Book Review: ‘Made in Asian America: A History for Young People,’ by Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat

Key Facts

Children’s Books ASIAN AMERICAN CHILDREN ARE FRONT AND CENTER IN A NEW VERSION OF A GROUNDBREAKING WORK Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat’s “Made in Asian America” spotlights young people who defy erasure and make their own history.
Credit...From “Made in Asian America” Paula Yoo Paula Yoo is the author of the young adult books “From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement” and, out in May, “Rising From the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992.
Similar stories abound in the powerful “Made in Asian America: A History for Young People,” by the award-winning Chinese American historian Erika Lee and the acclaimed Thai American children’s book author Christina Soontornvat.
Although this is the young person’s adaptation of Lee’s “The Making of Asian America,” the authors neither simplify nor sanitize Asian American history for their audience.