Growing up, I never encountered books that had characters that represented me, specifically, a mixed-race Asian/Caucasian girl.

However there were some characters I could attach myself to. I always got excited if I encountered an Asian character in a book I was reading, for example, Claudia Kishi from The Babysitters Club series or Jade Wu, from Sweet Valley High book #50, Out of Reach.

Where are the books that represent me?
This is my motivation.

Searching online catalogs and databases was an interesting experience. Browsing through bibliogrpahies was the same. What kind of words/search terms did I need to use?

• biracial (then sifting through those results to find asian, korean, japanese, chinese, vietnamese, etc.)
• multiracial
• multiethnic
• multicultural
  
• racially mixed
• hapa
• half-[insert asian ethnicity here]
  
• asian american
• asian-american
  

I found many books, however, flaws were present. While I applaud authors and illustrators who express multiculturalism in their work, I must stress the importance of authenticity and accuracy in these stories and illustrations. Kim/Kimi is an example of a promising story, but is ruined by the author's insensitive use of the word "oriental" to describe an Asian family Kim encounters on an airplane--twice! Talent Night is a story of a hapa teen who wants to be a rapper, but because he's part Asian, it's seen as an impossibility--the issue should not be race, it should be about the story of a teenageer achieving his goals.

The more recent books I found were much more authentic, and in short, wonderful.

Please have a look around my site. If I am missing titles, or if you have a comment or suggestion for the site, feel free to contact me!

Thanks,
Karla
klucht [at] uiuc [dot] edu