Asian American youth literature had a slow start in the early twentieth century. Books were mostly in the genres of folk and fairy tales and written by outsiders at that time. There were books about Asians in Asia, but almost nothing about Asians in the United States. After World War II and the Korean War, some books about Japanese American incarceration and Korean War orphans emerged, but it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Movement that more books shared stories of Asians in the United States. After 1965, what Min Hyoung Song calls “the children of 1965” generation began writing, publishing, and winning major awards, including books for young readers. This lecture provides a historical overview of Asian American youth literature in the context of immigration patterns, social movements, and other larger issues, and relates books for children and young adults with library services and programs for youth.

Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she is also an affiliate faculty in the Department of Asian American Studies and the Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies. A graduate of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Department, she earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on Asian American youth literature and transracial Korean adoption. She co-edits Research on Diversity in Youth Literature with Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez and has co-created the Diversity in Children’s Literature infographics with David Huyck. Together with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, she co-edited Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World (2022). Her next book addresses Asian American youth literature with Paul Lai. She is represented by Tricia Toney Lawrence of Aevitas Creative Management.