Multicultural Identity

  • A Step from Heaven by An Na portrays a young girl's developing sense of self as she adjusts to American life, and also her conflict with her Korean father.
  • Begging for Change_ by Sharon Flake concerns a teen who's struggling with her biracial heritage. She's half African-American and half Korean.
  • Half and half by Lensey Namioka.
  • In the Korean American community, Marie G. Lee (Finding My Voice, Necessary Roughness, Saying Goodbye)
  • Laurence Yep (Dragonwings, Child of the Owl, Sea Glass, etc.) frequently has his characters grappling with their Chinese American identity.  What's intriguing is that in addition to illustrating the cultural and generational conflicts of his characters in the 21st century, he traces the historical evolution of this conflict through his historical fictional novels.
  • Refugee Boy –by Benjamin Zephaniah. Takes place in London- Alem'a father is Ethiopian and his mom is Eritrian Father brings him to England to get him away from conflict and to protect him.
  • Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury shows what it was like for Japanese in Hawaii at the time of Pearl Harbor - the whole intercultural relationship among the boys of different ethnicities is well done.
  • Yoshiko Uchida (Jar of Dreams, The Best Bad Thing) who addresses the cultural identity conflicts within the Japanese American community.
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