Award-Winning Books: 2023

Illustration of girl at a restaurant

The following books were recognized by a variety of book/media awards in 2023, including the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award for Literature.  The featured titles include award winners and honor books for children and young adults.

Berry Song

Young girl and her grandmother looking out from berry plans
Age Level: 3-6, 6-9
Language: Tlingit

On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, a girl and her grandmother gather gifts from the earth. Salmon from the stream, herring eggs from the ocean, and in the forest, a world of berries. Through the seasons, they sing to the land as the land sings to them. Brimming with joy and gratitude, in every step of their journey, they forge a deeper kinship with both the earth and the generations that came before, joining in the song that connects us all.

From the Tops of the Trees

Young girl reaches for the top of a tree
Illustrated by: Rachel Wada
Age Level: 6-9

Young Kalia has never known life beyond the fences of the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. The Thai camp holds many thousands of Hmong families who fled in the aftermath of the little-known Secret War in Laos that was waged during America's Vietnam War. For Kalia and her cousins, life isn't always easy, but they still find ways to play, racing with chickens and riding a beloved pet dog. Just four years old, Kalia is still figuring out her place in the world. When she asks what is beyond the fence, at first her father has no answers for her.

Gigi and Ojiji

Young girl walking with her grandfather
Age Level: 3-6

Gigi can’t wait for her Ojiji — Japanese grandpa — to move in. Gigi plans lots of things to do with him, like playing tag, reading books, and teaching Roscoe, the family dog, new tricks. But her plans don’t work out quite the way she’d hoped. And her grandpa doesn’t seem to like Roscoe. Will Gigi find a way to connect with her Ojiji?

Himawari House

Three teenagers on balcony

Living in a new country is no walk in the park ― Nao, Hyejung, and Tina can all attest to that. The three of them became fast friends through living together in the Himawari House in Tokyo and attending the same Japanese cram school. Nao came to Japan to reconnect with her Japanese heritage, while Hyejung and Tina came to find freedom and their own paths. Though each of them has her own motivations and challenges, they all deal with language barriers, being a fish out of water, self discovery, love, and family.

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

Illustration of Maizy Chen at a family restaurant
By: Lisa Yee
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

Maizy has never been to Last Chance, Minnesota . . . until now. Her mom’s plan is just to stay for a couple weeks, until her grandfather gets better. But plans change, and as Maizy spends more time in Last Chance and at the Golden Palace — the restaurant that’s been in her family for generations — she makes some discoveries. For instance:
 

Miss Quinces: A Graphic Novel

Teenager in pink dress
Age Level: 6-9
Language: Spanish

Sue just wants to spend the summer reading and making comics at sleepaway camp with her friends, but instead she gets stuck going to Honduras to visit relatives with her parents and two sisters. They live way out in the country, which means no texting, no cable, and no Internet! The trip takes a turn for the worse when Sue's mother announces that they'll be having a surprise quinceañera for Sue, which is the last thing she wants. She can't imagine wearing a big, floofy, colorful dress! What is Sue going to do?

Nana, Nenek & Nina

Illustration of young girl pulling a rolling suitcase in front of two different grandmothers
Age Level: 6-9

Nina lives in San Francisco with her parents, and she loves visiting her two grandmas across the world. Follow Nina as her two trips unfold side by side: Young readers will love poring over the details of what is the same and what is different at Nana’s home in England and at Nenek’s home in Malaysia. In each place, Nina wears different clothes, plays different games, and eats different food. But so much about visiting Nana and Nenek is the same, from warm hugs at the airport to beach days and bedtime snuggles.

Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration

Photo of watchtower, barbed wire, and camera
Illustrated by: Lauren Tamaki
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

Three months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Roosevelt ordered the incarceration of all Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States.  Three photographers set out to document life at Manzanar, an incarceration camp in the California desert: Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams. In Seen and Unseen, Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Ta

The Last Mapmaker

Young girl on a boat in the sea

In this fantasy adventure, Christina Soontornvat explores a young woman’s struggle to unburden herself of the past and chart her own destiny in a world of secrets. As assistant to Mangkon’s most celebrated mapmaker, twelve-year-old Sai plays the part of a well-bred young lady with a glittering future. In reality, her father is a conman — and in a kingdom where the status of one’s ancestors dictates their social position, the truth could ruin her. Sai seizes the chance to join an expedition to chart the southern seas, but she isn’t the only one aboard with secrets.

The Notebook Keeper: A Story of Kindness from the Border

Woman holds a notebook while standing next to a girl and her mother at the border
Illustrated by: Magdalena Mora
Age Level: 6-9
Language: Spanish

In this moving and stunningly-illustrated picture book, Noemi and Mama flee their home in Mexico, and head for the US border. There, they look for "The Notebook Keeper" — the person in charge of a ledger for those waiting to cross, and they add their names to the book. As the days turn into weeks, and hope dwindles, the little girl looks for kindness around her — and inside herself.

The Silence that Binds Us

Young woman swimming in water

Maybelline Chen isn’t the Chinese Taiwanese American daughter her mother expects her to be. May prefers hoodies over dresses and wants to become a writer. When asked, her mom can’t come up with one specific reason for why she's proud of her only daughter. May’s beloved brother, Danny, on the other hand, has just been admitted to Princeton. But Danny secretly struggles with depression, and when he dies by suicide, May's world is shattered.

Troublemaker

Older boy in city street
By: John Cho
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

In this debut novel from actor John Cho, 12-year-old Jordan feels like he can't live up to the example his older sister set, or his parents' expectations. When he returns home from school one day hoping to hide his suspension, Los Angeles has reached a turning point. In the wake of the acquittal of the police officers filmed beating Rodney King, as well as the shooting of a young Black teen, Latasha Harlins, by a Korean store owner, the country is at the precipice of confronting its racist past and present. An Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor Book.
https://www.colorincolorado.org/booklist/award-winning-books-2023
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