Have you Heard? Audiobooks by Asian and Pacific Island Americans

May is Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month.

Asian/Pacific encompasses all of Asia as well as the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the trackers were Chinese immigrants. For more information and resources you can visit Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

Celebrate the voices and stories of Asian and Pacific Island American authors with audiobooks from the Plano Public Library. The recommended reads below are just a sample of the audiobooks in our collection, and you can visit a library location for assistance in finding personalized recommendations.

Adult:

Dear Girls written and narrated by Ali Wong. Ali Wong’s heartfelt and hilarious letters to her daughters (the two she put to work while they were still in utero) cover everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mom in a male-dominated profession, and how she trapped their dad. Overdrive / Print.

The Poppy War written by R.F. Kuang, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. The first installment in a Chinese-history inspired epic fantasy trilogy about empire, warfare, shamanism, and opium. Overdrive / Print.

The Henna Artist written by Alka Joshi, narrated by Sneha Mathan. Escaping from an arranged and abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the vibrant pink city of Jaipur where she becomes the henna artist—and confidante—most in demand to the wealthy women of the upper class. Overdrive / Print / Large Print.

Pachinko written by Min Jin Lee, narrated by Allison Hiroto. In this bestselling, page-turning saga, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in twentieth-century Japan, exiled from a home they never knew. Overdrive / Print / Large Print.

Little Fires Everywhere written by Celeste Ng, narrated by Jennifer Lim. From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Overdrive / Playaway / Print / Large Print.

The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan, narrated by Gwendoline Yeo. Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who’s telling the stories. Book on CD / Print / Spanish / Chinese.

The Leavers written by Lisa Ko, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. After Deming Guo’s mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home, he struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind. Overdrive / Print.

The Calligrapher’s Daughter written by Eugenia Kim, narrated by Lorna Raver. A sweeping debut novel, inspired by the life of the author’s mother, about a young woman who dares to fight for a brighter future in occupied Korea. Overdrive / Book on CD / Print.

The Kiss Quotient written by Helen Hoang, narrated by Carly Robins. Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe, but there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will you’re your heart tick. Overdrive / Book on CD / Print.

The Piano Teacher written by Janice Y.K. Lee, narrated by Orlagh Cassidy. War-torn Hong Kong takes center stage in this sumptuous novel of love and betrayal, set in the 1940s and ’50s. Overdrive / Book on CD / Print.

Teen:

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns written by Julie C. Dao, narrated by Kim Mai Guest. The Wrath and the Dawn meets Snow White and the Huntsman in this dark and mystical East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl’s quest to become Empress. Overdrive / Print.

Wicked Fox written by Kat Cho, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. A fresh and addictive fantasy-romance set in modern-day Seoul and based on the Korean myth of the gumiho, a nine-tailed fox that becomes a beautiful girl to hunt down men and devour their energy. Overdrive / Print.

Want written by Cindy Pon, narrated by Roger Yeh. From critically acclaimed author Cindy Pon comes an edge-of-your-seat sci-fi thriller, set in a near-future Taipei plagued by pollution, about a group of teens who risk everything to save their city. Overdrive / Print.

The Way You Make Me Feel written by Maurene Goo, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. Prankster Clara Shin takes a joke too far and her dad sentences her to a summer spent working on his food truck alongside her uptight classmate. Overdrive / Print.

Scavenge the Stars written by Tara Sim, narrated by Maria Liatis. In this gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning and reinvents herself to seek revenge against the man who ruined her family and stole the life she once had. Playaway / Print.

The Downstairs Girl written by Stacey Lee, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta, but by night she moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady. Overdrive / Print / Large Print.

We Are Not Free written by Traci Chee, narrated by Scott Keiji Takeda. From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II. Overdrive / Print.

I’ll Be the One written by Lyla Lee, narrated by Greta Jung. Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her. Overdrive / Print.

Patron Saints of Nothing written by Randy Ribay, narrated by Ramón de Ocampo. After the death of his cousin at the hands of the Duterte regime, Filipino American Jay Reguero is determined to find out what happened. Overdrive / Print.

The Astonishing Color of After written by Emily X.R. Pan, narrated by Stephanie Hsu. After her mother dies by suicide, Leigh is convinced her mother has been reincarnated as a red bird and travels to Taiwan to meet her mother’s parents for the first time. Overdrive / Print.

Children’s:

Aru Shah and the End of Time written by Roshani Chokshi, narrated by Soneela Nankani. When twelve-year-old Aru Shah unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty is to awaken the God of Destruction, she’ll have to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers from the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata. Overdrive / Playaway / Print / Large Print.

Other words for Home written by Jasmine Warga, narrated by Vaneh Assadourian. A gorgeously written, hopeful middle grade novel in verse about a young girl who must leave Syria to move to the United States, perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Aisha Saeed. Overdrive / Playaway / Print.

Front Desk written by Kelly Yang, narrated by Sunny Lu. Recent immigrants from China, desperate for money, ten-year-old Mia Tang’s parents take a job managing a rundown Southern California motel for skinflint Mr. Yao, whose son is the only other Chinese American in Mia’s class. Overdrive / Print / Large Print.

The Serpent’s Secret written and narrated by Sayantani DasGupta. Up until her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala considered herself an ordinary sixth-grader in Parsippany, New Jersey, but then her parents disappear and a drooling rakkhosh demon shows up in her kitchen, and soon she is swept into another dimension. Overdrive / Book on CD / Playaway / Print.

Amina’s Voice written by Hena Khan, narrated by Soneela Nankani. A Pakistani-American Muslim girl struggles to stay true to her family’s vibrant culture while simultaneously blending in at school. Overdrive / Playaway / Print.

Stand Up, Yumi Chung! Written by Jessica Kim, narrated by Greta Jung. When eleven-year-old Yumi Chung stumbles into a kids’ comedy camp she is mistaken for another student, so she decides to play the part. Overdrive / Playaway / Print.

Prairie Lotus written by Linda Sue Park, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. A powerful, touching, multilayered book about a young half-Asian girl in a small town in America’s heartland in 1880 who is determined to fit in and realize her dreams: getting an education, becoming a dressmaker in her father’s shop, and making at least one friend. Overdrive / Print / Large Print.

When You Trap a Tiger written by Tae Keller, narrated by Greta Jung. 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. Overdrive / Print / Large Print.

Clues to the Universe written by Christina Li, narrated by MiMi Change. The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her dad is building rockets with him, but when he dies unexpectedly, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together. Overdrive / Print.

Girl Giant and the Monkey King written by Van Hoang, narrated by Kim Mai Guest. Eleven-year-old Thom Ngho is keeping a secret: she’s strong. In a desperate bid to get rid of her super strength, Thom makes a deal with the Monkey King, a powerful deity and legendary trickster she accidentally released from his 500-year prison sentence. Overdrive / Print.