Waka T. Brown

Oregon Book Award–winning author Waka T. Brown hits a home run in this middle grade novel about a baseball-obsessed twelve-year-old who moves to Oregon to help his grandfather—an elusive old man with a shrouded past—but ends up learning unexpected truths about his family and how they mysteriously parallel the Japanese folktale of the Urashima Taro. Rick Kotani is looking forward to spending the entire summer playing baseball. Sure, his team never wins, but he's been practicing a special pitch he knows is going to land him a 400-million-dollar major league contract…someday. That all changes when his mother throws a curveball of her own: Instead of playing ball in California, Rick will be heading to Oregon to help keep an eye on Grandpa Hiroshi while they move him to a retirement home. Trading no-hitters to be a babysitter? Rick is beyond bummed. But once there, Rick discovers Grandpa is actually pretty cool, and the two bond over a Japanese folktale about a fisherman, Urashima Taro, who trades his life on earth for the riches of an underwater kingdom. And like the fisherman, Rick soon forgets about his team back home when he joins a super-competitive local league that only cares about being the best—at any cost. As the team racks up the wins and Grandpa makes his final move, Rick must decide which ending he wants for his story: Will he fall in line with his ruthless teammates and their victory-obsessed coach in his own "underwater kingdom," or will family, true friendship, and integrity lead him back to shore?

A middle grade memoir from debut author Waka T. Brown, who takes readers on a journey to Japan, where she was sent as a child in the 1980s to reconnect to her family’s roots. When twelve-year-old Waka’s parents suspect she can’t understand basic Japanese, they make the drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her strict grandmother. Forced to say goodbye to her friends and what would have been her summer vacation, Waka is plucked from her straight-A-student life in rural Kansas and flown across the globe, where she faces the culture shock of a lifetime. In Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing in kanji, doesn’t quite mesh with her complicated and distant Obaasama, and gets made fun of by the students in her Japanese public-school classes. Even though this is the country her parents came from, Waka has never felt more like an outsider. If she’s always been the “smart Japanese girl” in America but is now the “dumb foreigner” in Japan, where is home? And who will Waka be when she finds it?

In this magical and chilling Coraline-esque retelling of the Japanese folktale “The Melon Princess and the Amanjaku," one girl must save herself—and her loved ones—from a deceitful demon she befriended. Melony Yoshimura’s parents have always been overprotective. They say it’s because a demonic spirit called the Amanjaku once preyed upon kids back in Japan, but Melony suspects it’s just a cautionary tale to keep her in line. So on her twelfth birthday, Melony takes a chance and wishes for the freedom and adventure her parents seem determined to keep her from. As if conjured by her wish, the Amanjaku appears. At first, Melony is wary. If this creature is real, are the stories about its destructive ways also real In no time, however, the Amanjaku woos Melony with its ability to shape-shift, grant wishes, and understand her desire for independence. But what Melony doesn’t realize is that the Amanjaku’s friendship has sinister consequences, and she quickly finds every aspect of her life controlled by the demon’s trickery—including herself. Melony is determined to set things right, but will she be able to before the Amanjaku turns her life, her family, and her community upside down

In this empowering deconstruction of the so-called American Dream, a twelve-year-old Japanese American girl grapples with, and ultimately rises above, the racism and trials of middle school she experiences while chasing her dreams. As the daughter of immigrants who came to America for a better life, Annie Inoue was raised to dream big. And at the start of seventh grade, she’s channeling that irrepressible hope into becoming the lead in her school play. So when Annie lands an impressive role in the production of  The King and I , she’s thrilled . . . until she starts to hear grumbles from her mostly white classmates that she only got the part because it’s an Asian play with Asian characters. Is this all people see when they see her? Is this the only kind of success they’ll let her have—one that they can tear down or use race to belittle? Disheartened but determined, Annie channels her hurt into a new showing everyone what she’s made of. Waka T. Brown, author of  While I Was Away , delivers an uplifting coming-of-age story about a Japanese American girl’s fight to make space for herself in a world that claims to celebrate everyone’s differences but doesn’t always follow through.