Join Us Today! Crane House depends on members for support of its educational programs. Learn more about the benefits.Curricular References - Asia
THE ASIA READING CORNER
Welcome to Crane House's compendium of books for teachers and students to enjoy inside and outside the classroom. These fiction and non-fiction books are representative of Asian countries and their cultures, and are categorized by country and grade level. Periodically the list will be increased by books and by country and culture.
China
Elementary
Grace Lin, Fortune Cookie Fortunes. Alfred A. Knopf. Fiction about a Chinese-American girl who opens fortune cookies with her family and discovers that the fortunes seemingly come true. The book also contains a brief history of the cultural connections of the fortune cookie. (Grades Pre-K-2)
Middle-Upper
Paul Yee, What Happened This Summer. Tradewind Books. Short story collection about Chinese-Canadian teenagers who are caught between traditional cultural expectations of parents and changing attitudes of youths. (Grades 7-12)
College-Adult
Rosemary Gong, Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese-American Celebrations and Cultures. Harper Collins Publishers. This book explains meanings of Chinese rituals, holidays, festivals, and offers advice for planning holidays and special occasions. This cultural guide discusses facts, legends, recipes, etiquette, and planning guides for major events, such as weddings and birthdays.
India
Elementary
Robert Arnett. Finders Keepers? Atman Press. This is a true story about an Indian boy who finds and turns in a wallet to its owner, an American. The owner cannot understand why the boy won't accept any reward money. Instead, the boy says that doing right is the reward. (Grades K-6)
Middle-Upper
Madhur Jaffrey, Robi Dobi. Dial Books for Young Readers. This delightful fiction follows the adventures of an elephant, which represents one of the most beloved of all Indian animals. (Grades 5-8)
College-Adult
Saloni Mathur, India by Design: Colonial History & Cultural Display.
University of CA Press. The book details a series of historical events, ranging from the 1850's to current times, which resulted in India's appeal to the West. The book focuses on Indian cultural influences in art exhibitions, paintings, stationery, department stores, museums, and other situations.
Japan
Elementary
Lynne Barasch, Hiromi’s Hands. Lee & Low Books. Non-fiction about Hiromi Suzuki, a Japanese girl growing up in New York City, who asked her father to teach her how to make sushi and eventually, as an adult, revolutionizes the previously all-male world of sushi chefs. (Grades 4-6)
Middle-Upper
Alison Leslie Gold, A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara, Hero of the Holocaust. Scholastic Press. Non-fiction about a Japanese diplomat who breaks official government policy in 1940 by handwriting exit visas to help 6000 Jewish families escape Nazi-occupied Lithuania and Poland. (Grades 5-10)
College-Adult
Khiraoki Sato, translator, Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology. M.E. Sharpe/EastGate Books. These Japanese poems acquaint the reader to the special role of women in aesthetics.
Korea
Elementary
Suzanne Crowder Han, The Rabbit's Escape. Henry Holt & Co. A folktale about a rabbit's vanity and his escape from the underwater kingdom of the Dragon King of the East Sea. This tale is believed to be based on an Indian tale that replaces the rabbit with a monkey. (Grades 1-3)
Middle-Upper
Ann Sibley Obrien, The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea. Charlesbridge Publishing. Novel about Korea's Chosun Dynasty based on an adventure tale that became the first-ever book written in the Korean language. (Grades 4-7)
College-Adult
Marshall R. Pihi, Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton, editors/translators. Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction. M.E. Sharpe/EastGate Books. The stories reflect the complexity and diversity of South Korean literature and society after 1945.
Philippines
Elementary
Lianaa Romulo, Filipino Children’s Favorite Stories. Periplus Editions. This is a collection of 13 beloved tales and myths from the Philippines. (Grades K-6)
Middle-Upper
Christmas in the Philippines. World Book, Inc. The Philippines is often known as “the land of fiestas,” and for the Filipinos, Christmas is one of the largest, longest, and most important fiestas. This book describes cultural facts and traditional practices relating to foods, friendship, celebration, and contains craft ideas, recipes, and Christmas songs. (Grades 9-12)
College-Adult
Alan Berlow, Dead Season: A Story of Murder and Revenge. Vintage Press. This book reads like a murder mystery and unveils the seamier side of politics and people in the Philippines, a country that is officially democratic. These three unrelated murders in the late1980's show the struggles for democracy of a nation in the post-Marcos era.
Vietnam
Elementary
Retold by Aaron Shepard. The Crystal Heart. Atheneum. This romantic legend from Vietnam is about a great Mandarin’s daughter who becomes enamored of a singer’s voice and wonders if he is whom she is destined to marry.
Middle-Upper
Watt Key, Alabama Moon. Farrar, Straus, Giroux. This adventure tale is about Moon, a boy raised by his Vietnam veteran father in the deep Alabama woods. After his father dies, Moon must learn about creating relationships with friends and foes. (Grades 7-9)
College-Adult
Duong Van Mai Elliott, The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family. Oxford University Press. This non-fiction, written from a Vietnamese point of view, is the first-ever account by a Vietnamese-American who presents a historical memoir that focuses on the impact of the war and turmoil on four successive generations of an extended Vietnam family dating back to the 1800s. The book focuses not on American losses, but on the War’s impact on Vietnam and the Vietnamese, both non-Communist and Communist, and the effects that French colonization had on these families and peoples of Vietnam.