Three May Celebrations: a booklist

May is a very significant month in terms of celebrations. It's Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, AND Jewish American Heritage Month. In honor of these three observances, check out this booklist below:

AANHPI Heritage Month:

1. Gloria Buenrostro is Not My Girlfriend by Brandon Hoàng: As one of only two Asian Americans in his school and often left out, Gary jumps at the chance of breaking into the school's popular clique by befriending the most beautiful girl in school, but as he comes closer to achieving his goal, Gary also risks losing the only person who sees the real him.
2. Hurt You by Marie Myung-Ok Lee: The Kim family has moved in order to access better services for Leonardo, who has an unnamed neurological disability that resembles autism. His sister Georgia struggles to find her place in an Asian-majority school where whites still dominate culturally, but finds herself feeling not Korean "enough." Georgia finds herself torn by her immigrant parents' dreams for her, and an ablest, racist society that may bring violence to Leonard despite her efforts to keep him safe.
3. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo: Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. 
4. We Are Not Free by Traci Chee: For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, her two brothers, her friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate--and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.
5. What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan: Mehar did not come to India planning to break up her estranged father's wedding, but she is convinced that socialite Naz is only after his money and title; except she soon begins to question many of her assumptions about her parents' relationship, and her own place in his world--especially when she begins to fall in love with Sufiya, her grandmother's assistant. Mehar hasn't been back to India since she and her mother moved away when she was only four. Her father-- Indian royalty-- made it clear that she's not his priority when he chose not to come to the US with them. She reluctant returns for his wedding, in hopes they can heal their broken relationship. She becomes sure the intended bride, Naz, and her social media influence daughter, Aleena, are just using her father for his money. Mehar wants to put a stop to the wedding-- but it will put her new relationship with Sufiya, a family assistant, at risk.

Mental Health Awareness Month

1. Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram: Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab.
2. Forever is Now by Mariama Lockington: On a perfect summer day, wrapped in her girlfriend's arms. Sadie feels safe. She's been struggling to manage her chronic anxiety, and is hopeful better times are ahead. When her girlfriend reveals some unexpected news, and the two witness a violent incident of police brutality, Sadie's whole world is upended in an instant. Not feeling safe anywhere, Sadie retreats inside her self. When her therapist diagnoses Sadie with agoraphobia, she starts on a path of healing. Her best friend, Evan, updates her on the protests taking place in their city. How can you show up for your community when you can't even leave your house?
3. In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee: Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Kora to the United States, she's felt her otherness. For a while, her English wasn't perfect. Her teachers can't pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes--especially her eyes--feel wrong. In high school, everything gets harder. Friendships change and end, she falls behind in classes, and fights with her mom escalate. Caught in limbo, with nowhere safe to go, Deb finds her mental health plummeting, resulting in a suicide attempt. But Deb is resilient and slowly heals with the help of art and self-care, guiding her to a deeper understanding of her heritage and herself.
4. This Is Me Trying by Racquel Marie: Growing up, Bryce, Beatriz, and Santiago were inseparable, but after the dissolution of their friendship and Bryce's suicide, Beatriz and Santiago attempt to reconcile and navigate love, mental illness, and forgiveness.
5. We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride: Whimsy, who is clinically depressed, befriends a boy named Faerry, with whom she feels a magical connection, and together they brave the Forest, a place of monsters, fairy tales and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.

Jewish American Heritage Month

1. Color Me In by Natasha Diaz: Fifteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz is torn between two worlds, passing for white while living in Harlem, being called Jewish while attending her mother's Baptist church, and experiencing first love while watching her parents' marriage crumble.
2. It's a Whole Spiel : love, latkes, and other Jewish stories edited by Katherine Locke and Laura Silverman: From stories of confronting their relationships with Judaism to rom-coms with a side of bagels and lox, It's a Whole Spiel features one story after another that says yes, we are Jewish, but we are also queer, and disabled, and creative, and political, and adventurous, and anything we want to be.
3. Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert: Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront her own demons"-- Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her stepbrother Lionel fall in love with the same girl. As Lionel's bipolar disorder begins to spin out of control, it forces Suzette to confront her own demons. Can she save Lionel from himself-- and will he trust her enough to do so?
4. The Blood Years by Elana K. Arnold: Frederieke Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live in a house, in a city, in a world divided. Their father ran out on them when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. He's done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now, seven years later, being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven for Jewish people. And when Astra falls in love and starts pulling away from her, Rieke wonders if there's anything in her life she can count on-and, if so, if she has the power to hold on to it. Then-war breaks out in Europe. First the Russians, then the Germans, invade Czernowitz. Almost overnight, Rieke and Astra's world changes, and every day becomes a struggle: to keep their grandfather's business, to keep their home, to keep their lives. Rieke has long known that she exists in a world defined by those who have power and those who do not, and as those powers close in around her, she must decide whether holding on to her life might mean letting go of everything that has ever mattered to her-and if that's a choice she will even have the chance to make.
5. The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum: Hoodie Rosen's life isn't that bad. Sure, his entire Orthodox Jewish community has just picked up and moved to the quiet, mostly non-Jewish town of Tregaron, but Hoodie's world hasn't changed that much. He's got basketball to play, studies to avoid, and a supermarket full of delicious kosher snacks to eat. The people of Tregaron aren't happy that so many Orthodox Jews are moving in at once, but that's not Hoodie's problem. That is, until he meets and falls for Anna-Marie Diaz-O'Leary - who happens to be the daughter of the obstinate mayor trying to keep Hoodie's community out of the town. And things only get more complicated when Tregaron is struck by a series of antisemitic crimes that quickly escalate to deadly violence. As his community turns on him for siding with the enemy, Hoodie finds himself caught between his first love and the only world he's ever known.