What Can AANHPI Heritage Month Teach Me as a Writer? by Tina Cho

May is AANHPI Heritage Month (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander). In schools, teachers might read more diverse books set in Asia and talk about Asian countries and culture. I do. Actually, as a kindergarten Asian American teacher, my students are read Asian books all year around. HA! In fact, last month, my first educational professional article appeared in Edutopia, “5 Strategies to Celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month." In this article, I list many picture books that I've used or have been recommended to me. 

Last year I wrote an article for this blog titled, "Have We Done Enough: Diversity in Children's Literature." I revisited the Cooperative Children's Book Center to check stats. In 2023, 11% of the picture books the center collected from U.S. publishers had Asian characters. In 2024, it rose to 13%. Bravo! But in a March 2025 press release from the center, it mentions 28% of the picture books received featured white characters. Is there still room for growth? Of course. 

In this post I want to focus on: Does being Asian American inform my writing? And what can non-AANHPI people gain from this special heritage month? 

I do look at life through an Asian American lens, especially having lived recently in Korea. In fact, all my books have something to do with Korea. In this post, I'll show you six ways you can apply this heritage month to your own writing.

Every culture has important people. For instance, my most popular picture book, The Ocean Calls, illustrated by Jess X. Snow, is about diving women in South Korea. How are they special? Most of them are 50-80 years old, dive in the ocean without any breathing apparatus, and generations have been doing this as a career! Do any of your grandparents dive into the ocean each morning for a living and sell their catch? 

I wanted American kids to know about these ladies because they aren't your typical grandparent. There are some younger ladies learning the tradition as well, but not as many as prior generations. And the cool thing is Apple TV + has a documentary about them, The Last of the Sea Women, directed by Sue Kim, whose daughter has my book! What traditions or unique groups of people are from your culture/heritage that you could write about?

Every culture has special holidays, foods, and folklore. Those seem to abound in picture books. Look at the market. Are any missing from your culture and traditions? Maybe you're the one to write it. I wrote a nonfiction picture book, Korean Celebrations, illustrated by Farida Zaman, about holidays and traditions because this publisher had one on Japanese Celebrations, but not Korean :)  And my agent just sold a new picture book story about a Korean food. More to come after it's announced!

Every culture has history and wars. What does this generation need to know about it? My book, Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans, illustrated by Keum Jin Song, is a result of a long ago Korean War from the 1950s. In 2016, North Korean refugees sent rice up in hydrogen balloons over the border to feed their country. I helped and wrote a story about this event. 

My lyrical middle grade graphic novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow, illustrated by Deb JJ Lee, (which won the SCBWI Golden Kite award for middle grade fiction and is an honor book for the Freeman Book Awards from NCTAsia as well as 5 starred reviews from the major reviewers) is also a result of a horrible history. It's about two North Korean children who escape across the border along the Asian Underground Railroad. I have another blog post about that process here. Dig into your country's history. What new story hasn't been reported on?

Every culture has heroes. My work-for-hire book, Asian American Women in Science highlights some in a chapter book biography style. Who hasn't been written about from your culture? 

All children want to see themselves in books doing ordinary things. That is something I didn't get to see when I was a child. So my new series, Big Adventures for Growing Minds from PRH Waterbrook, God's Little Astronomer and God's Little Oceanographer, illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns, features diverse characters, especially, an Asian boy, which is often overlooked in books. Who still isn't represented much in picture books?

And for fun, put a spin on a familiar story. That resulted in my forthcoming picture book, The Princess and the Grain of Rice, illustrated by Honee Jang. More about that in a future post. Instead of The Princess and the Pea, change that nasty pea into rice and add a historical Korean setting (Joseon era 1392-1910). What familiar story could you change?

So there you have it--6 ways AANHPI Heritage month can influence your writing. 

Reading and writing books from all cultures allows readers to either see themselves or learn and experience something they might never get to in real life. It opens the eyes of little ones so that seeing a person from another culture with different skin and hair colors is normal, and they don't have to stare as if never having seen someone of color before. It allows children to welcome one another and be kind. Now what do you have from your family history or culture that needs to be shared with the world? Go forth and write it! 

Back in 2015, I did write two posts here at the Grog blog about culture and writing. You can find those here and here.

To see award-winning Asian books by awesome Asian authors, check out the Freeman Book Awards.

To know more about me and my books, find me at my website: tinamcho.com or my Instagram.  

Tina Cho, currently a kindergarten teacher by day and an author by night, loves inspiring her students with books and writing. She’s the author of seven picture books, including RICE FROM HEAVEN: THE SECRET MISSION TO FEED NORTH KOREANS, THE OCEAN CALLS: A HAENYEO MERMAID STORY (4 starred reviews, JLG, Freeman Honor Award), GOD’S LITTLE OCEANOGRAPHER (6/24/25), and the forthcoming THE PRINCESS AND THE GRAIN OF RICE (Feb. 2026). Her lyrical graphic novel, THE OTHER SIDE OF TOMORROW received five starred reviews (Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, The Horn Book), a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, SLJ Best Graphic Novels List 2024, Kirkus Best Middle Grade 2024, & Booklist Editors’ Choice 2024 & the Freeman Book Honor Award/NCTAsia). You can visit her website at www.tinamcho.com.