Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2024

SpiderSmart began with a strong Asian connection in Annandale, Virginia, just outside of Washington DC. Known as “Little Korea,” this community needed and supported our first SpiderSmart learning center. We love that May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month!

We keep a global attitude at SpiderSmart and want our students to experience and celebrate authors from around the world. This month the focus is on Asian American authors and Asian Heritage from the perspectives of many authors with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. So many countries and cultures exist within the umbrella of Asia, and we have a depth of authors to help our students learn.

Here are a few:

Amy Tan, Grace Lin, Erin Entrada Kelly, Wendy Wan-Long Shang, Lisa Yee, Bette Bao Lord, Thanhha Lai, Ji Li Jiang, Andrea Cheng, Laurence Yep, Linda Sue Park, Jessica Kim, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Min Jin Lee, Wong Herbert Yee, Gloria Chao, Cynthia Kadohata, Sook Nyul Choi, Li-Young Lee, Christina Soontornvat, Tae Keller, Julie Lee, John Cho, Padma Venkatraman, Traci Chee, Flora Ahn, and Kelly Yang.

Novels, stories, essays, and autobiographies teach valuable life-lessons and history for our students to write about and discuss. Students need to understand that the Asian experience is incredibly varied, often distinctly different, and rewarding to explore.

Have a great May and be sure to read books to celebrate the Asian Americans who give our society strength!