• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

author and editor

  • Home
  • About
    • Interviews
    • Sources
  • Books
  • Other Books
  • Media
    • Blog
    • Travels with Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
    • Creative Writing Tips by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
  • Contact

Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults

Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults
Edited by Cecilia Brainard
 PALH, 2003, softcover, 316 pages, ISBN 9780971945807
PALH, 2021, hardcover, 316 pages, ISBN 9781953716002
Finalist National Book Awards Anthology Division in 2005

Avail­able from Amazon

Avail­able in Kindle

Don’t for­get to review the book in Amazon.

Dazzling and Impressive Collection

This col­lec­tion of 29 sto­ries, the first pub­li­ca­tion of PALH (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House) received crit­i­cal acclaim. Writ­ten by estab­lished and emerg­ing writ­ers, the book delves into uni­ver­sal but at the same time per­son­al themes of how it is to grow up Fil­ipino. It remains in print and is used by many edu­ca­tors in their classrooms.

Reviews

Book­list

In this fine short-sto­ry col­lec­tion, 29 Fil­ipino Amer­i­can writ­ers explore the uni­ver­sal chal­lenges of ado­les­cence from the unique per­spec­tives of teens in the Philip­pines or in the U.S. Orga­nized into five sections–Family, Angst, Friend­ship, Love, and Home–all the sto­ries are about grow­ing up and what the intro­duc­tion calls “grow­ing into Fil­ipino-ness, grow­ing with Fil­ipinos, and grow­ing in or grow­ing away from the Philip­pines.” The sto­ries are intro­duced by the authors, who illus­trate the teenage expe­ri­ence as they remem­ber it or as they wish to explain it to the reader–whether the focus is the death of a grand­par­ent, bud­ding sex­u­al­i­ty, or going to the mall. The cul­tur­al fla­vor aspect nev­er over­whelms the sto­ries, and read­ers will be drawn to the par­tic­u­lars as well as the uni­ver­sal con­cerns of fam­i­ly, friends, love, and leav­ing home. While the sto­ries are fair­ly easy to read, teens might be intim­i­dat­ed by the dense book design and small type. Take the time to help them over­come this. The sto­ries are delightful!

***

School Library Journal

These 29 short sto­ries offer a high­ly tex­tured por­trait of Fil­ipino youth and an excel­lent sam­pling of cre­ative writ­ing. The­mat­i­cal­ly arranged, most of the pieces have been writ­ten since the turn of the 21st cen­tu­ry. Each sto­ry is intro­duced by a thumb­nail sketch of the author and a para­graph or two about some ele­ment of Fil­ipino cul­ture or his­to­ry that is rel­e­vant to the sto­ry. Authors include those born and con­tin­u­ing to live in the Philip­pines, emi­gres, and Amer­i­can-born Fil­ipinos. Tough but rel­e­vant top­ics addressed include a gay youth’s affec­tion for his sup­port­ive moth­er, the role of reli­gious didac­ti­cism in the for­ma­tion of a child­hood per­cep­tion, con­sumer cul­ture as it is expe­ri­enced by mod­ern teens in Mani­la, and cop­ing with bul­lies of all ages and sta­tions in life. While the intro­duc­tion seems more appro­pri­ate to grad­u­ate school than high school stu­dents, and the lay­out and book design are not attrac­tive, there is much here to mer­it con­sid­er­a­tion. There are more Fil­ipinos liv­ing in the U.S. than most peo­ple real­ize, but find­ing lit­er­a­ture reflec­tive of their expe­ri­ences is dif­fi­cult. The high cal­iber and broad but whol­ly acces­si­ble range of this col­lec­tion, how­ev­er, makes this title a sol­id pur­chase for mul­ti­ple reasons.

***

Book­bird Jour­nal Inter­na­tion­al. Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture, IBBY
by Glen­na Sloan,

Emerg­ing and estab­lished award-win­ning writ­ers are the authors of this fine col­lec­tion of 29 sto­ries about what it means to be young and Fil­ipino in the Philip­pines and in the Unit­ed States. Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca are now the sec­ond largest in the umbrel­la group of Asian Amer­i­cans, yet there is a scarci­ty of books by and for Fil­ipinos. This impres­sive array cap­tures the com­plex­i­ties of both the Fil­ipino cul­ture and his­to­ry and the real­i­ties of the lives of young adults no mat­ter what their eth­nic affil­i­a­tion. Each sto­ry is assigned to one of five uni­ver­sal themes: fam­i­ly, angst, friend­ship, love, and home.
“Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard has col­lect­ed a daz­zling and impres­sive array of 29 sto­ries about the saga of what it means to be young and Fil­ipino. The authors make the expe­ri­ences of ordi­nary young peo­ple come alive for us. The strength of the col­lab­o­ra­tive approach in this vol­ume lies in its indi­vid­ual exam­ples, for the best way to con­struct a pic­ture of grow­ing up Fil­ipino is by spe­cif­ic ref­er­ence to their lives. The struc­ture of the book is sim­ple enough. Each sto­ry is assigned to a theme and there are five of them: fam­i­ly, angst, friend­ship, love, and home.

***
Roger N. Buck­ley, Pro­fes­sor of His­to­ry and Direc­tor, Asian Amer­i­can Stud­ies Insti­tute, Uni­ver­si­ty of Connecticut
This vol­ume is indeed about mag­ic, mys­ter­ies, sad­ness, time, fam­i­ly, fear, and hap­pi­ness of young adult Fil­ipinos. But in explor­ing these are­nas the authors, each a born sto­ry­teller and philoso­pher, col­lec­tive­ly cap­ture the nat­ur­al and social tapes­try of the Philip­pines and Fil­ipino cul­ture and those forces that influ­ence it. Their use of the lan­guage with all its idioms, nar­ra­tive inter­vals and cadences leaves no doubt about the com­plex­i­ties of the his­tor­i­cal, social, cul­tur­al, gen­der and racial ter­rain of mod­ern Fil­ipino cul­ture. It is hard to resist one more com­ment. Despite the book’s sub-title, this is also a book for adults. They too will prof­it from what is a truth­ful, pas­sion­ate, hope­ful — and ulti­mate­ly — a very wise book. Kudos to Brainard and the oth­er writ­ers for this impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to Fil­ipino/­Fil­ipino-Amer­i­can his­to­ry and cul­ture. This is a pow­er­ful­ly achieved and mem­o­rable book by authors who know their craft, and who also have a pro­found under­stand­ing and love for the Philip­pines and things Filipino.”

Excerpt

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2018/08/fiction-cecilia-brainards-last-moon.html

Book Reviews

Book­list, April 15, 2003

MELUS, Spring 2004

Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Review, Sep­tem­ber 2003

Alfred Yuson Reviews for Philip­pine Star, April 28, 2003

Lin­da Kin­ta­nar Alburo Reviews for Free­man Mag­a­zine, July 2003

Fea­tured in Nation­al Geo­graph­ic’s 2020 Sum­mer Read­ing List

 


Tagged with: Books

Say Hello

Cecil­ia Brainard
c/o PALH
PO Box 5099
San­ta Mon­i­ca, CA 90409
USA

Let’s Get Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Recently on the Blog

  • Gemino H. Abad Philippine National Artist for Literature from Cebu
  • Certificates of Appreciation for Cecilia Brainard
  • Cecilia Brainard — Philippine Consulate Jeddah Saudi Arabia #NationalLiteratureMonth

Copyright © CECILIA BRAINARD 2022 · DESIGNED BY FANCY GIRL DESIGNS