A Place to Eat: Reading Food and Space in Asian American Early Readers

To begin to uncover the ways that food, and the spaces it occupies, complicate Asian American identities, this chapter aims to bring scholarly attention to Asian American early readers as cultural artefacts, texts worthy of critical discussion and careful thought (Miskec and Wannamaker. The Early Reader in Children’s Literature and Culture: Theorizing Books for Beginning Readers, Routledge, New York, 2016, 1). This chapter surveys five different contemporary texts—Ruby Lu Brave and True (2015) by Lenore Look, Geraldine Pu and Her Lunchbox Too (2021) by Maggie P. Chang, Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream (2014) by Jenny Han, Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business (2020) by Lyla Lee, and Jasmine Toguchi: Mochi Queen (2017) by Debbie Michiko Florence—to assess the unique ways that food complicates, nuances, and affirms identities for Asian American protagonists. Applying Tim Cresswell’s definition of “place-making”, I use the term “food places” to refer to the meaningful spaces where food is present. By bringing these texts out of the margins and into scholarly discussion, and by reading them as meaningful literature, we offer the same respect to members of the minority groups their characters represent.