Hello AACP Newsletter Readers.

Happy Holidays to you all!

It’s hard to believe that there’s less than two weeks before Christmas and three weeks left in the year.

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Shopping Note

If you’re ordering books through our bookshop.org page, the deadline to get them in time for Christmas is December 13th for standard shipping and December 18th for priority.

Bookshop.org has a gift guide. To see the gift guide, go to our bookshop.org page and then click on the word “Holiday Gift Guide” at the very top of the page. You can also get gift cards by clicking on “Gift Cards.”

If you wish to visit our store (529 E. 3rd Ave, San Mateo, CA), we’ve added some hours to our schedule for the next two weekends before Christmas.

Friday 2-5pm, Saturday 11am-5pm, Monday 11am-4pm

As always, if you’re making a special trip, we suggest that you call (650-375-8286) ahead to make sure we’re there when you plan to come. If we’re short on staff and we need to take a break, there may be some periods when we won’t be there during the times listed.

Note that the store does not have all the books that we have featured in our newsletters, but we do have many other books and gift items. It may be possible for us to special order some books and have them at our store for you before Christmas. Such special order should be made by no later than Tuesday, December 17. Please contact us to see if that may be possible.

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About this Newsletter

This month, we have our 4th annual year-end favorite children’s book selection article. This year, I was able to read and review 66 books. My favorites for this year include a few books that I was not expecting, but that often seems to be the case when I have the chance to see all of the books together. Please read the article to find out my picks for this year.

For our second article, we have a piece by one of our student volunteers, Wenhan (Amy) Li from Notre Dame Belmont High School. Amy has written an article about some of the autumn and winter festivals that are traditionally celebrated in Asia, but are also celebrated wherever Asians have migrated to. Please check out Amy’s article.

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Featured Books

For our book selection this month, we have six folktale related books. One of the books “Vietnamese Folktales for Children” is a new folktale anthology by author by Phuoc Thi Minh Tran who we interviewed back in January 2022 and also did a conference presentation for us at the California Association for Bilingual Education in 2022. Phuoc has also supplied us with a link to a video preview for her book (click here). So be sure to check out her new book.

We have six science related books. One of them is an illustrated memoir by Amy Tan about her experience with bird watching called “The Backyard Bird Chronicles.” Wow, she’s an excellent illustrator on top of being a great writer. Angela Saini’s book “Superior: The Return of Race Science”  seems to be a must read for the coming years ahead.

The other four science books are children’s books that include one on a native Hawaiian butterfly (Butterfly for a King), a book on vaccines (A Vaccine is Like a Memory ), a pick your path book on squids (Search for a Giant Squid), and a really deep look within all of us (The Universe in You).

We have four activities books, one on gardening (Japanese Style Companion Planting), another on edible bonsai (Bountiful Bonsai), a book on Manga drawing (The Complete Guide to Manga Composition), and one on playing Shogi (Japanese Chess: the game of Shogi).

We also have four books on musical instruments (Erhu, An Introduction to Indian Bamboo Flute, How to Play the Janggu, and Balinese Gamelan Music).

The fifth item in our music section is actually a music CD called “Rapa Nui Odyssey by Mahani Teave.” Read our favorites children’s book article to find out more about this CD. Purchases of this CD helps fund Mahani Teave’s school on Easter Island.

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Note About An Event

There’s one new event on our calendar that we wish to highlight. We are holding a poetry event at the San Mateo Library on January 26. Our main guest speaker will be poet and author Genny Lim who is also the poet laureate of San Francisco. We hope to announce other guest poets soon, but we will also have an open mic (we hope to have students and the public read their poems and haikus). The theme for the event is AAPI Poetry for Peace, Love, and Understanding. Co-sponsors for the event include AACP, Self Help for the Elderly, San Mateo JACC, San Mateo JACL, the Asian Law Caucus, Stop AAPI Hate, and the San Mateo Main Library.

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Year-End Message

2024 was the closest it’s been to pre-pandemic conditions for AACP. We attended many of the events that we used to go to before the pandemic, but some of these had been scaled back and others have not returned.

In May of this year, we co-created and co-hosted the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Authors Day event at the San Mateo Main Library. Eight authors were in attendance for this event.

Here are some of the authors, book creators, artists, and historians whom we assisted and/or interviewed for our newsletter this year: William Wong, Frances Kakugawa, Curtis Chin, Karen Su, Oliver Chin, Judith Kajiwara, Mina Harada Eimon, Natasha Yim, Li-Ying Eileen Lundquist, Abigail Hing Wen, Stephanie Wong, Apala G. Egan, Rita Takahashi, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Frank Abe, Amy Liang, Charlie Chin, and Jane Park.

This coming year will mark AACP’s 55th anniversary. During the pandemic our survival looked uncertain. With the loss of two key members of AACP, Florence and Mas Hongo, people still inquire about whether we are still around. With the dedicated help of our volunteers, the generosity of our landlord (the Takahashi Market family), and most of all you, we are going to make it to our 55th year.

With the proliferation of AAPI media outlets, bookstores, and book creators, and with some school systems adopting ethnic studies programs, there was some second guessing as to the need for our services.

But as we have seen with the changing political winds and community attitudes, our gains are never certain. We believe that it is more important than ever to educate all Americans about our history and place in this country, and about our humanity. AACP’s role and mission is not done, and we hope that with your continued support and interest, AACP will survive to see many more anniversaries to come.

Thank you very much!

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Last but not least, a big thank you goes to all of you that have contributed and worked on the newsletter this year. Thank you to our editors, Philip, Susan, Mina, Harrison, and Roger. Thank you to our contributing writers, Sylvia, Amy, Olivia, Apala, Rita, and others (forgive me for not naming you all). Thank you to our interviewees for supplying us with so much interesting reads. Thank you readers. Keep it up everyone. Much appreciation of all of you.

Take care. Have a wonderful Holiday Season and an even better 2025!