Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices

Edited by Mitali Perkins
Candlewick

Using humor as the common denominator, a multicultural cast of YA authors steps up to the mic to share stories touching on race. Listen in as ten YA authors — some familiar, some new — use their own brand of humor to share their stories about growing up between cultures. Henry Choi Lee discovers that pretending to be a tai chi master or a sought-after wiz at math wins him friends for a while — until it comically backfires. A biracial girl is amused when her dad clears seats for his family on a crowded subway in under a minute, simply by sitting quietly between two uptight women. Edited by acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins, this collection of fiction and nonfiction uses a mix of styles as diverse as their authors, from laugh-out-loud funny to wry, ironic, or poignant, in prose, poetry, and comic form.

“Becoming Henry Lee” by David Yoo
“Why I Won’t Be Watching the Last Airbender Movie” by Gene Luen Yang
“Talent Show” by Cherry Cheva
“Voilà” by Debbie Rigaud
“Three-Pointer” by Mitali Perkins (our awesome editor and the mastermind behind all this!)
“Like Me” by Varian Johnson
“Confessions of a Black Geek” by Olubemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
“Under Berlin” by G. Neri
“Brotherly Love” by Francisco X. Stork
“Lexicon” by Naomi Shihab Nye