Asian American Youth Literature: Immigration, Imagination, & the Library

Asian American youth literature had a slow start in the early twentieth century. Books were mostly in the genres of folk and fairy tales and written by outsiders at that time. There were books about Asians in Asia, but almost nothing about Asians in the United States. This lecture provides a historical overview of Asian American youth literature in the context of immigration patterns, social movements and other larger issues, and relates books for children and young adults with library services and programs for youth.