Asian Pacific Heritage Month

As we continue to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month, we thought we would share some information to help you gain a better understanding of why we celebrate this month. Asian-Pacific Heritage includes all of Asia and the islands in the Pacific including New Zealand and the Polynesian Islands.

The month of May was chosen to mark the migrations of the first Japanese to the United States as well as the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Many of the workers who laid these tracks were Chinese immigrants. Literature is a great place to start when gaining insight into diverse cultures. Below you will find a small collection of books that may interest you:

• A is for Asia by Cynthia Chin-Lee
• Asian Children’s Favorite Stories by David Conger, Marian Davies and Toth and Kay Lyons
• Asian Holidays by Faith Winchester
• Come Look With Me: Asian Art by Kimberly Lane
• I Dreamed I was a Panda by Debra A. Johnson
• Floating Clouds, Floating Dreams; Favorite Asian Folk Tales edited by I.K. Junne
• The Tiger’s Whisker and Other Tales from Asia and the Pacific by Harold Courlander
• Asian Kites by Wayne Hosking
• Haiku: Asian Arts and Crafts for Creative Kids by Patricia Donegan
• A Kid’s Guide to Asian American History by Valerie Petrillo

Please follow along next week as we dive deeper into the different Asian countries discussed in some of these books.