 Hi everyone and welcome. My name is Iliana and I'm a librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Thank you for joining us today for a panel dialogue on phenomenally Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander books and resources for youth. I'd like to acknowledge the land and the community that we're streaming from. The area now known as San Francisco is the unseated ancestral homeland of the Ramatish Ohlone peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. As the original peoples of this land, the Ramatish Ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place. We recognize that we benefit from living, working and learning on their traditional homeland. As uninvited guests, we affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples and wait to pay our respects. We wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders and relatives of the Ramatish community. This event is part of our weaving stories, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month program series in which we celebrate the variety and the vastness of history, culture and heritage, a celebration that should not only take place during May but all year round. Thank you for joining us as we continue to understand, respect and celebrate the diverse AA and HPI heritages from San Francisco and beyond. Check out the web page of San Francisco Public Library to see our upcoming events, find great books by authors and illustrators and more. And of course, thank you to the friends of the San Francisco Public Library for their generous support of our entire program series. We couldn't do it without them. Now I'd like to introduce my wonderful librarian colleagues who I'll be in conversation with. Jen is an adult services librarian at San Francisco Public Library. She got her start as a teen services librarian. And as the saying goes, once a youth services librarian, always a youth services librarian. Jen is a member of Asian Pacific American Library Association, APALA, and the Chinese American Library Association, APALA. She can be found co-hosting Silent Book Club San Francisco Chapter, which is a book club for introverts. Welcome, Jen. And Crystal is a teen center coordinator at the New York Public Library and a member of the Chinese American Library Association and Asian Pacific American Library Association. She also serves as the community admin for we hear a supportive community for BIPOC folks in library and information studies. Crystal lives on Lenape Hoking that was and is home to the Canarsie people. And we could honestly talk about books for days and months and maybe years, narratives and characters, variety of genre and scope, representation or the lack thereof, and the strides, stumbles, and steps we've experienced and witnessed as both readers and librarians. In today's discussion, we wanted to raise up phenomenal Asian American Native Hawaiian Missive Calendar stories because we are phenomenal. We wanted to share some of our favorite titles, some upcoming authors and illustrators to watch out for, resources to find the latest, discuss the lack of representation of and within the ANHPI community, and learn more about the Apollo youth, there are triple awards. So Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander community is not a monolith. And just as in the variety of acronyms that have been used over the years and for years to come, like the API, AAPI, APA, APIDA, and I'm sure there's more that I missed, there is room for discussion and discourse. So we will have a resource list with some links to get you a little bit more understanding around the journey that some of these acronyms have had. But we wanna get started with some books. So we're gonna start with picture books and Crystal will start us off. Crystal? Hello. So the first picture book we've selected is The Boy and the Bindi by Vivek Shriya and Rajni Perera. A young boy sees his army or mom stick a dot on her forehead and asks her what it is. She tells them that it's a bindi and explains that the bindi keeps her safe and true. For her and later for the little boy, the bindi also becomes a way to stay connected to her home and family. She gives them a yellow bindi to wear and the bindi helps center and calm him. What I love about this book and much of Shriya's other works as well is that it explores the means to understand and become your truest self. The little boy's mother provides love and support without judgments and allows her child to explore something new in order to better understand himself in the world. Perera's art is also lovely, sometimes spare and sometimes elaborate, pulling in images that speak of a larger multifaceted universe. The next book is Lakshmi's Mooj written by Shelly Anand and illustrated by Nabi H. Ali. Lakshmi's Mooj is a sincere and humorous tale about body hair and how it's tied to our identities. For those not in the know, Mooj is handy for mustache. And Lakshmi, a young Indian-American girl, is pretending to be animals with her friends on the playground. When Lakshmi is told she should be a cat because of the whiskers on her upper lip. Lakshmi is embarrassed and ashamed and become self-conscious about all of her body hair. But never fear because with the help of her parents, Lakshmi realizes that every body has hair regardless of gender. Lakshmi learns we are more beautiful for our different types of hair and brings this lesson back to her friends. They celebrate their Mooches, both real and imaginary. And how many books have body-positive affirmations about hair specifically Mooches? Clearly not enough. There is joy radiating from these pages as the reader sees the celebration of the diversity within Lakshmi's South Asian family with different skin tones and body shapes and the representation of strong women with Mooches. I appreciate the integration of Hindi into the storyline with clear illustrations and context into the meaning of words, including helpful information on the endpapers. These are truly beautiful books. We discussed Ohanameen's Family written by Ilema Lumis and illustrated by Kenard Pak. It's a poetic, beautifully illustrated read aloud that follows a family and their connection to the land in Hawaii. It starts off simply with a Hawaiian staple poi, which is the end result of all the hard work. It explores the journey of taking care of the land and working together so that it's ready for the Ohana's luau, their party at the end. There are simple things I love like seeing Olalo Hawaii, which is Hawaiian language and the Kapi'apa, the Hawaiian alphabet, specifically the Okina, which is the glottal stop or the break between the vowels and the kahako or the macron over vowel that indicates the longer accentuation and the pronunciation of the vowel. Words and meanings change without these necessary parts of language. So it's really, really important to have them. It completely changes a word if you don't see it and you don't hear it. The illustrations are lush and evoke a strong sense of land, water, air, sun, and the people. And whenever I look at Kahlo, I can't help but see hearts all the time. And it's hard work. So you need to see the mud that squishes and the sun that's shining and the people who are taking care of the land. It's a story of the here and now. Elima Lumis was born and raised in Hawaii and her family has been in the islands for three generations. She is not native Hawaiian and she knows that Hawaii, the culture and the people have inspired her work. This adds a point of discussion around representation. I appreciate the wonderful pieces of this book. I share it with so many and I'd also love to see publishing houses and literary agents advocate for native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander authors and illustrators who also tell the story. Crystal, what do you have next? So the next picture book that I have is Wishes by Monty Vaughn and Victor Ngay. This is a gorgeous, richly layered picture book depicting the difficult and yet hopeful journey of one family from their village across the sea to another city. The story told in a short 75 words is Rudin Vaughn's own experiences leaving Vietnam. Her father was hiding from the government after the civil war. And in order to avoid imprisonment and possibly death, her family decided to leave their village to find safety in Hong Kong. Like the family in the story, they had to leave family members behind including her grandfather who they never saw again. The story while describing one family's journey depicts a larger refugee experience. The setting is nearly fantastical, a glowing blue of light in beautiful colors and at the journey's end is the city with an unrecognizable skyline, representing a multitude of final destinations. While the hardship of fear and sacrifices evidence, the story is also infused with hope and the boundless possibilities of a new and better future. I'll be talking about Apollo's 2022 Literature Award for Picture Book Watercress written by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chen. And while I did not have the opportunity to serve on the Apollo Picture Book Committee, I do want to read the committee's review to honor their work and process. Gathering watercress by the side of the rose sparks a conversation among their family about their family history, heritage and memories. Award winning author Andrea Wang draws upon a childhood growing up in a small mostly white rural town in Ohio as a child of Chinese immigrants. And this autobiographical account illustrated by celebrated author and artist Jason Chen who incorporates painting styles and techniques from both Western and Chinese cultures. In my view, watercress is a celebration of immigrants, where we came from and how we maintain our familial and cultural connections. The main character in this book does what all young people tend to do, push away what is not considered popular in Western culture, which might include their own identities and heritage. And in this case, she pushes away the act of picking watercress that she's connected to her family's financial struggles. And as adults, much like parents in this book, we often refrain from talking about traumatic events with the intention of protecting younger family members. In this case, parents are hesitant to discuss a famine and the lack of food to sustain all members of their family. This intergenerational tale successfully addresses both issues as the family makes new memories and bonds over watercress. Watercress is successful in conveying a message and telling a tale that is not explicitly stated. Wang portrays a story with such tenderness and sensitivity while Chen's muted and watercolor illustrations further emphasize Wang's writing. It's safe to say that you cannot go wrong when choosing a book by Andrea Wang. I really enjoyed her middle grade book, The Many Meetings of Milan, and I can't wait for her next picture story book, Lulie and the Language of Tea, to be published this month. What I love about these books also is just the depth and the breadth of them. And I wanted to share one more that's going to come out. It's not out yet, but Pankia Loha is written and illustrated by Shartuya Sova. And it's a forthcoming title with a publishing date of June 7th, 2022. So be sure to get on the list for that. While I haven't gotten my hands on it yet personally, I love the premise, a girl who loves a lot of things, but sometimes doesn't feel brave enough to meet new friends. Her grandma gives her a task to do and she sets off an adventure throughout the island of Oahu. Tuya Soa is a Polynesian illustrator that was born and raised on Oahu. She moved to California and then back to Hawaii. Her work is amazing. She uses vibrant palettes and creative use of curves and lines with digital illustration. Pankia Loha is definitely a title to look out for. I will be waiting on the holds list for this one and also supporting my local bookstore. We're going to age up now. Jen is going to take us right into middle grade. I have to say that I'm on the holds list for that one as well. Can't wait. So even though we've reviewed wonderful picture story books thus far, I couldn't help but include the Yasmin series by Sadia Faruki and illustrated by Hatam Ali as a chapter book recommendation. The first book in the Younger's Reader series is Meet Yasmin. The author wrote these books for her own child who reported that she didn't see herself in the books she was reading. The Yasmin series is about a young Pakistani child in second grade and with her quick thinking, curiosity, imagination and the help of her family, Yasmin problems solved her way out of everyday situations at home or at school. Yasmin does make mistakes. So in this way, the character does not evoke a model minority stereotype. The illustrations are bright, colorful and expressive and each book in the series incorporates Purdue words into the text and includes back matter about the meaning of the words along with information about Pakistan. Sadia Faruki is also the author of a book getting a lot of recent acclaim. Usuf Aziz is not a hero, published in 2021. The next middle grade book selection is Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, historical fiction about a young girl who is trying to fit into a small town community in 1880 America. Hannah, who is of Korean, Chinese and European descent, faces racism and prejudice as an Asian girl with a widowed white father. But Hannah is determined to get an education and to work in her father's dressmaker shop and she just might make some friends along the way. Readers will fall in love with the clever and complex Hannah and enjoy the rich historical setting. I recommend this book to anyone who grew up like me and clearly Linda Sue Park, reading a little house on the prairie books. Unlike Laura Ingalls Wilder, however, Park depicts not only the experience of Hannah, but also the Lakota Sue women she encounters as characters with complexity in their life. Park also places Hannah solidly within the American West, showing that Asian American history is deeply rooted within the larger story of America's past. I think it's also important to know how vast the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander diaspora reaches. Like it touches just so many countries and cultures, languages and ethnicities that it really does show kind of the vastness of it. Middle grade titles are integral to a young reader's experience. Through the author's words, readers imagine characters and settings and just the very first chapter of the next title is something to experience. Don Raid by Pauline Via Luanga Smith with illustrations by Matt Hunkin is written as the diary of Sophia Sabea, a 12 year old who lives in Aotearoa, New Zealand and starts with the opening of the very first McDonald's in New Zealand. So the sights and smells, similarities and differences will have readers interested and that's not all. Sophia is part of a large Samoan family, just going about their lives when at four o'clock in the morning, their family experiences the Don Raids. The Don Raids were a series of targeted attacks in Aotearoa, New Zealand during the 1970s against over stairs from the Pacific islands and noting that the Pacific Islanders at the time made up about a third of this group where Europeans and Americans made up two thirds. So they stayed longer than they were supposed to. In 2021, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern formally apologized to the Pacific Islander community for the Don Raids, but back to the book. Sophia's brother, Lenny, starts talking about the protests, the Polynesian Panthers, who are inspired by the Black Panthers and the whole family becomes involved in the movement. There are Pacifica illustrations throughout that offer additional cultural points as well. Pauline Vialluang-Smith is Samoan Tuvaluan, Scottish and Irish and illustrator Matt Hunkin is also Samoan. They're both based in New Zealand where the title was originally published in 2018 and received a couple of awards. We finally got access to its state side in 2021 courtesy of publisher Levine Corrito. There are wonderful things happening with international publishing houses that can provide readers with deeper connections in the diaspora with New Zealand and Canada as examples. I'm gonna let Jen share the next pick. All right, thank you. Another middle grade recommendation is the graphic novel Living with Viallu by Rosanna Feng. Chinese Canadian middle school student, Livy, is a new student in a middle school and finds joy in drawing pink unicorns, glitter rainbows, hearts, cat maricorns, making doublings with her mother and reading. Livy also struggled with making friends due to her anxiety and self-doubts. There is a common phrase, we are our own worst critics. Livy's critic takes a form of a shadowy figure named Viallu that only Livy can see and interact with. Viallu's main job is to remind Livy of her faults and mistakes in school and at home. And Viallu invades the pages of this graphic novel with dark rays and blue hues, while Livy's scenes are colorful and warmly depicted in red, pink and yellow hues. The reader experiences Livy's struggles as she copes with Viallu's attempts to sabotage her joy and progress she makes when making friends. Feng handles a topic of mental health with care. And while mental health isn't always acknowledged or freely discussed in some Asian families, the reader depicts Livy's parents as high-achieving immigrants from Hong Kong who want the best for Livy and ultimately listen to Livy as she asked for help. I appreciate the practical skills Livy uses to maintain her anxieties, such as deep breathing and anchoring. The author acknowledges her childhood panic attacks and anxiety in the acknowledgments and includes the Cantonese glossary in the backmatter as Cantonese is spoken between Livy and her family members. Our next middle grade recommendation is Pashmina by Niti Chanani. Pashmina is a graphic novel about a young girl Priyanka who travels to India to reconnect with her family's past. Along for the trip is Pri's magical Pashmina, a shawl that transports the wearer to a fantastical, colorful world where not all is as it seems. Pri's journey to self-discovery manifests in mysterious ways but ultimately leads to stronger familial bonds. Although this book starts in monochromatic blacks and grays, the family sea scenes are layered in bright and bold colors. Priyanka, like many Asian-American kids, feels caught between two cultures and she must figure out her place in the world. This is one of my favorite middle grade graphic novels and Chanani also came out with another time slash space traveling middle grade comic called Jukebox last year, which is also a really fun read. Our next title is a recently published title, Freddy versus the Family Curse by Tracy Badua. Freddy Ruiz is crushed and has to team up with an ancestor so his family isn't doomed. There's fantasy, there's magic, there's humor, mythology and thrills. Freddy's family has been very unlucky, like generationally unlucky. So Freddy discovers an amulet from the Philippines and thinks that things are finally going to change but he ends up having a very short timeline to fix something before he meets an untimely end. This is Tracy Badua's debut fantasy. Badua is a Filipino-American author based in San Diego who we had the pleasure of having for Filipino-American History Month in October and she actually shares a little bit of tidbits around her process for the book. I love the supernatural adventure story infused with the family's experience and familial obligations. There's sights and sounds so be sure to get on that whole list as well. Jen? Let's see, Red, White and the Hole by Rajani Laraca is a middle grade novel in verse. The book is about Reha, a 13 year old child of immigrants who is an only child and the only Indian-American at school. She's growing up during the 1980s and feels caught between two worlds. There is a Western world where she listens to Cindy Lauper and notices that her classmates have ceased playing playground games and are developing interests in clothing, makeup, hair and voice. There is also the world and expectations of her immigrant parents and the Indian community. Reha is interested in becoming a doctor although she is nauseous at the sight of blood. This interest intensifies with her Amas leukemia diagnosis. Reha is determined to be the perfect daughter in order to save her Amas life. This author is also a primary care doctor and she aptly explains leukemia through Reha's experience. Laraca also uses her childhood as inspiration for this book about a young girl's journey from not feeling fully accepted anywhere to finding the people that accept you, celebrate you and love you. Reha's parents have their own ideas about how Reha should behave and conduct herself and this could have easily fallen into a strict immigrant parents trope. However, as the reader delves more into the life of Reha, the relationship with her parents becomes more nuanced and multifaceted. The book is written in prose with mature topics of loss and grief told in a way that will appeal to middle grade readers. So our next Young Adult Recommendation is Perfectly Parveen by Olivia Abtahi. It's a sweet and funny rom-com featuring 14 year old Parveen Mohamadi who's just been dumped and decides the solution to her problems is heartthrob Maddie Fumero. Parveen plots to capture Maddie's heart and attention while dealing with farsi lessons, complicated friendships and a sudden Muslim travel ban that has deep implications for her family. Through it all, Parveen is perfectly herself, goofy, caring and real. A reader like for this book with a similar light but heartfelt rom-com sensibility, although seen through a Korean drama lens is Marin Goose, I believe in a thing called Love. Fans of the character Devi Vishwa Kumar in Netflix's Never Have I Ever will also love the antics of the hilarious and irrepressible Parveen. It's so good. It's so, so good. And we have another novel in verse for the YA crowd, Turtle Under Eyes by Julia Del Rosario. It's a story about two sisters, Ariana and Rowena, over the course of a year following their mother's death, they have seemingly drifted apart. So then on an especially snowy day, Ariana disappears and a mystery ensues where Roe has to consider if she is one of the reasons her sister disappeared. This story explores how different people experience both grief over time and coping mechanisms in a variety of ways. There's shading on each page, which is interesting for a novel in verse and for YA that doesn't have illustrations, but there's shading. And I think that can allow the reader to imagine what that means for them. I have my own thoughts, but I won't put those on people. There are pieces of the book that bring up questions of being outliers in a community, again, with the family relationships and definitely loss. There is grief and loss. Novels in verse are fantastic ways to connect with characters and story arc. We have two of them here. So Julia Del Rosario is Chamorro. So she's part of the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands that include Guam and she's Filipina based in Colorado. Moving on, I snuck a memoir in here, most of this is fiction, but I Was There, American Dream by Malacca Garib is an engaging, humorous and self-deprecating graphic novel. On the writer's journey to self-acceptance as a first generation American with Filipino and Egyptian roots. Garib intimately accounts her attempts to balance the many expectations of multiculturalism at school with her family and in her hometown. Growing up in Cerritos, a city in Los Angeles County, the artist interacts with a diverse community, usually with the first question being, what are you? Garib code switches depending on who she is talking to and struggles with the expectations of being a first generation daughter of immigrants. The illustrations of race in a book about racial identity are ambiguous. As a color palette is strictly red, white and blue. There are no defining characteristics between folks of various races. This emphasizes Garib's conclusion that it is not the color of your skin but your culture that makes a person. And although this book is a memoir and not fiction, I believe that teens and adults will be able to relate to Malacca Garib's journey to self-acceptance. Next up is Himawari House by Harmony Becker. You may recognize Becker's name as the artist behind George Takei's They Called Us Enemy and Becker's talent continues to shine in this new graphic novel. Now an American travels to Japan to attend school and reconnect with her Japanese heritage. There she discovers that her desire to fit in is complicated by her American-ness. But through new friendships with other foreign exchange students, Haeyoung and Tina, she finds a sense of belonging far from home. This is a beautiful coming of age story that captures the joys and pains of young adulthood and what's like to leave what's familiar behind in order to forge a new path. Now Haeyoung and Tina's search for belonging, friendship, and identity are timeless themes that many teens will relate to. Becker's art is that turns humorous and tender providing a glimpse into the inner lives of these characters. Language often phonetically described plays a large part in the story and Becker uses it to effectively tear down stereotypical ideas of bilingual speakers. Characters that speak in dialect with accents or with uneven syntax are shown to be just as deeply human complex and radiance as native or majority language speakers. You can tell that we're teen services librarians because these are all graphic novels. They're all done in graphic novel form, I should say, with the memoir is a memoir. But another pick that we'd like to bring to the table was A Map to the Sun by Sloan Leong with lettering by Aditya Beatycar and it's beautiful. It's a graphic novel about five basketball players on a struggling girls basketball team. And it's really about more than that, of course. It's about rivalries and drama, angst, unsafe situations but above all friendship and relationships. There's Ren, Luna, Jeda, Soyoung, and Nell, that's the team. And this is a group that have had different entry points with their friendships and they've all come together to then form or were forced to form depending on, I think, the character. You would ask the character, they'd argue that, a basketball team. There's also layers of expertise where Ren and Luna know the game, they know how to play basketball and the others either don't or they don't care or both. So a lot of learning about being on a team, leadership, staying accountable and supporting each other. The illustrations are ethereal and dynamic. There's a lot of motion, representative body types and just brilliant reds and purples and oranges. The background of each page is completely colored and can offer subtle or strong contrasts between the scenes. There's a lot to unpack and it made me wanna sit with it for a while. Sloan Leung is a self-taught cartoonist, artist and writer of Hawaiian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Native American and European ancestries and is based near Portland, Oregon. All right. So last night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lowe is SFPLs on the same page, book club selection for May and June. I gleefully watched the virtual program with the SFPL and NYPL collaboration that featured Melinda Lowe's Q&A with a New Republic librarian and students from New York and San Francisco Public Schools. And I can't wait for the SFPL author talk with Melinda Lowe and on the same page book club discussion in June to celebrate Pride Month. This book is Apollo's 2022 Young Adult Literature Award winner and has many award stickers adorning the cover to show for its exceptional writing. It's only fitting that I read the Apollo Young Adult Committee review. In San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s, 17-year-old Lily Hu explores her identity as a gay Chinese-American teen through a joyful interracial relationship with white class maid Kathleen. Their growing relationship is set against the backdrop of the underground gay scene in San Francisco during the rescare where a government paranoia of communists during Cold War runs rampant. Lowe definitely presents her characters and storyline with historical accuracy, graceful use of Chinese language and dialect, and a deep cultural awareness. She also highlights an often overlooked and underappreciated lesbian culture tying it into the history of Chinese America. Young people will see their own internal and external struggles reflected in Lily and her journey of self-awakening. So my first reaction to Lowe's book was, where have you been all this time? Although there are books written on 1950s rescare when the nation feared and hunted communists, books written on existing as a queer person in San Francisco and books about Chinese Americans in San Francisco's Chinatown, there is not a book that incorporates all three themes. The book is brimming with excitement, warmth, and joy of finding yourself a first love and a community where folks accept you. It's set against a San Francisco backdrop featuring multiple communities who may not fully understand you and may even fear you because of their bias. I love the queer and Chinese representation and encourage teens and adults to read this well-researched historical fiction. And also full disclosure and transparency here, Crystal and I were part of the Apollo Youth Literature Committee. We and our colleagues nominated last night at the Telegraph Club as the Apollo winner for Young Adult Literature. We were diligent to choose a book that is not only accurately representative of Asian culture but also accessible and fun for youth to read. And before we take the slide down, what show, just talk a little bit about what's on here. I know we see the book that you can't see the cover because of all those awards, but what else is on here? That's a photograph of the entire committee. So we, this was last year, right, Jen? So we were meeting all virtually, we did tons of Zoom meetings, and so we took a little snapshot in our final deliberations, yeah. Very cool. So I shouldn't say it is Tamiko Welch, Danila O'Bailyn and Anna Coates were the other committee members. Fantastic. So as we kind of hang out and wait and see if there are any questions, I would like to ask you both some questions about serving on the committee and the committee and Apollo. So thanks again, Jen, for sharing those pieces. And of course, thank you both for being in dialogue this. I love these books. I feel like we could just keep talking about the books, but let's talk a little bit more about the experience of serving on the Apollo Young Adult Literature Committee. So question number one is, was there a rubric involved used to evaluate and help guide the work? There was a rubric involved and there was basically five different categories were evaluating each item that was nominated. And I guess we could go over each category. So the first would be literary quality and then going into Asian Pacific American Heritage and how it's portrayed. And another category is, are the characters believable and how well are they developed? And another question is, does a writing flow well? And even if there are other foreign words in the books, does it actually flow well in addition? And also, and lastly, is this title appropriate for youth? And that would be high school age. And is there like a publishing year requirement or access, like is access, I know access like is if it's appropriate for youth, but like when I say access, like, how can we get it, like physically get the book? Is that like, you know, in different, whether it's in audio format or print format, like is that a consideration or a requirement? So in terms of the eligibility and Jen, correct me if I'm wrong because I feel like it's been forever since last year. I think it was like August of, what year was last year? I think it was the eligible title, I wanna say, was August of the previous year to August or September of the year in which we were meeting. So it wasn't like a January to December time. And I think that's also because like later in the year, it can be harder to access titles, you know. Other eligibility requirements, I believe were that they, I think had to be published, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, in North America, right, Jen? Yeah. That's correct, yes. And was there a language requirement too, Will? No, I mean, the only kind of requirement was that if a different language was used, that it was kind of well-integrated. So the things that we were maybe kind of like looking out for, I was personally looking out for is, there's a lot of books that maybe will use like Chinese in it and then the Chinese characters are then immediately repeated in English, right? Which feels a little bit like false, right? Cause you don't really like see Chinese and then just repeat yourself in English. Although maybe sometimes I did it with my parents, but that feels like less authentic. And I think Melinda Lowe was really great about the characters, the Chinese characters just kind of like stood there and existed and took up space as Chinese words. And then I think the translations were maybe in the back. So people could refer to it later, but it didn't interrupt the story. So it felt like the audience was not, and I've had books like that where it feels like the primary audience may be like a non-Asian audience, right? Cause there's a lot of explanation rather than just kind of telling the story, maybe directly to the people that it's reflecting. So, yeah. Right, we wanna focus on books where people were existing and not explaining their existence. Yeah. And I listened to that book and I felt like I was there with it. I was there with the main characters, I was there with the family, it didn't detract, it didn't take me out of the story in any way. So good job, good choice. And how did you select the books for, I know you have this rubric, but what's the process around selecting books for the awardor to be considered? We had a really like, we had a big spreadsheet that we would like add a ton of titles to. So for me, like I looked a lot on Idol Vice and NetGalley for upcoming titles. I think other people may have looked on different review websites and stuff. And then it was a lot of like reading, a lot of scheduling discussions like, okay, next month we're gonna discuss this book. So hopefully everyone's friends. And then kind of really talking out our experiences with each of these books. And then towards the end, I think we did like a voting process. I remember math was involved, right? And then we came to a general consensus. And it was like super interesting to see how the numbers kind of fell because it really did kind of match up with how we were feeling. And I think we were all very glad to choose the Melinda Lowe title and then the Tracy Chee title. We are not free as the Honor Book, yeah. And you know, we, oh, go ahead, Jen. Sorry, it was a very easy decision to pick the winner and the Honor Book. I was accepting a lot of debate, uh-oh. But it didn't really happen to my imagination. So for story, you're about to say something. I think we, the committee, like we all like worked really well together and we were very good about like letting go of books. But I will say like a personal number three on my list, right? It was from a whisper to a rallying cry. Like that one, I like loved so much as well. And it was such a great non-fiction book that talked about like Asian Americans, especially like women who were part of these sort of protests and activism movements. And that was fantastic. And I wish we had like spots for multiple books, but I think that one didn't quite make it, yeah. So there was opportunity to, you know, kind of wrangle this list from all the corners that you could and then have discussions during the course and then kind of come up with your top, whatever number, top 10, top 20. Cool. And so that sounds like a lot of work. What, what was that like, what was the workload like? Oh, it was reading in every spare moment. Sometimes audio books, sometimes physical books, taking books on vacation with me to read them on while I was sitting by the beach or by a campfire. Yeah, it was just a lot of work into it. I also had the support of my supervisor. So that really helped. I think we must have gone at least over a hundred titles. I don't remember the exact number, but it was, it was a lot of books and we're pretty small committee or subcommittee of here's math again, five people. Was it five people, Jen? Yeah, yes, we did our best. I'll say we really did our best and tried to read as widely as we possibly could to find the best book. Yeah. And was there anything that surprised you about being on the committee? Was it realizing how much time we're going to be putting into it? And we definitely encountered a lot of good books and you, as you are spending more time reading books and being on the committee and discussing, it's you become more adapt at identifying their really good books and then the exception of books and the fine line between them. What about you, Crystal? Anything that surprised you? I mean, yeah, I would say I was surprised by how many books there were and also how many books were in some ways missing too, right? Like there was like more representation that I thought in some ways, but also less representation that I thought if that kind of makes sense. And so, you know, we really did our best to try to like think about representation and what that meant, especially for something like Apollo, which is Asian Pacific Americans and how can you condense that like experience into one book? It's really, really difficult and we struggled with that a lot. We had like a lot of discussion about that. And ultimately, I think the low book did a lot in terms of like tearing down like really stereotypical ideas of East Asians, Asian Americans. So we, yeah, what was that one? Those are wonderful. Those are so introspective, both of those like surprises, right? Like, because I even kind of going through this process with you both on kind of coming up with our titles, I was surprised that we were kind of able to get some fantastic titles that happened in the last three years, right? Because that's what we were kind of looking for. But I was also disappointed that there weren't more, you know? And that they weren't varied because there's so much like, there's so much variety within the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander communities whether it's urban, suburban, rural, immigrant, migrant, you know, somebody took over, like there's just so much there. So I appreciate both of those answers, responses, I guess. And what was your favorite part about the experience? Do you want me to go, Jen? Go. I really enjoy in terms of committee work, working on book evaluation committees like this because I think those kinds of committees more so than any other kinds provide these opportunities to like get to really know and connect with other people because I think so much is revealed about ourselves when we talk about books because we often talk about it in terms of how it really start own lives and own experiences. So through the course of the year, I really got to know like Jen and everybody else on the committee. And I felt like that was such a like wonderful bonding experience. And obviously like Jen and I still connect, we're still on another committee together. I'm trying to get her to go to ALA annual, but I don't think she wants to. But you know, I think it was really fun to spend time with people and talk about things that we really love and care about, which is books. I would have to say same answer. Like it was great getting to know Crystal and working with the other committee members and just checking in on a regular basis. And discussing the book and then checking in about stuff that's going on outside of the committee. So getting updates from them. So the connection and the relationships plus discovering all these great books. Of course. And we got to see everybody's cats and pets and that was also really fun. True, true. And plants too. And plants. Yes. And I had to just share that when, like we all heard Melinda Low's book kind of just swept everything. It was just, it was both like, of course it did. It was fantastic. And also like that reaction. And also like, wow, this actually happened, right? Because there's like, there's a part where you're like, okay, I'm doing the work. I'm trying to advocate and promote these titles. I talk to, I talk them up with the teens that I work with and the parents, but is it even making a difference? Is it even going anywhere? Whether that difference is to the authors, to publishing houses or to the youth, right? So when you see something like that come out and you're like, yeah, I mean, she's just, she's book solid. Like it's just, it's just wonderful. It's wonderful to see. We did get a question from a colleague and other librarians. Thank you, Jerry, for the question. And the question is, what resources do you recommend for evaluating works with art, such as picture books and graphic novels? I wonder if Apollo's rubric gives any indication for picture books. I think it is geared towards younger readers. So I believe that the person who was heading that team is making their rounds and doing different webinars presenting on the rubric. And I think that could be found on the Apollo website. I'll also add, particularly with graphic novels, yeah, also has a great graphic novels committee. If you look at their criteria, it talks about certain aspects that make a graphic novel good, like do the text and images like flow well together? How are they integrated? Other things that you may find interesting, although they may be like deeper dives are. So I read like Scott McLeod writes a bunch of books. And I think one is like understanding comics. And then one is like maybe making comics. And he really kind of goes in deep about like the format of the graphic novels, like what the gutter is, the panels, what you can do in terms of sequencing. And I think it's really kind of helpful for like maybe some context. There's also another book called, that I really enjoyed called Unflattening by I think Nick Susanas, who wrote his thesis as a graphic novel, I think about graphic novels and published it. And that one's a really interesting book as well. So if you're like a comic or a graphic novel fan, I think those two titles would be a good starting place. Wonderful, thanks. I was gonna say like, yeah, Teen Librarians here, we can go in on the graphic novels. Picture books will share the resources. And then there's just a quick follow-up. What kinds of themes did you discover in the Youth Literature Awards? And have they evolved over time and in what ways? I mean, oh, sorry, go ahead. I was gonna mention the Children of Immigrants is a theme that is coming up a lot with the youth books. And Crystal, what were you going to mention? Oh, no, I was just gonna say, like I feel like a lot of the books that we did read kind of reflected real life elements. Like I mentioned, Perfectly Parvain. So that Muslim travel ban was something that did happen, right? And it felt like in certain aspects of the book was a reaction to that. And I think there were other titles that did similar things. I feel like there's also, I mean, maybe I'm wrong just from my perspective, but I feel like there's also this increase in providing a kind of representation that's very nuanced, it's very intersectional. So it's not like you're just like Asian American, but you are also all of these other kinds of identities and how does that kind of inform your experience? And I appreciate that kind of complexity, right? And I think over time, like I've seen the evolution of the award winners and the evolution of the committee just kind of going in on this rubric and noting like what kind of tropes there are and the believability of the characters and the story arc. So I feel like over time as it's become a little bit more entrenched, there's been a real peek, like it's peeking, it didn't peek because it's not, but it's going up like in terms of the Youth Literature Awards. I also want to add to it, I'm not a theme, but like in terms of a format, I think the graphic novel format is much more welcomed. I think the past two years before the Melinda Lowe book, I think they were both graphic novels. I want to say it was, they call this in the mean displacement were the winners, I could be wrong. And then for the adult title for this past year, the winner was Shadow Life, which was a fantastic graphic novel, highly recommended that also speaks to the Asian American experience, especially for like an older person, right? So yeah. Any final pieces from you both before we put up our resources slide? Anything to add about the resources slide or anything else you'd like to share? I do feel like I love me some representation, but I feel like I do keep it coming and some different perspectives and hope to see more published in the future. Yeah, same. I'm so excited to see all the new books that are coming out. I just picked up, was it like Gold Mountain by Betty E. So so many exciting books, just have to keep reading them. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And I think I can speak for the three of us where we'd love to thank our colleagues that we've reached out to for their thoughts and their recommendations and their support. And we also have our list of resources that we'll put up and that have been added in the chat. And there's also going to be a Google Doc that will be added to the description of the video with a little bit more, plus some places that I go to find the latest or information about books that are based with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander authors or illustrators. But in closing, Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, they make up our cities and our states and this country and they make us more vibrant through diversity of cultures, languages and religions. There is no single story of the A and HPI experience, but instead of a diversity of contributions to learn from. That's all for today. Check out our calendar for more programs in our Weaving Stories series, both online and in person. We have a couple more in-person programs in San Francisco and you can totally re-watch and share with your friends and your folks. But take good care of yourselves, stay safe and we hope to see you again. Thank you. We can all say bye. Bye. Thank you, bye. Thank you.