You Are Here: Connecting Flights
edited by Ellen Oh
Intermediate, Middle School    Allida/HarperCollins    272 pp.
3/23    9780063239081    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780063239104    $11.99

In this collection of linked short stories, a nasty storm strikes Chicago’s (fictional) Gateway International Airport, delaying flights and suspending travel plans. Twelve-year-old Paul and his family, who are flying to Thailand to visit family, are stopped by security when his grandfather’s remains, which his grandmother is trying to bring aboard the plane, trigger an alarm; then Paul’s missing little sister causes subsequent delays. In the midst of the chaos, readers meet eleven other Asian American young people throughout the airport who find themselves in situations where they witness and experience (and also stand up to) racism: Mindy, an adoptee from Korea who doesn’t feel ready to visit the country of her biological origin; Ari, who is tired of explaining that she is Jewish and Chinese; Jane, whose Gonggong (grandfather) was attacked for simply being Asian. Oh and the other eleven short-story authors—who include Erin Entrada Kelly, Grace Lin, Linda Sue Park, and Christina Soontornvat—paint a picture of what it means to navigate being Asian ­American in a post-2020 world, where the burden of being blamed for COVID-19 is thrust on young shoulders. An editor’s note defines the term Asian American and explains the rationale for highlighting East and Southeast Asian American experiences.

From the May/June 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.