back. These are YA books set around in different cultures around the world, as you have pointed out, and it certainly wasn’t intended as an Asian American list.
October 29th, 2012 at 9:43 am
Oh, good. I didn’t see Asian American in the post, but I didn’t look at the other posts in this series to be sure there wasn’t a theme going on that I’d missed, or if the pin was just mistaken. Glad to clear that up.
October 29th, 2012 at 10:11 am
Hello Stacy:
Many thanks for your comment and thanks to Marjorie for stepping in while I was away and clarifying. Yes, the list was not intended to be an Asian American list but simply my top 10 list of multicultural young adult books. It was such a challenge to narrow the list down to 10 and interesting to see what made the final cut. Obviously I do enjoy Asian American literature as several made the cut and I also enjoy novels with settings in India (a country I would love to visit one day). Another interesting thing is that I use to freely admit I wasn’t a fan of novels in verse. Obviously though that has changed at some point as 4 of my top 10 books are novels in verse (Karma, Orchards, Inside Out and Back Again, and Under the Mesquite).
November 8th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
[...] Corinne Robson’s contribution to the Top 10 Lists [...]