Welcome Readers!

Our 2026 Online Reading Challenge is … KNOW YOUR HISTORY! Each month we will be reading about a different observance month and highlighting a main title about that month.

For October, we are reading about Filipino American Heritage Month. We are celebrating the arrival of the first Filipinos to the continental United States by reading books that explore the culture, history, and art of Filipino Americans.

Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should’ve never left the Philippines.

Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.

Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history” sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as un-American and unimportant.

Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.

Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together. – Kokila

Looking for some other books that explore the culture, history, and art of Filipino Americans? Try any of the following:

• Bea’s Balikbayan Box of Treasures by Christine Alemsah
• Beyond the Mountains: an immigrant’s inspiring story of healing and learning to dance with the universe by Deja Vu Prem
• Horse Barbie: a memoir by Geena Rocero
• I am a Filipino: and this is how we cook by Nicole Ponseca
• Manila Takes Manhattan by Carla de Guzman
• My Heart Underwater by Laurel Flores Fantauzzo
• Our Nipa Hut: a story in the Philippines by Rachell Abalos
• Pedro’s Yo-yos: how a Filipino immigrant came to America and changed the World of Toys by Roberto Penas
• Under Coconut Skies: feasts & stories from the Philippines by Yasmin Newman
• When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!