K-6
Brimmer, Larry Dane. Angel Island (Cornerstones of Freedom). Children's Press, 2001. Facts and pictures illustrate the thousands of immigrants who entered the United States through Angel Island.
Ages 9 and up.
Chetin, Helen. Angel Island Prisoner 1922. Berkeley: New Seed Press, 1982. In 1922 a young Chinese girl, her mother, and baby brother are detained on Angel Island with thirty other Chinese women while awaiting permission to enter the United States. The story in this book is written in both English and Chinese.
Ages 12 and up.
Currier, Katrina Saltonstall. Kai's Journey to Gold Mountain. Tiburon: Angel Island Association, 2004. This picture book is based on former Angel Island detainee and San Francisco resident Albert Wong. On Kai’s 12th birthday, he learns that he must leave his home in China and journey alone to “Gold Mountain” or America, to live with his father. When Kai arrives to America, he is detained at Angel Island in the crowded barracks with harsh interrogations and the threat of being returned to China.
Ages 9 and up.
Flanagan, Alice K. Angel Island. Compass Points Books, 2005. Describes Angel Island, the California immigration station set up to receive people from Asia, and the story of how immigration officials detained many Chinese people whom they wanted to keep out of the United States.
Ages 8 and up.
Freedman, Russell. Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain. Clarion Books, 2014. Between 1892 and 1940, Angel Island processed around one million people from Japan, China, and Korea. Drawing from memoirs, diaries, letters, and the "wall poems" discovered at the facility long after it closed, Russell Freedman describes the people who came, and why; the screening process; detention and deportation; changes in immigration policy; and the eventual renaissance of Angel Island as a historic site open to visitors. Includes archival photos.
Ages 10 and up.
Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomas. The Chinese American Family Album. London: Oxford University Press, 1994. This resource traces the experiences of Chinese Americans using historic photographs, diary selections, letters, oral histories, and newspaper articles combined with general background. The section on Angel Island includes poems and excerpts of oral histories from former detainees.
Ages 10 and up.
Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomasl. The Japanese American Family Album. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. This resource documents the lives of Japanese Americans, including their stay at Angel Island, through their diaries, letters, interviews, photos, newspaper articles, and personal reflections.
Ages 10-up.
James, Helen Foster. Paper Son: Lee's Journey to America. Sleeping Bear Press, 2013. Twelve-year-old Lee does not want to leave China. He is to be a “paper son,” and he studies a coaching book that details the life he supposedly lives with his American father so he can dupe immigration officials in California. After tense good-byes, Lee is off across the Pacific in 1926, only to be detained on Angel Island with other Asian immigrants. Readers learn about the emotional toll that is part of so many immigration experiences.
Ages 8-12
Lee, Milly. Landed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. In this picture book for young children, Lee draws upon her father-in-law’s experience to tell the story of a Chinese immigrant boy coming through Angel Island to join his father in America.
Ages 9 and up.
Mortensen, Lori. Angel Island (American Symbols). Picture Window Book, 2008. Although Angel Island was also called The Gateway to the West, for some it became the place that kept them out of the United States. Find out what immigrants had to go through at Angel Island and discover why today Angel Island stands as a symbol of hope and struggle.
Ages 6-8
Reiss, Kathryn. The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter: A Julie Mystery. American Girl, 2010. In this American Girl book, Julie discovers a mysterious note written in Chinese. She brings it to her friend Ivy to translate and learns that the note once belonged to Ivy’s grandmother from when she was a girl emigrating from China to San Francisco. Soon are discovering the note, Julie’s and Ivy’s dolls are stolen. They search all over Chinatown and even visit Angel Island. Eventually, Julie realizes that there is a hidden message in Ivy’s grandmother’s note that will help them find their dolls.
Ages 8 and up.
Saltonstall, Katrina. Kai's Journey To Gold Mountain: An Angel Island Story. East West Discovery Press, 2004.
Kai, 12, is the fourth-generation male in his family to leave China for the U.S. He's on his way to join his father, who is an American citizen in San Francisco. But after the long journey and tense medical examination, Kai is locked up on Angel Island, where he's packed in with other internees until a long, dreaded interrogation can be completed. The character Kai is based on a real person, whose photos, then and now, are part of the historical notes at the back of the book.
Ages 9 and up.
Soentpiet, Yin and Chris. Coolies. Puffin, 2003. While not technically about Angel Island, The book show the experiences of the Chines immigrants once they arrived in San Francisco and how their labor was exploited to build the Trans-Continental Railroad.Ages 5-8.
Soentpiet, Yin and Chris. Brothers. Philomel, 2006. A follow-up to the story presented inCoolies, Ming arrives to help run his brothers' store and soon makes friends with a young Irish boy who is also an immigrant.
Ages 5-8
SPICE. Angel Island: The Chinese-American Experience, Stanford, California: SPICE Publications, 2011. This is a graphic novel about Chinese immigrants being detained at Angel Island. The book compares their experience to that of European immigrants at Ellis Island.
Wong, Li Keng. Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain. Atlanta: Peachtree Publications, 2006. Wong, a former detainee and teacher, shares the story of her journey to the United States from China through the Angel Island Immigration Station, and her family’s life in Oakland Chinatown.
Ages 10 and up.
Yep, Laurence & Kathleen S. Yep. The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Based on the author’s family history and research at the National Archives, this is the story of ten-year-old Gim Lew’s journey from his village in China to America and his trepidations about passing the grueling test at Angel Island.
Ages 10 and up.
Yep, Laurence. The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner, California, 1852 (My Name is America).
Scholastic Inc., 2000. A young Chinese boy nicknamed Runt records his experiences in a journal as he travels from southern China to California in 1852 to join his uncle during the Gold Rush.
Ages 8-12
Ages 9 and up.
Chetin, Helen. Angel Island Prisoner 1922. Berkeley: New Seed Press, 1982. In 1922 a young Chinese girl, her mother, and baby brother are detained on Angel Island with thirty other Chinese women while awaiting permission to enter the United States. The story in this book is written in both English and Chinese.
Ages 12 and up.
Currier, Katrina Saltonstall. Kai's Journey to Gold Mountain. Tiburon: Angel Island Association, 2004. This picture book is based on former Angel Island detainee and San Francisco resident Albert Wong. On Kai’s 12th birthday, he learns that he must leave his home in China and journey alone to “Gold Mountain” or America, to live with his father. When Kai arrives to America, he is detained at Angel Island in the crowded barracks with harsh interrogations and the threat of being returned to China.
Ages 9 and up.
Flanagan, Alice K. Angel Island. Compass Points Books, 2005. Describes Angel Island, the California immigration station set up to receive people from Asia, and the story of how immigration officials detained many Chinese people whom they wanted to keep out of the United States.
Ages 8 and up.
Freedman, Russell. Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain. Clarion Books, 2014. Between 1892 and 1940, Angel Island processed around one million people from Japan, China, and Korea. Drawing from memoirs, diaries, letters, and the "wall poems" discovered at the facility long after it closed, Russell Freedman describes the people who came, and why; the screening process; detention and deportation; changes in immigration policy; and the eventual renaissance of Angel Island as a historic site open to visitors. Includes archival photos.
Ages 10 and up.
Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomas. The Chinese American Family Album. London: Oxford University Press, 1994. This resource traces the experiences of Chinese Americans using historic photographs, diary selections, letters, oral histories, and newspaper articles combined with general background. The section on Angel Island includes poems and excerpts of oral histories from former detainees.
Ages 10 and up.
Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomasl. The Japanese American Family Album. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. This resource documents the lives of Japanese Americans, including their stay at Angel Island, through their diaries, letters, interviews, photos, newspaper articles, and personal reflections.
Ages 10-up.
James, Helen Foster. Paper Son: Lee's Journey to America. Sleeping Bear Press, 2013. Twelve-year-old Lee does not want to leave China. He is to be a “paper son,” and he studies a coaching book that details the life he supposedly lives with his American father so he can dupe immigration officials in California. After tense good-byes, Lee is off across the Pacific in 1926, only to be detained on Angel Island with other Asian immigrants. Readers learn about the emotional toll that is part of so many immigration experiences.
Ages 8-12
Lee, Milly. Landed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. In this picture book for young children, Lee draws upon her father-in-law’s experience to tell the story of a Chinese immigrant boy coming through Angel Island to join his father in America.
Ages 9 and up.
Mortensen, Lori. Angel Island (American Symbols). Picture Window Book, 2008. Although Angel Island was also called The Gateway to the West, for some it became the place that kept them out of the United States. Find out what immigrants had to go through at Angel Island and discover why today Angel Island stands as a symbol of hope and struggle.
Ages 6-8
Reiss, Kathryn. The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter: A Julie Mystery. American Girl, 2010. In this American Girl book, Julie discovers a mysterious note written in Chinese. She brings it to her friend Ivy to translate and learns that the note once belonged to Ivy’s grandmother from when she was a girl emigrating from China to San Francisco. Soon are discovering the note, Julie’s and Ivy’s dolls are stolen. They search all over Chinatown and even visit Angel Island. Eventually, Julie realizes that there is a hidden message in Ivy’s grandmother’s note that will help them find their dolls.
Ages 8 and up.
Saltonstall, Katrina. Kai's Journey To Gold Mountain: An Angel Island Story. East West Discovery Press, 2004.
Kai, 12, is the fourth-generation male in his family to leave China for the U.S. He's on his way to join his father, who is an American citizen in San Francisco. But after the long journey and tense medical examination, Kai is locked up on Angel Island, where he's packed in with other internees until a long, dreaded interrogation can be completed. The character Kai is based on a real person, whose photos, then and now, are part of the historical notes at the back of the book.
Ages 9 and up.
Soentpiet, Yin and Chris. Coolies. Puffin, 2003. While not technically about Angel Island, The book show the experiences of the Chines immigrants once they arrived in San Francisco and how their labor was exploited to build the Trans-Continental Railroad.Ages 5-8.
Soentpiet, Yin and Chris. Brothers. Philomel, 2006. A follow-up to the story presented inCoolies, Ming arrives to help run his brothers' store and soon makes friends with a young Irish boy who is also an immigrant.
Ages 5-8
SPICE. Angel Island: The Chinese-American Experience, Stanford, California: SPICE Publications, 2011. This is a graphic novel about Chinese immigrants being detained at Angel Island. The book compares their experience to that of European immigrants at Ellis Island.
Wong, Li Keng. Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain. Atlanta: Peachtree Publications, 2006. Wong, a former detainee and teacher, shares the story of her journey to the United States from China through the Angel Island Immigration Station, and her family’s life in Oakland Chinatown.
Ages 10 and up.
Yep, Laurence & Kathleen S. Yep. The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Based on the author’s family history and research at the National Archives, this is the story of ten-year-old Gim Lew’s journey from his village in China to America and his trepidations about passing the grueling test at Angel Island.
Ages 10 and up.
Yep, Laurence. The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner, California, 1852 (My Name is America).
Scholastic Inc., 2000. A young Chinese boy nicknamed Runt records his experiences in a journal as he travels from southern China to California in 1852 to join his uncle during the Gold Rush.
Ages 8-12