New From Here: A Book Review

I like to read diverse books because I enjoy learning about different cultures. I also believe that reading diverse books is the best way to promote diversity and inclusion from a younger age. Last year, my mom shared an article by Michelle Lee, published on April 24th, in the New York Times. In “Teach Your Kids to Resist Hatred Toward Asians,” Lee mentioned that “Books make a great educational resource to combat discrimination, xenophobia, and foster activism.” Inspired by this article, in 2021, I compiled a list of books written by Asian American authors. Reading these books, I have learnt a lot about different Asian cultures, heritage, and history. These books represent children from diverse communities.

As May is the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage month (AAPI), I want to honor all the AAPI authors that have written books for young readers. Here, I share a new book, New From Here by Kelly Yang, the author of Front Desk, Three Keys and Room to dream. The books I reviewed almost a year ago.

Ten-Year-Old Knox Wei-Evans, a mixed Chinese-American boy, is always up to no good. He’s a middle child of three and is constantly annoying his older brother Bowen and playing with his younger sister Lea. The cool thing about Knox, Bowen and Lea’s name is the fact that their Chinese mother named them after her favorite places in the United States and China. In January 2020, when the covid cases in Hong Kong started to surge, their mother decided that it would be good if they moved to the United States until the virus was gone. However, their American father, a lawyer, is held back at work and can’t join them for a while. Bowen, Knox and Lea are upset that they have to leave a place where they have so many friends and such fond memories. But their mother is excited to go back to the US, where she grew up, went to school and made memories. She thinks there will be a brighter future in California for her family. But, things turn when Knox and his siblings encounter things they had never known before like their mothers job loss, racial stereotypes and Knox’s presumed diagnosis of ADHD. Knox, Bowen and Lea decide to make an operation called Operation Dad come over to try and help their father get to The United States. What will happen to the Wei-Evans family? Will they be together? Please read this book to find out.

This book was pretty exciting to me because I had never read a book that talked about the beginning of Covid-19 before it became a pandemic. My favorite part about this book was the ending and how they mentioned the death of Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement. I really loved how the Author Kelly Yang doesn’t only talk about how Covid made everything worse but also the racism Asians and Black people were facing.

Two years ago, I remember learning about the first case of COVID virus in China but it soon became a pandemic. During the pandemic, I came to know that several Asian Americans were bullied and stereotyped. People mistreated Asian Americans by saying they brought the virus from China just because of their ethnicity. It really disappointed me because racism is something that makes me feel uncomfortable. Through this book, I had the opportunity to understand the perspective of an Asian American family’s experience of the pandemic.

On Asian American Pacific Islander month, I would like to say don’t judge a book by its cover. Stereotypes, Hatred, Xenophobia and Racism can ONLY be ENDED by AWARENESS about it. Let’s celebrate our diversity by reading diverse books. Enjoy reading!