“Numbers matter.” It’s a sentiment that author Linda Sue Park acknowledged seemed rather cold, but one that is important nonetheless when discussing representation.
“I have never been in a library that did not have enough white books,” said Park, a Korean American author whose novel A Single Shard (Clarion Books, 2001) won the 2002 Newbery Medal. She suggested that, to increase representation of other cultures and perspectives, librarians should consider buying more books from marginalized authors. “That’s one way of bringing justice to your shelves. We need to get our collections to reflect the communities we serve, to reflect justice, to reflect the world. [Librarians] can do that.”
Park was joined by authors Rajani LaRocca (Red, White, and Whole) and Minh Lê (Drawn Together) and Junko Yokota, executive director of the United States Board on Books for Young People, at the session “Share our Stories: Asian and Pacific Islander Literature for Children and Young Adults” at the American Library Association’s 2023 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 25. The panelists discussed the importance of writing and telling Asian and Asian American stories, especially during a time when Asian hate is prominent.
“When you look at all this hatred and prejudice and racism, really, what it boils down to is the profound failure of the imagination,” Lê said. “Because you’re failing to see the person in front of you as fully human. For us as writers, if we can put stories out there that celebrate the fullness of all our humanity—a book isn’t going to stop it all—but maybe it will make that person pause and realize that these are real people.”
Authors also discussed the universality of their work, despite often being rooted in their own backgrounds and cultures. For example, LaRocca’s Summer is for Cousins (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2023) stars a multigenerational Indian American family spending the summer at a lake house together. “There’s a lot of [the book] that is specifically Indian American,” she said. “But what surprised me is that everyone was like, ‘Yeah. Summer is for cousins. I remember hanging out with my cousins all summer.’”
Yokota noted that many different perspectives should be shared, especially to children, who want to see themselves represented in books. “There are experiences within Asian communities in the United States that are distinctly because we are Americans living in this country,” she said. “And then there are things that are from the root cultures. I want [young readers] to see a clear understanding of the richness of these stories.”
