Paper Sons

Lam's life has not been predictable. A disinterested student more dedicated to graffiti than homework, he later taught at alternative education schools. The Chinese American son of immigrants, he straddled the culture of his parents and that of his neighbors in the San Francisco housing project where he was raised. His father, who wasn't around long enough for Lam to get to know, sexually assaulted Lam's sister. This memoir weaves these disparities together with themes of Chinese history and the U.S. civil rights movement, the shooting death of one of Lam's students, and a reckoning with his father. The author casts a wide net and relies upon a time line that isn't strictly chronological, but his insightful and at times poetic writing connects the past to the present seamlessly. Teens will immediately trust Lam, who is unflinchingly honest about his missteps. Though the book contains plenty of curriculum tie-ins to Chinese culture and history, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, graffiti art and culture, and poetry, it's never didactic.