Hello AACP Newsletter Readers.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Wow, there are approximately two and a half weeks left in the year. Another year has come and gone. So I’ll get straight to the rest of the message.

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About This Newsletter

For our first article, we have a great travel blog about our recent trip to the Poston Pilgrimage in Arizona. Poston was the site of one of the United States’ World War II concentration camps for Japanese Americans. Once a year former internees, their relatives, and anyone with an interest in learning more about the history of this site come together to visit it. The event is not only meant to be solemn and sacred, but also educational.

For our second article, we have our fifth edition of our year-end review of children’s picture books  that we’ve featured during the past year in our newsletters. As an AACP newsletter reader, you usually just get a list for our featured books. This is our chance to give you a more in-depth review of some of our favorites.

When we are at events or sometimes at our store, people sometimes ask us if we’ve read all of our books. Obviously that’s impossible to do, but the process of doing this article does give us an opportunity to read a great number of our children’s books. As an adult, I must say that you can still learn a lot, be entertained, and sometimes emotionally moved by reading children’s books. For all you children’s book creators, job well done. Thank you very much!

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This Month’s Featured Books

Our book selection for this month includes two of our favorite children’s books for the year. Read our article to find out which of these six books made the cut.

We have four activity books including an origami book for making paper toys that fly, hop, twirl, shake, and more; a book for making your own soap; a guide for growing your own organic garden done in manga; and a book about Japanese carpentry tools.

As a person educated in the sciences, I am happy to feature six science books written by AAPIs including a children’s book on DNA, a book about our muscles, a book on our minds, a book about disproved science and ideas, a book about the top ten grand ideas of physics, and an update to Siddhartha Mukherjee’s bestselling book about cancer (The Emperor of All Maladies).

Finally, we have four history books – a book on Beijing during the early 1900s told using postcard images, a book about Tokugawa Ieyasu, a book about Balinese prince Made Djelantik, and a book about tea.

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Year-End Message

If you would like to read about our year in review and our plans for next year, please click on this link.

In a very brief summation, we had a good year, the best since before the pandemic. Thanks to your support, you helped us achieve this success.

Please continue to follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and by reading this newsletter.

Here are a few of our volunteers and board members that I would like to particularly point out and thank. A big thank you goes to our newest associate board member Claire Yi. Your contributions this year, including an article for this newsletter, and help at a bunch of events, including the Poston Pilgrimage, were very much appreciated. We really couldn’t have had the success that we had without you.

Thank you, Harrison! Your consistent help over the last couple of years was also very much appreciated. Now that you have a full-time job, we feel your absence even more. But we are very thankful to still have your help as a board member. Best wishes on your new career.

Thank you so much to our regular editors and contributors to this newsletter – Mina, Philip, Roger, and Susan. If you see any mistakes in our newsletters, it’s probably because I rushed it out without having to get their help.

Thank you to all of our other volunteers and interns, especially the students. We hope that your volunteer work with us has enriched your lives as much as it has helped us.

For all of you out there, feel free to contact us about volunteering. There are so many things that we could use your help with.

At the very least, keep reading and learning, and helping those in need. Be a force for good.

Take care and have an amazing Holiday Season and 2026!