Today's Ypulse Guest Post is books related (yay!) and comes from author Mitali Perkins. Mitali has been a middle and high school teacher and is the author of several books including her most recent, First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover (Dutton), which was followed by a sequel, First Daughter: White House Rules (Dutton). You can read more about Mitali at her website. If you work in youth media or marketing and have an idea for a guest post, just send me an email!

Fusion Stories: Asian Pacific Heritage Month

This year Asian Americans are playing major roles in teen pop culture like never before. Take Ramiele Malubay (American Idol), for example, or Bobby Lee (MADtv), Kal Penn and John Ho (Harold and Kumar), Kristi Yamaguchi and Carrie Ann Inaba (Dancing with the Stars), Kaba Modern and Jabbawockeez (Randy Jackson's America's Best Dance Crews), and even MTV's Tila Tequila.

New Asian American voices have also moved into the mainstream of the book world. Today's titles for teens aren't mainly immigrant stories nor traditional tales retold. They deal with universal themes such as a straight-A teen struggling with a cheating scandal at her school (She's So Money by Cherry Cheva), a promising athlete coping with a snowboarding injury (Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley), and a Pakistani-born blogger whose father is about to become President (my own First Daughter: White House Rules).

An Na's The Fold, a novel about a teen considering plastic surgery to change the shape of her eyelids, speaks to all who long to be beautiful, and art-loving teens far and wide will connect with Joyce Lee Wong¹s novel-in-verse Seeing Emily. Paula Yoo, a one-time writer for People magazine and television hits like The West Wing, fuses her pop culture savvy and love of music in Good Enough, a novel about a violinist in rebellion. Her brother, David Yoo, connected with hormone-crazed nerds of every race in his funny novel Girls For Breakfast and is offering his fans the forthcoming Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before.

Founder of Readergirlz, a literacy initiative for teens, award-winning author Justina Chen Headley notes that these books are relished by readers from many different backgrounds. "There are a ton of interesting cultural trends that make it cool to read about Asian American characters," she says. "Take manga and anime, for instance. Or Gwen Stefani's harujuku girls. Mainstream, popular celebrities from actors to athletes are Asian American, and this is filtering into YA and middle grade novels."

Author Lisa Yee remembers the frustration of not finding many books about American girls like her. "When I grew up, there was no fiction featuring contemporary Asian Americans, unless of course the book was about the struggle of immigrants," she says. Thanks to exciting changes in children's book publishing, it's a different world for today's young readers of every cultural heritage, and they have many choices when it comes to novels.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and ten of us have banded together to offer FUSION STORIES, a menu of delectable next-gen hot-off-the-press novels for middle readers and young adults. FUSION STORIES' authors include Cherry Cheva (Los Angeles, CA), Justina Chen Headley (Seattle, WA), Grace Lin (Boston, MA), An Na (Montpelier, VT), Mitali Perkins (Boston, MA), Janet Wong (Princeton, NJ), Joyce Lee Wong (Los Angeles, CA), Lisa Yee (South Pasadena, CA), David Yoo (Boston, MA), and Paula Yoo (Los Angeles, CA).

FUSION STORIES aims to be a helpful resource for parents, educators, and young readers, so if you know of a novel that (1) is for middle readers or teens, (2) was published in 2007-2008 by a traditional publishing house, (3) features an Asian American protagonist, and (4) is set primarily in contemporary America, please send a .jpg of the cover, a .jpg of the author, one or two reviews, and a brief description of the novel here. FUSION STORIES would be delighted to add titles and authors to the site.

For more information, review copies, or interview requests with any of the authors, please contact press@fusionstories.com.

Posted by anastasia