Compiled by
Zheng Ye Yang
Chair of the CALA Publication Committee (1999-2000)
Chan, Jackie. I am Jackie Chan : My Life in Action. New York : Ballantine Books, c1998.
At age seven, Jackie Chan was enrolled in the China Drama Academy, a Hong Kong boarding school presided over by Master Yu Jim-yuen. For the next ten years Jackie would be trained in the art of Chinese opera. His regimen was rigorous, exhausting, and often brutal. The Master disciplined his pupils without mercy, and canings were common. Jackie endured his punishing training and in time became a lead performer in the intricate, demanding dramas staged by the Academy troupe. He also began his transition to cinema by working as a stuntman in martial arts films. Jackie soon gained a reputation as a fearless stuntman, and directors started to offer him starring roles in their movies. Given the opportunity to act and eventually produce and direct, Jackie emerged as one of the brightest stars in the Asian film world. The coup de grace for him occurred in 1994 with the release of Rumble in the Bronx, his breakthrough movie in the United States, a blockbuster that cemented his reputation as a box office magnet. Like his movies, Jackie's autobiography is fast-paced, frequently funny, and chock-full of action.
Twenty-six ancient Chinese tales, including The Tortoise Talked, How Some Animals Became as They Are, Number Three Son, The Sparrow and the Phoenix, and Teardrop Dragon.
Eighteen fables, fairy tales and legends from ancient China. Includes "The Turtle and the Herons," "A Gentleman and his Cook," and "God of the Kitchen."
Retells an ancient Chinese tale of magic in which unselfishness is rewarded.
In order to save his family, a Chinese boy turns into a fighting cricket and becomes the emperor's champion.
In this retelling of a traditional Chinese tale, a boy finds a treasure in an unexpected place.
During the final days of the Japanese occupation of China, Shao-shao celebrates his tenth birthday, observes traditional holidays with his family, and befriends the daughter of a traitor.
A mouse goes to the sun, cloud, wind, and wall in search of the strongest husband for his daughter, only to find him among his own kind.
To make him feel better about losing his kite, a boy's grandfather tells him a story about why the Chinese build kites.
English and Chinese. Parallel title in Chinese characters. Legend of Hua Mu Lan who goes to war disguised as a man to save the family honor and becomes a great general.
Presents ten tales featuring Lord Bau, a wise judge who was a champion of righteousness and protector of the weak against the powerful.
Chu, Daniel and Shaw, Bill. Going Home to Nicodemus : the Story of an African American Frontier Town and the Pioneers Who Settled it. Morristown, N.J. : J. Messner, c1994.
When it comes to the Old West, one rarely thinks of African-Americans as being a part of this phase of history. Nicodemus, Kansas was the first settled all Black town in the Old West. Twelve years after the Civil War, freed slaves from Kentucky were recruited to settle in Nicodemus. What transpired was disappointment heaped with perseverance, courage and determination to succeed. This little known aspect of African American history is a treasure to be passed on to all.
Fang, Su Chen. Happy Birthday to You. Illustrated by Gui Fong Chang. Hauppauge, NY : Barron's Educational Series, c1996.
This book is recommended for children with cancer or to children whose friends have cancer, it is also recommended to anyone who cherishes friendship.
A mischievous monkey acquires godlike powers and creates havoc in heaven.
The stories are translated from Naxi minority folktale collection, v. 1.
Twenty traditional tales from such ethnic groups in China as Mongol, Tibetan, Yao, Han, and Miao.
A lullaby which asks animals such as a lizard, monkey, and water-buffalo to be quiet and not disturb the sleeping baby.
A collection of short poems written over 1000 years ago by such poets of the Tang Dynasty as Li Po, Yin Luan, and Du Mu.
After social rebels convince the headman of a small village in northern Thailand to resist the land rent, his seventeen-year-old daughter Jinda finds herself caught up in the student uprising in Bangkok.
Rebellious Miriam, who dreams of being a rock star, joins a band and learns to question her own goals and values.
In a cardboard box, also containing 1 miniature fan, 1 ink stone, 1 ink stick, 1 calligraphy brush, 1 set of 3 coins, paper building kits, and games.
A true-to-life account of a typical day in the life of a shrimp boat crew working off the South Carolina coast.
A young girl living in a Chinese village in the 1940s tries to find a way to buy an apple, the fruit of rich people, to share with her grandmother.
In the late 1940's in southeastern China, ten-year-old Ying can't wait for her lichee tree to bloom so she can sell the fruit for money to help her family.
This story of children celebrating the traditional autumn Moon Festival is based on the author's memories of her childhood in China.
A cat and a flower learn to accept each other's differences and become friends.
When Mei-Mei fails in her attempt to earn money through a cookie sale for the expensive toy bear she wants for Christmas, her mother helps her see a special gift she has had all along.
A young girl takes an imaginary journey through the various foods on her family's dinner table, where noodle soup becomes a warm lake with snakes and a roast chicken becomes a golden mountain.
Square Beak, famous for the beautiful and unusual eggs she lays, abandons an egg-laying contest the other chickens expect her to win and returns to the life she loves, traveling and dreaming.
Good friends, good times read alone book
Describes China today as seen through the eyes of a group of American high school students.
When his mother's beautiful brocade is snatched away by a greedy goddess, a young Chinese boy faces many perils as attempts to get it back.
When a campaign is initiated during the 1950's to annihilate the dogs of China as a famine-fighting measure, a boy tries to save his little dog.
Although small in size, the ant comes to the aid of his friend the dove during a crisis.
A retelling of the Grimm fairy tale in which a frog retrieves the princess' ball for a promise that the princess is reluctant to keep.
A good witch rewards a helpful sister and a selfish sister in kind.
An easy-to-read retelling of the well-known fable in which a little mouse saves the life of the King of Beasts.
A young man named Yee-Lee goes on a journey to the Wise Man of Kun-lun Mountain to discover the reason for his poverty.
A stingy peddler is chastised for his miserly ways by an old beggar with magical powers.
A rainbow-colored magic fish helps Laifu protect his bride-to-be from the evil ruler Funtong.
This British import is composed of info bits that very generally straddle the history of China. Some of these are quite intriguing, as the page on Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor (221-210 B.C.). Not only did he order all works of literature burned; not only did he bury 500 scholars alive--he also sent hundreds of children into the sea to search for the magic of long life. (They drowned, of course.)
A migratory flock of birds grows smaller and smaller as each species reaches a suitable habitat, until even the red-winged blackbird finds a place to make its home.
Describes how budding naturalists can explore the mysteries of plant and animal life by investigating clues in their own backyards and neighborhoods.
How to identify birds of the East--their food and habitats--and where and how to bird watch.
A little boy observes the behavior and anatomy of a goldfish he won at school.
A brief introduction to the characteristics, habits, and different species of ladybugs.
A simple introduction to planting and growing plants.
A simple description of the characteristics of both land and water snails.
Describes the physical characteristics and habits of caterpillars emphasizing their habitats and ability to metamorphose.
Three children and their teacher discover by observation the characteristics, habits, and usefulness of earthworms.
Describes simply how an old oak tree is the center of much activity because of what lives on it and in it and the many things dependent upon it.
Two youngsters find a toad and a lizard and make a terrarium for each of them.
Describes many different kinds of plant habitats, only one of which is just right for growing cattails.
A description of the feeding habits of animals living in and around a pond and how these habits affect the ecology of the area.
Traces the history of Chinese immigration to the United States, discussing why they emigrated, their problems in a new land, and their contributions to American culture.
Describes plants and animals that live in and around kelp bed forests, including otters, seals, plankton, eels, and octopi.
It describes the special world of the coral reef by day and night. An inviting text highlights the author's firsthand diving experiences.
In a small city in southern Taiwan, six children with a traditional background experience different changes in their outlook.
In a future American West where most of the people and animals are partly mechanical, totally human cowboy Louie Hong tangles with bionic outlaws and bounty hunters who are blaming him for a recent bank robbery.
Child prodigy Millicent Min is a senior in high school, but she struggles to learn to make friends and play volleyball over the course of an eventful summer.
Twelve-year-old Amy finds her family responsibilities growing and interfering with her ballet practice when her mother takes a job outside the home.
An honest young boy tries to get rid of an ever-increasing number of snakes that have come with the bowlful of silver coins he found.
A boy in long-ago China sees the world around him from a butterfly's point of view. Based on the writings of philosopher Chuang Tzu.
When a prop gun used during the making of a television show turns out to have real bullets, twelve-year-old Lily Lew and Auntie, her movie actress great-aunt, comb San Francisco's Chinatown in search of the culprit responsible for loading the gun.
Lily and her aunt, a Chinese American movie actress, join forces to solve the theft of some priceless pearls and stop the operator of a sweatshop in San Francisco's Chinatown.
When $2000 is stolen during the opening of a restaurant, Lily and her aunt, a Chinese American movie actress, search for the thief throughout San Francisco's Chinatown.
A twelve-year-old girl who knows little about her Chinese heritage is sent to live with her grandmother in San Francisco's Chinatown.
A boy with a face so sad that nobody wants to look at him runs away with a caravan of giants to the city of dragons, where his sorrowful face is finally appreciated.
From the time a giant squirrel curses Farmer Johnson's best hunting dog, things are never the same around the farm, and hunting little animals cease to be a sport.
A dragon named Shimmer, a monkey wizard, a reformed witch, and two humans go on a quest to mend the magic cauldron needed to repair the dragon's home.
Shimmer, a renegade dragon princess, tries to redeem herself by capturing a witch with the help of a human boy.
To free her clan from slavery at underwater forges, the dragon princess Shimmer and her human companion Thorn combat the Dragon King's jealousy and treachery.
The dragon princess Shimmer and her companions fight a war against the evil Boneless King in order to rescue their friend Thorn and restore the dragons' underwater home.
When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867. Sequel to "Mountain light."
In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine.
While his father is away from their Chinese village, Little Lee fights to save his mother's soul from an evil fox creature that has assumed human form.
Describes the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, particularly as it affects Sachi, who becomes one of the Hiroshima Maidens.
Jim teams up with his grandfather, who is known as the meanest man in Chinatown, to defeat a powerful demon.
A young Chinese boy nicknamed Runt records his experiences in a journal as he travels from southern China to California in 1852 to join his uncle during the Gold Rush.
Yue, a Chinese merchant, discovers the wisdom in passing along kindness, when Bear Face, the huge hairy man Yue has befriended, saves his life.
In this retelling of a Mongolian folktale a simple shepherd must pass three tests in order to marry the Khan's beautiful daughter.
Charley Sabini, who thinks with his head, meets Chris Pomeroy, who thinks with her feelings, and the result is a friendship which is a surprise to both of them.
Teddy finds that his imagination has gotten him into trouble once more, when he buys his younger brother Bobby an alligator for his birthday.
The author describes how he grew up as a Chinese American in San Francisco and how he came to use his writing to celebrate his family and his ethnic heritage.X
A magic paintbrush transports Steve and his elderly caretakers from their drab apartment in Chinatown to a world of adventures.
Sung, a brave man who is not afraid of ghosts, meets one on a dark road and tricks it into revealing its secret weakness.
Swept up in one of the local rebellions against the Manchus in China, nineteen-year-old Squeaky loses his home and travels to America to seek his fortune among the gold fields of California. Sequel to "The Serpent's Children.
Branded in the past as a liar, a teen-aged boy trying to prove his friend's death in a car crash was no accident finds himself stalked by a seemingly respectable businessman for a similar fate.
A collection of twenty Chinese folk tales that were passed on by word of mouth for generations, as told by some oldtimers newly settled in the United States.
A promising young ballet student cannot afford to continue lessons when her Chinese grandmother emigrates from Hong Kong, creating jealousy and conflict among the entire family.
A Chinese-American boy whose father wants him to be good in sports finally asserts his right to be himself.
In nineteenth-century China, a young girl struggles to protect her family from the threat of bandits, famine, and an ideological conflict between her father and brother.
To save herself and her husband from an evil king, Shell agrees to bring him three wonders.
Fifteen-year-old Joan Lee and her family find the adjustment hard when they move from Ohio to West Virginia in the 1920s.
When Stacy is paired with a Chinese girl at school who is accused of theft, she must come to terms with her own Chinese and American heritage.
When she refuses to share her food with a beggar, an old woman finds herself transformed into various animals, until she learns a lesson about greed.
The fifteen-year-old narrator relates how, with his help, cub reporter, Mark Twain, and fire fighter, Tom Sawyer, uncover the plot of a deranged Southern arsonist in San Francisco during the Civil War.
A retelling of seventeen Chinese American folktales from a variety of Chinese communities in the United States.
Presents life in Taiwan as seen through the daily life of a twelve-year-old and her family.
An introduction to the geography, history, economy, government, people, and culture of the island republic of Taiwan.