More great books for Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month

May is Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month. I shared 9 books to help you celebrate a couple years ago and I'm back today with a few more recommendations for you. 

🇨🇳 Chinese Menu (secular, middle grade, nonfiction-fiction combo)... We love Grace Lin around here! This one has such a fascinating look at the history of Chinese (and Chinese-American) foods, complete with her signature style of folk tale stories mixed in. I am going to try making a sweet red bean soup this week! 

🇯🇵 Hiroshima (secular, middle grade)... This one was a bit depressing, without much hope/redemption involved, but it was short and it was based on true accounts. 

🇺🇸 Love in the Library (secular, picture book, biography)... This picture book tells a Japanese Internment camp story. I love when history is shown through picture books, and in a way that expresses the sadness without forving children to feel deep sorrow. This one pulled that off. 

🇯🇵 Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (secular, middle grade)... Based on a true story, this one is about a young girl's battle with cancer after the atom bomb. This one does not leave children with alot of hope but it is very good.  

🇺🇸 Seen and Unseen (secular, middle grade, nonfiction, graphic novel)... This Japanese internment camp account is told graphic-novel style. It's a very quick read as a result and I added it to our list for middle school. 

🇰🇷 Seesaw Girl (secular, chapter book/ middle grade, TGTB book list)... This one is more historical in that paints a cultural picture of 17th century Korea. This TGTB book list offering ends with a lighter tone than some of the others on this list. It's also a very fast, easy read. Linda Sue Park is another favorite around here. 

🇨🇳 What is the Great Wall of China? (Secular, middle grade, nonfiction)... This series is very hit or miss with me but I liked this one fine.  

I debated whether or not to add this one but I'm also going to include one of my very favorite middle grade novels, Echo. The third part follows a Mexican-American family as they take care of a Japanese family's farm while they're in an internment camp. There are questions and concerns about the Japanese family being spies and I feel like this story paints an important picture but since it's not through their own eyes I was hesitant to include it. 

And, for diversity that isn't historical in nature: Corinne (middle grade, secular) // East Meets Vegan (cookbook, secular) // Nana, Nenek, and Nina (picture book, secular)

Adventures in Boise- part 2

 

Day 4- We started this day with breakfast and a walk around the green belt behind our airbnb. 

We went to the Discovery Center with family and it was a big hit, the highlight of the trip for two of my kids. That month they had an impressionist art exhibit (Degas has always been one of my favorite artists so that was fun), fossils, simple physics, space, and a big LEGO area. 

We had a smoothie bowl lunch at Boise Juice Co (100% gluten free + vegan at some locations) where our whole party either chose the peanut butter bowl or the Chocolate Cherry Cashew bowl. Delicious! 

Then we headed downtown! 

 

Maybe it's my dad's construction background coming out but another thing I love on trips is admiring beautiful old architecture. My husband loves this now, too, which is so fun! We point out neat old buildings to each other as we drive/walk and marvel at the craftsmanship differences between then (arches, turrets, balustrades🏰⛪!) and now (tall rectangular skyscrapers 🏢🏬, fast, so we can move on to the next 🤑🤑🤑) 

Our main focus downtown was a set of sister bookstores. Rediscovered Books is a store full of new books and Once and Future Books is their used branch. We did leave the used bookstore with several children's books thanks to Nana. 

We made dinner in the Airbnb and it was a learning experience. The plan was to do Boise Juice Co for lunches and to alternate rice bowl dinners with our hashbrown taco dinner but then we saw a new, clean ingredient veggie burger and everyone wanted to try that instead. It was good (our new favorite, definitely recommend) but it was a lot more work / more time intensive to make those + fries and next time we'll stick to the plan. 

Hubs and I ended our night with two episodes of A Thousand Tomorrows. 

Day 5- We slept in, ate breakfast in the Airbnb, and all went to a park with a great playground. My husband and I enjoyed a Lime scooter date- so incredibly fun! I do recommend these, but I recommend a helmet. You can get going a lot faster than you might think. 

We again had lunch at Boise Juice Co. I opted for the Popeye smoothie but I found it to be so bad it was undrinkable! I'm a green smoothie girl and I add far more spinach and kale than most people but I still found it to be bitter, bitter, bitter. Fortunately they'd accidentally made an extra smoothie bowl so I just had that. Again we all had the peanut butter or chocolate cherry cashew bowl. 

We checked out VIP Games and then got several items from our lists at Half Price Books, a store we enjoyed in Texas. 

This night's airbnb dinner was another I find to be so simple + easy for feeding a crowd- hashbrown tacos! I dumped hashbrowns, salsa, canned beans (drained + rinsed), canned sliced olives (drained + rinsed), and leftover sauteed mushrooms + onions into a casserole dish, mixed, and baked at 350 until nice and warm. In the meantime I steamed broccoli, sliced avocado, and added a thin layer of cashew cream to all the tortillas. That's it! Warm hashbrown mixture plopped into tortillas, avocado slices for those who want them, steamed broccoli on the side. You could easily add meat + cheese for those who want it. 

Uno and Sorry were played and then we said our goodbyes, packed up the Airbnb, and finished A Thousand Tomorrows (loved the show!)

Day 6- Time to head hoooooome! 

We checked out of Airbnb and grabbed smoothies + bars to-go at Boise Juice (three of us had The Original and three had the DragonFLY, both were hits) and began the trek home! 

Idaho books we have loved...

Adults: Before I Called You Mine (Christian) // Beyond (Christian... I feel like this is more of a middle grade/YA book though) // I'll be Seeing You (Christian) // A Promise Kept (Christian)

Middle Grade: Running with Wolves (secular)

Picture books: Beauty and the Beak (secular) // Goodnight Idaho (secular, board book) // The Skydiving Beavers (secular)

Adventures in Boise, Idaho- Part 1

 

We recently enjoyed a trip to Boise, Idaho to compete in an extracurricular event and then meet up with extended family + explore Boise. I always enjoy sharing our adventures here! 

Things that worked on driving days- chatting // music // 90s trivia for my husband and me // Family Feud for everyone (haven't finished every card but nothing inappropriate so far) // Innotab (old hand-me-down I can't even find on eBay to link) + my brother's old Game Boy Advance + my grandpa's old handheld Solitaire game, but during scheduled intervals and not as a free-for-all // foods we brought from home

Day 1- We got into our hotel in time for a late dinner. Settled in and ate, checked out the event venue, read and relaxed.  

Day 2- We started our day with breakfast we'd brought from home but some of the other families at this event said the breakfast was good. We got kids registered for their event and then we took a beautiful riverfront walk right outside a hotel entrance. 

We had to pass a giant chess board and checkers board in a courtyard so of course we played those, too. 

We went back over for the start of the event and socialized with others for a bit (had the coolest conversation with a parent from Venezuela who shared so much of his life journey with us + was stunned to learn that Americans don't typically get a passport unless they're about to travel to another country) and then I took the younger two back to the hotel room for a while. (The littles and I went back and forth for their sake).

We all just ate lunch we'd brought from home and then the littles and I ran to Whole Foods to grab some dinner items. We admired a lot of art on the way and I realized that's one of my favorite things when we travel, seeing the art in different cities and towns! 

We were all so mentally + socially drained by the time the event was over! We had just-add-water soup/noodle snack plate dinners in the hotel room while watching Jumanji since it was playing on one of the channels (we bought an electric kettle just for this trip and wow, highly recommend!)

My husband and I also (finally!) watched the first of six episides of A Thousand Tomorrows before bed.

Day 3- We slept in (needed it!) and lounged around in the hotel room for a bit, ate breakfast I'd brought from home and then took another beautiful riverfront walk. This time we saw people surfing! 

 After our walk we packed everything up to make our move to the Airbnb we'd gotten for the second leg of the trip. We couldn't check in or meet extended family until 4pm so we had time to kill. We started with the aquarium which wound up being so great!  

My girls and I have been doing the TGTB Wind and Waves science unit and they've all been pretty fascinated by the ocean info + loving an ocean science kit on the side. This got them so excited! Some of my kids fed fish + pet stingrays and starfish, and everyone enjoyed seeing all there was to see. 

After that we went to the mall to look for a birthday gift component for an extended family member. We of course checked out all the puzzles and games while we were there. 

The rest of the night went by fast! We met up with family at Natural Grocers to buy food for our meals together, got all set up in the Airbnb, and the kids played Uno with family while I made a super easy dinner for a crowd. 

If you're ever cooking for a big group, I highly recommend burrito bowls. It's so easy to put multiple meal components out and et people add whatever they want to their respective bowls. I cooked a big batch of rice + riced cauliflower as the base and then we put out bowls of options on the table... Steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms + onions, pinto beans, black beans, salsa, Pico de Gallo, romaine lettuce, cashew cream, coconut aminos! You could also add meat, cheese, whatever 

After that Hubby and I finished setting up the airbnb, tucked in the kids, and then curled up in bed to watch the next episode of A Thousand Tomorrows and then read!