General Outline
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Why is HBBB a thing?
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I am a list maker. I love organizing booklists, to-do lists, checklists of all kinds. I spend a great deal of my time researching books for my job and I’ve often found it frustrating that there isn’t one reliable resource where I can find an organized timeline of literature. So I’ve created one. I’ve set out to create a resource that will guide you on a literary adventure through history.
You can find books here on just about every time period or historical topic and for any age level. I’ve done my best to research and vet each title to ensure that this list is filled with living books. I’ve noted content warnings when necessary and my daughters and I have reviewed many of the titles recommended. This has been and will continue to be a labor of love, as we continue to build this website and update these book suggestions. I hope you find it helpful!
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Book Suggestions Published in 2022
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Featured Weekly Book Suggestion - 10/10/2022
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Modern Age
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New From Here
Author: Yang, Kelly
Buy at Amazon | BookShop.org
Time Period: Modern Age
Time Frame: 2019-2020
Geographic Area: North America, Asia
Country: United States, Hong Kong
Topics: Asian Americans, COVID-19 Pandemic
Genre: Fiction
Reading Age: Middle Grade, Upper Middle Grade
Format: Chapter Book
Published: 2022
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American History > Modern Age
This “timely and compelling” (Kirkus Reviews) middle-grade novel about courage, hope, and resilience follows an Asian American boy fighting to keep his family together and stand up to racism during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.
When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay for work.
At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the flights have been cancelled. And everyone struggles with Knox’s blurting-things-out problem.
As racism skyrockets during COVID-19, Knox tries to stand up to hate, while finding his place in his new country. Can you belong if you’re feared; can you protect if you’re new? And how do you keep a family together when you’re oceans apart? Sometimes when the world is spinning out of control, the best way to get through it is to embrace our own lovable uniqueness.
Emily's Review
This was my first time reading Kelly Yang and I now want to read everything she's ever written. I loved this story. The characters were all so very vivid. This is a story about a boy named Knox trying to keep his family together during a difficult time. Set at the very beginning of the pandemic, we follow Knox and his family who live in Hong Kong. they are a biracial family, and his mother is Chinese, they speak Mandarin Chinese as well as English. When the pandemic begins, there is a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in Hong Kong, so they make the decision to move to San Francisco in the US. But because of his job, their father has to stay behind.
This story is filled with heart. The sibling relationships are great, and their struggles all felt very realistic and relatable. I loved Knox as the narrator. He learns over the course of the story that he has ADHD and discovers that he has support for his differences. He's a sweet boy who means well but struggles with impulsiveness which often gets him into trouble. He and his siblings come up with a multitude of ways to work together to earn money so they can purchase a plane ticket to get their father home, as well as find him a job so he can stay.
This story also deals with racism and fear, which go hand-in-hand. As the COVID-19 pandemic begins, people start to view Chinese people with suspicion and we see the characters in the story experience this, both in Hong Kong and in the US. One of Knox's new friends is a Chinese American whose family owns a Chinese restaurant, and we see that they are struggling as people fear eating Chinese food.
I also love that Kelly Yang wrote this story based on her own family's experience - they too had to uproot their lives in Hong Kong to come to the US at the beginning of the pandemic. This story was sweet, heartfelt, and laugh-out-loud funny. I recommend it to kids ages 8+.
Other Similar Books
Other suggestions on the subject of the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Books. Lots of Books.
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