Asia in Children's Literature

Picture Books
Chen, Yong
A Gift - Contemporary China - Amy's mother, homesick for her family and homeland in China, receives a special package from them just in time for their Chinese New Year celebrations.

Cheng, Andrea
Shanghai Messenger - contemporary Shanghai -   11-year-old Chinese American Xiao Mei travels, alone, to Shanghai to meet the extended family she's never met, quickly forming loving bonds and learning a huge amount about the China of her ancestors. 

Chin-Lee, Cynthia
A is For Asia - a little about bits & pieces of Asia

Ellis, Deborah
No Ordinary Day - contemporary India - A homeless orphan Indian girl adapts to life in the streets until she meets...and ultimately trusts...a female doctor.

Eulate, Ana A. de
The Sky of Afghanistan -  a stream-of-conscientious almost like a prayer - a little girl wishes for peace in her country.

Koralek, Jenny
The Story of Queen Esther - ancient Persia  - This is the story of how Esther becomes a Persian queen, hides her Jewishness, and with the help of the cousin, Mordecai, who helped raise her, saves the Jewish people from annihilation.   

Malaspina, Ann
Yasmin's Hammer - Contemporary Bangladesh - A father, who is a rickshaw driver, and his wife realize that an education for their two young daughters, who both work in a brickyard, is more important than anything.

Niemann, Christoph
The Pet Dragon - Chinese folk-type story

Pacilio, V. J. 
Ling Cho and His Three Friends - China - A rich farmer tries to help three of his neighboring friends, sharing wisdom and a huge lesson when they all return with just a story to tell.....

Park, Linda Sue
Tap Dancing on the Roof - Korea - Sijo Poetry

Pennypacker, Sara
Sparrow Girl - 1958 China - When the Chinese government orders that all sparrows be killed in order to save the grain crops,   a young girls saves seven of them, thus saving her village from locusts and grasshoppers and weevils and worms that would destroy all those crops. 

Rumford, James
Silent Music, A Story of Bagdhad - Contemporary Iraq - Ali, a boy who loves to write and doodle, proudly practices the calligraphy of his language, Arabic, as he continues to learn it.

Say, Allen
Erika San - Contemporary Japan - An American girl, always taken with a paiting of a house in Japan, finally goes there to teach and comes upon not only a house that looks just like it, but a boyfriend, too.....

Shank, Ned
The Sanyasin's First Day - Contemporary India - A sanyasin - a holy man who gives away all he owns - spends his first day in a busy Indian marketplace, as to a female plumber, a male policeman, and a female farmer, all on their first day, too.

Stryer, Andrea Stenn
Kami and the Yaks - Nepal - Kami helps his father find their four missing yaks as a huge storm - thunder, lightning, hail - approaches.

Thong, Roseanne
The Wishing Tree - contemporary China - Ming and his much-loved grandmother have always made wishes on the huge Banyan tree in their town, but one year, the year Min is nine, his wish does not come true...and he loses his grandmother.

Trottier, Maxine
The Walking Stick -  3 generations past in Vietnam - Through the years, Van takes a teak walking stick he made in his village in Vietnam, escaping his country during the war, but always walking with his stick, until his granddaughter returns it to where he first found it, near the Buddhist temple in his original village.

Williams, Brenda
Lin Yi's Lantern - contemporary China -  Lin Yi's mother sends him to the market to bargain for five items for their Moon Festival trek up the mountain that night....and if he has enough money left over, he can purchase the red rabbit lantern that he so dearly wants.

Winter, Jeanette
The Librarian of Basra - Contemporary Iraq - Another version of the bombing of the central library in Basra, Iraq 

Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction
Cornwell, Autumn
Carpe Diem - YA - contemporary Malaysia - Very anal Vassar Spore, planner extraordinaire, is thrown topsy-turvy on a trip to Malaysia with the grandmother who plans for NOTHING.

House, Silas & Neela Vaswani 
Same Sun Here - Mid Grades  - contemporary NYC/India - Meena, an Indian immigrant girl and River, a Kentucky coal miner's son, become penpals and best friends as they share their lives, their problems, and the love of their families with each other.

Stamaty, Mark Alan
Alia's Mission - Graphic Novel - In Iraq, in a few fast-paced days as the war in Basra is imminent, Alia and many helpers move over 30,000 books - by hand - before the library is destroyed.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher
Under the Persimmon Tree - YA- realistic near-contemporary Afghanistan -  This very sad - tragic - story goes back and forth between two protagonists;  one an American woman living in Peshiwar, and the other an Afghani girl fleexing from her destroyed home in the mountains.  

Whelan, Gloria
Small Acts of Amazing Courage - YA - 1919 India - 15 year old Rosalind James, daughter of a British official in India, is sent to live with aunts in England because her father thinks that her love of India and its people is inappropriate.  Gandhi, Hinduism, the caste system are all mentioned.


Countries

Afghanistan
see more detailed article about Afghanistan
Eulate, Ana A. de - The Sky of Afghanistan (picture book)
Staples, Suzanne Fisher - Under the Persimmon Tree (YA)
Whitfield, Susan - National Geographic Countries of the World: Afghanistan (Middle Grades

Bangladesh
Malaspina, Ann - Yasmin's Hammer (picture book)

China
Chen, Yong - A Gift (picture book)
Cheng, Andrea - Shanghai Messenger (picture book)
Niemann, Christoph - The Pet Dragon (picture book)
Pacilio, V. J. - Ling Cho and His Three Friends (picture book)
Pennypacker, Sara - Sparrow Girl (picture book)
Thong, Roseanne - The Wishing Tree (picture book)
Williams, Brenda - Lin Yi's Lantern (picture book)

India
see more detailed article about India
Ellis, Deborah - No Ordinary Day (upper middle grade chapter book)
House, Silas & Neela Vaswani - Same Sun Here (middle grade chapter bk)
Shank, Ned - The Sanyasin's First Day (picture book)
Whelan, Gloria - Small Acts of Amazing Courage (middle grade chapter bk)

Iraq
Rumford, James, Silent Music, A Story of Bagdhad (picture book)
Stamaty, Mark Allen, Alia's Mission, (graphic novel)
Winter, Jeanette, The Librarian of Basra (picture bk)

Japan
Kajikawa, Kmiko - Tsunami  (folktale picture book)
Say, Allen - Erika-San (picture book)

Korea
Park, Linda Sue - Tap Dancing on the Roof (poetry)

Malaysia
Cornwell, Autumn - Carpe Diem (YA)

Nepal
Stryer, Andrea Stenn, Kami and the Yaks (picture book)


Persia
Koralek, Jenny - The Story of Queen Esther (picture bk)

Vietnam
see more detailed article about Vietnam
Trottier, Maxine - The Walking Stick (picture bk)