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Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature – Children’s Literature, 2025

“Opening in the mid-1990s, when MacLeod was 11, this graphic memoir traces her emotional and physical journeys of searching for connection and belonging while making sense of her blended family and her bicultural luk khrueng (“half child” in Thai) identity. …Just as both her mom’s curry and her aunt Barbie’s strawberry shortcake taste like home, Kathy learns that each dimension of her personal and cultural background offers much on its own without overshadowing other parts.”
– Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Continental Drifter

Written by Kathy MacLeod
Illustrated by Kathy MacLeod
Published by First Second

With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. She spends most of the year in Bangkok, where she’s secretly counting the days till summer vacation. That’s when her family travels for twenty-four hours straight to finally arrive in a tiny seaside town in Maine.

Kathy loves Maine’s idyllic beauty and all the exotic delicacies she can’t get back home, like clam chowder and blueberry pie. But no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t look like the other kids in this rural New England town. Kathy just wants to find a place where she truly belongs, but she’s not sure if it’s in America, Thailand . . . or anywhere.

Primary ISBN: 9781250813732
Publication Date: April 2024
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Middle Grade, Graphic Memoir, Age 08 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Setting: Thailand (Bangkok), United States (Damariscotta, Maine)

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: Immigrant

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

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