May is an important month for celebrating cultural heritage and identities as well as reflecting on the contributions and legacies of both Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities and Jewish Americans. From the perspective of Young Adult literature, these heritage months offer readers the opportunity to explore identity, cultural representation, and historical narratives that impact and shape these cultures and communities.

Historically, mainstream media has misrepresented or erased both AAPI and Jewish characters. They frequently face tokenized representation, are relegated to only portraying historical narratives of tragedy, or are neglected and sidelined as supporting characters told from Western authors’ outlooks. To combat this, read books written by authors from these cultural backgrounds since their perspectives add multidimensionality and authenticity to their representation. Their words also particularly resonate with young readers.

Many of these stories tackle themes of celebrating cultural heritage, navigating the complex landscape of bicultural and sometimes biracial identity. They also include themes of grappling with and healing from intergenerational trauma, combating racism and stereotypes, as well as wrestling with universal teen challenges as the characters grow across cultures, time, and genres.

The RPL website already displays a recently updated AAPI YA booklist, featuring AAPI authors and characters. Locate this at the bottom of the teen page of our website, here. To build upon this, and to recognize that some themes spread across cultures and genres, we include a new Asian Drama Vibes YA booklist. Asian dramas are increasingly popular with young audiences as they explore important themes like friendship, family values, love, and romance. If you are a fan of popular K-dramas, C-dramas, Bollywood flicks, or other drama filled romances, these books will appeal to you!

For our Jewish American Heritage list, we have chosen books that reflect that while stories of Jewish history are important, Jewish culture is rich, complex, historic, and ongoing.

Whether choosing to read these stories during the month of May or beyond, as readers we help to amplify the voices of authors who reflect vibrant lived experiences. We can also learn to understand, appreciate, celebrate, sympathize with, laugh with, cry with, and cheer on nuanced characters and the history, heritages, cultures, and backgrounds, from which they come as we read. Enjoy!