Love, Dance & Egg Rolls

April 15, 2022
Jamie Santiago is devastated that, due to a lack of funding, this year's Folk Festival will be the last one ever held. At 16, Filipino American Jamie has been dancing in the local Folk Festival, which is sponsored by various Asian ethnic associations, since he was 6, and it is the one source of happiness for him. Sadly, shame over his heritage causes him to hide his love of Filipino dance from Walter and Dennis, his football-obsessed White best friends. In fact, he struggles to find common ground with Walter, particularly around the subjects of race and Jamie's goth girl crush, Bethany. Jamie is the only non-White student at his school in Milwaukie, a small Oregon city near Portland, even though there must be a substantial enough community to create the local Filipino American association that his parents have been involved with for years. Unfortunately, this book lacks a clear plot; it reads more like a vehicle to describe Filipino culture, dishes, and mannerisms, all of which are presented in a way that explicitly explains them for a non-Filipino readership rather than having them emerge organically from the story and characterization. Tagalog words and expressions such as tsinelas and ay nako are woven throughout the text, making the choice to use the term egg rolls for lumpia, one of the most beloved and well-known Filipino foods, baffling. Though the book takes place sometime after the 2016 presidential election, the pop-culture references and slang feel dated. Falls flat despite good intentions. (Fiction. 13-18)

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April 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 Jamie has always felt that he's had a spotlight on him as the only minority kid in his high school, a fact made much worse by the increasing number of white supremacist events happening around his hometown. At the same time, he is grappling with the end of the local Folk Festival, the sole event where he can let loose and feel like himself through traditional Filipino dance. Cutting through Jamie's anxiety is mysterious goth girl Bethany, who arrives just in time to help him take stock of his situation and appreciate the strength found in his family and community. Pulling from his own Filipino American heritage, Tanamor shows Jamie as someone who feels stuck in the middle--not quite Filipino, but not the ideal American either. This outsider feeling is one that many young people feel in today's increasingly polarized social climate. Luckily, Tanamor balances the serious subject matter with keen humor, as Jamie imagines various scenes in his life playing out like a hackneyed 1980s sitcom, making this book both impactful and fun.

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