There is one more category that I have been working on for a while, but I am not quite done with the reading.
These books are the ones that did not fit, or that could have fit but the timing didn't, or maybe they fit better with something else.
It may work best as an example of how different readings connect, and how specific reading plans never really end.
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
At the time of the Summer Reading Challenge for 2024, one of the categories was "A Friend's Favorite Book". I realized I didn't know a lot of friends' favorites, so I asked on Facebook.
I got about thirty responses from eleven people (I already knew that picking a "favorite" is hard). There were not many that I had read before and I have only read about four since; it will take a while.
One of them was Imbler's exploration of the body and self through marine biology. In some ways it is very fragmented, and maybe only some of the fragments will stick to you, but maybe they will be the ones you need.
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige
I have already mentioned this in another post all about dialectics (which is a part of how Boggs is guided in her work) and because there was a children's book about her as well.
See, it is all connected.
The Cat Who Chose to Dream by Loriene Honda, illustrated by Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani with Mark Deamer
This could have fit in with the picture books if I had read it sooner, but I stumbled across it checking something else, because the foreword was written by George Takei.
Mirikitani was held in Tule Lake with his family as a child. Discovering his art, Honda got permission to use the artwork for a book helping children process trauma, with Deamer helping to edit some of the artwork as needed.
Honda is a psychologist, not an author, and there is some stiffness with the book as it is trying to teach the concepts, so maybe it is not best for children.
It is an important reminder about things that we did not that long ago. There are still internment survivors, but they are aging. Mirikitani died before publication.
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang
This one almost fits into the other category, not yet written. However, while the family relationships are important, it is more about the history of China's transition from dynastic rule to being briefly a republic and then the takeover of Communism.
There is a lot of information, which could easily be overwhelming, but it is so well-written that is not a problem and it really brings various historical figures to life.
Of these four it is the most-recommended. It is also the longest, but not excessive for what you learn.
Related posts:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2026/05/childrens-books-for-aapi-heritage-month.html
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