National Geographic Features Brainard’s Growing Up Filipino Books

PALH (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House) is proud that Nation­al Geo­graph­ic has fea­tured its two pub­li­ca­tions: GROWING UP FILIPINO: STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS & GROWING UP FILIPINO: MORE STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS  in its Sum­mer Read­ing List.
Edit­ed by Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Bra­nard, Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino 1 and 2 col­lect sto­ries about the saga of what it means to be young and Fil­ipino.

Both books and also the Kin­dle edi­tions are eas­i­ly avail­able from AMAZON. ***

For more infor­ma­tion: https://ceciliabrainard.com/…/growing-up-filipino-stories-…/

https://ceciliabrainard.com/book/growing-up-filipino-ii/

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School Library Jour­nal reviews both books as fol­lows:

GROWING UP FILIPINO: STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS::
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.” (School Library Jour­nal)

GROWING UP FILIPINO: MORE STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS:
Brainard has again select­ed pow­er­ful, evoca­tive sto­ries of fam­i­ly: of promis­es and dis­ap­point­ment, fail­ure and resent­ment, tena­cious and all-con­sum­ing love, anx­i­ety and tran­scen­dent hope. There is plen­ty here to stim­u­late dis­cus­sion and encour­age an appre­ci­a­tion of Fil­ipino writ­ing and cul­ture. This anthol­o­gy is a wor­thy suc­ces­sor to the first vol­ume and has appeal to an audi­ence beyond high school lit­er­a­ture cours­es.” (School Library Jour­nal)

 

Tags: Philip­pines, Fil­ipino, books, lit­er­a­ture, fic­tion, short stores, young adults, teenagers, sum­mer read­ing list, Nation­al Geo­graph­ic