Arcadia Public Library

"Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: He's merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being...

Award-winning photographer and filmmaker Nance Ackerman invites us into the lives of this determined family for an intimate and touching experience of child poverty in one of the richest countries in the world. Ackerman spent two years with Isaiah years after the House of Commons promised “to eliminate poverty among Canadian children,” 8-year-old Isaiah is trying hard to grow up healthy, smart and well adjusted despite the odds stacked against...

Apples and Oranges is designed to raise children's awareness of the harmful effects of homophobia and gender-related name calling, intolerance, stereotyping and bullying. In the course of a lively in-class discussion among elementary students and an equity educator, children's paintings magically dissolve into two short animated stories. In Anta's Revenge, Anta finds out that creativity--not revenge--is the best way to deal with a school bully who...

Ethnic notions is Marlon Riggs' Emmy-winning documentary that takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American history, tracing for the first time the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice. Through these images we can begin to understand the evolution of racial consciousness in America. Loyal Toms, carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, grinning Coons, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies roll across the screen in cartoons,...

Told in their four voices, a diverse group of middle schoolers comes together to try to figure out the bus accident that gave each a bizarre, limited superpower.

"Double Take is a fact-packed look at how science is tackling stereotypes. In the intermediate grades, students are likely to encounter and recognize all kinds of stereotypes. Our brains constantly use categories to sort and label the things (and people) around us -- both with good results and frightening ones. This book explores how we all use stereotypes and how science can help us to build more equal societies, where fewer stereotypes exist and...

This groundbreaking documentary takes aim at a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged from the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, Reel Bad Arabs explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs, from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-toting terrorists. Along the way, it offers devastating insights...

"With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata, whose Convenience Store Woman has now sold more than a million copies worldwide, returns with a brilliant and wonderfully unsettling collection, her most recent fiction to be published in Japan. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror and turns the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. In "A First-Rate Material," Nana and Naoki...

Ethan Garrett is a star athlete dating the most popular girl in school and a devout Christian. Jade Fulton abhors joining things, hates everyone at their high school (except her best friend, Gia), and considers herself agnostic. When they are locked in an aerobics room overnight, their confinement forces them to push past the labels they've given each other, and learn there's a lot more to the other person than meets the eye. As they go back to their...

An engaging study of the nerd in American popular culture and throughout history discussed in such contexts as the rise of online gaming, the science fiction club, ethnicity, Asperger's syndrome, autism, and high school and college debating.