An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide to Our History

Beginning with “A is for Asian American,” Che and Wu center Asian American figures and history as well as intersectionally aware concepts in this activist-leaning abecedarian. Throughout, rhyming and near-rhyming couplets (“F is for being first, a leader of your times./ So many have been bold enough to walk a new line”) appear alongside alternatingly bright and somber scenes from Ramchandran. Figures mentioned include activist Grace Lee Boggs, musician Bruno Mars, Congressperson Rashida Tlaib, and others. The pages also reference prejudicial treatment throughout American history, including the murder of Vincent Chin and Japanese incarceration. Uneven contextualizing sometimes undercuts the rhythmic lines, but it’s a hopeful, liberation-minded primer that culminates by speaking to the “power in knowing Asian American history.” A glossary concludes. Ages 5–9. (May)