South Asian Literature for Children and Young Adults

Pooja Makhijani is the editor of Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America and the author of Mama's Saris (publication date 2007.)

Pooja recently wrote an essay, Here to Stay: South Asian Literature for Children and Teens, about looking to find herself in books. I cringed as I read about an elementary school librarian handing a young Pooja The Jungle Book by Kipling. "I did not identify with Mowgli, the little Indian boy who was raised by wild animals (I doubt that anyone identified with Mowgli.)"

Other resources for those who want to do better by their library patrons:

Paper Tigers, "a website for librarians, teachers, and publishers, and all those interested in young readers' books from and about the Pacific Rim and South Asia."

Pooja's website includes an annotated bibliography of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora in children's literature.

Kahani, a literary magazine dedicated to empowering, educating and entertaining children of South Asian descent living in North America.

Mitali Perkins (author of the books Monsoon Summer and The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen) has Welcome to the Fire Escape, "a safe place to think, chat and read about life between cultures," and includes a list of "between cultures" books.

Uma Krishnaswami's website; Uma is the author of several books, including Naming Maya; her site includes a section on South Asia in Children's Literature.