New YA Novels about Multicultural Teens

 Novels about multicultural teens frequently tackle two topics: parental expectations and prejudice. Students reading novels about the cultural pressure these teens experience tend to foster a more empathetic attitude toward them. In Tahereh Mafi's (Shatter Me series)  An Emotion of Great Delight an Iranian American girl is grieving her brother's death and fending off prejudicial attacks after 9/11. Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma explores a young Indian American Kathak dancer's attempts to break free of her mother's crippling expectations.  Finally in Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan a Bangladeshi American teen experiences freedom to explore her own dreams, when she is left with her permissive grandmother during her parents' month long trip to Bangladesh.

In An Emotion of Great Delight Shadi, an Iranian American teen, is struggling to deal with a plethora of problems in the aftermath of her brother's death.  Her father is hospitalized having had two heart attacks, her mother is depressed, her best friend Zahra is ignoring her and it's 2003 and Islamaphobia is raging.  Shadi, who wears a hijab, experiences prejudice from her teachers, other students and the community.  Zahra has stopped wearing a hijab and is furious that her brother Ali is interested in Shadi.  With her school work suffering and her lack of support at home, Shadi turns to Ali for comfort.  This exploration of grief, racism, mental illness and discrimination is a compelling read and a window on the world of Muslim teens.

Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance introduces Radha, an Indian American teen who has spent years competing in Indian Classical Dance competitions.  She abruptly drops out, when she finds out her mother Sujata has been having an affair with one of the judges.  Doubting herself and all her championships, Radha refuses to dance, much to her mother's dismay.  After her parents split up, she and Sujata move to New Jersey where Radha enrolls at the Princeton Academy of Arts and Science, striking a deal with her mother to dance for a year in exchange for college tuition.  Then Radha meets and falls for Punjabi Gujarati American Jai, captain of the Bollywood Dance Team, and agrees to choreograph the team's dances.  Jai, who wants to be a doctor, can only finance college if the team wins the regional competition scholarship.  Radha finds this dance freeing, but still experiences performance anxiety when dancing for others.  To deal with her anxiety, Radha reconnects with her dad, a restaurant owner, through learning to make many of his favorite traditional Indian recipes.  The novel alternates between  Jai and Radha's third-person perspectives, chronicling the ins and outs of their romance and the challenges of their senior year. 

Counting Down with You finds Bangladeshi American Karina Ahmed bowing to her parents'' wishes, pursuing a pre-med path even though she would rather be an English major at Columbia.  When her parents leave for a month in Bangladesh, Karina's permissive grandmother comes to stay, and Karina blossoms.  Her English teacher asks her to tutor bad boy Ace Clyde and sparks fly.  He tells his parents that she's his girlfriend, attempting to hide that she's tutoring him  He, too, is fighting parental expectations and doesn't want them to know his true motivations.  She agrees to fake date him if he buys her books every week.  He acts like the perfect boyfriend, and even helps her deal with her anxiety, which is fed by trying to please her parents. As the month nears the end and she and Ace have fallen for each other, Karina must decide if she has the courage to tell her parents about Ace and her aversions to becoming a doctor. The author calls this book a "love letter to brown girls," tackling the familiar issues of prejudice and parental pressure with an insightful well-paced romance between two teens struggling to follow their hearts. 

YA novels focusing on American teens with immigrant parents

According to Robert Selman from Harvard's Graduate School of Education, "Good children's literature not only raises moral dilemmas, but also generates the feelings that are associated with situations where moral conflict and confusions exists. He suggests that through reading about social conflict students can vicariously learn how to resolve problem situations. With the immigrant experience being a hot topic right now, there are several new YA novels about American teens with immigrant parents that I would like to recommend.  Sara Saedi's  autobiographical Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card, chronicles the story of finding out she is undocumented after living in the US most of her life. Kelly Loy Gilbert's Picture Us in the Light focuses on a Chinese American boy whose parents are hiding a dark secret. Next year's Teen Lit Conference keynote speaker Sadhya Menon (When Dimple Met Rishi) has just released a new book From Twinkle with Love, about a young Indian American aspiring filmmaker. Nisha Sharma also explores the world of film making in My So-Called Bollywood Life, focusing on an Indian American girl obsessed with Bollywood, who hopes to attend NYU film school. 

In Sara Saedi's laugh-out-loud memoir Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card, which is based on her teenage diary, she explores the experience of being an undocumented immigrant.  After fleeing from Iran and moving to California during the Iranian Revolution, Sara found out she was in the US illegally at age 13.  In addition to the constant fear of deportation, she struggles with the usual complaints about her awkward teenage years - bad complexion, unrequited love, her uni-brow, and the idolization of her perfect older sister. Black and white photos and original diary entries are included in each cleverly titled chapter, such as "Sporting the Frida Kahlo." Her parents' frustrating attempts at documentation, as well as the history of Iran and advice for currently undocumented teens are interspersed with her tales of teenage angst. Her navigation of life between two cultures will entertain readers, as well as give them a deeper cultural understanding of what is means to be undocumented.  She includes a helpful recap of her immigration journey she calls "immigration for Dummies" at the end of the book.

Picture Us in the Light focuses on Danny Cheng, who rejoices when he gets a full ride to Rhode Island School of Design.  But then his life begins to unravel when he finds a mysterious file of documents that his immigrant Chinese parents refuse to explain. Knowing they had a daughter who supposedly died in China, Danny wonders if her death is involved with his parents' secretive behavior.  In addition Danny is beginning to come to terms with his attraction to his best friend Harry Wong and struggles with guilt over the suicide of a girl who was his nemesis at school. Danny's Asian-American community is socio-economically and religiously diverse which creates a variety of problems, as well. When he discovers the reason for his parents' secretive behavior and begins to resolve his issues with friends, he realizes his life will never be the same.  Although the book covers some tough issues, it is ultimately uplifting.

Sanhya Menon's latest From Twinkle with Love introduces Twinkle Mehra, a film geek who has a mad crush on her school's top athlete, Indian American Neil Roy.  When his nerdy twin brother Sahil asks her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, she decides it's a dream come true.  Not only will she get to make a film, she can get closer to Neil. Twinkle has always felt invisible.  Feeling ignored by her preoccupied parents and her best friend Maddie Tanaka, who has defected to the cool crowd and Neil who doesn't give her the time of day, Twinkle longs to be noticed. She decides the film project is just the way to gain acceptance.  Complicating matters, she is beginning to find herself attracted to sweet doting Sahil, with whom she has a lot in common, but she is also receiving anonymous letters from a secret admirer known as "N"whom she hopes is Neil.  Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, the story explores the topics of friendship, family, navigating the world as a woman of color and following your heart rather than your game plan.

I couldn't resist also telling you about My So-Called Bollywood Life, which stars Bollywood movie lover, Winnie Mehta, who has her heart set on going to NYU film school. When her boyfriend Raj, who is her natal star chart match, cheats on her and takes over the school's film festival, Winnie is devastated.  With the help of film geek Dev Khanna, she plots to reassert herself in the film club and ends up falling in love with him.  Then Raj decides he wants her back and secures filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) - Winnie's idol - as the festival guest of honor to prove his commitment.  Conflicted as to whether she is denying her destiny by choosing Dev, Winnie looks to Bollywood for answers. Chapter headings reference Bollywood films, and high-drama tropes and self-referential jokes make this a delight for fans of the genre, as well as romantic comedy fans.  Details about each movie referenced are included at the end of this charming debut novel.