American Panda

In this charming contemporary debut by Gloria Chao, seventeen-year-old Mei navigates the pressures of her Taiwanese American upbringing, where her parents have mapped out a future for her as a doctor with a preapproved partner. Despite skipping grades to attend MIT, Mei grapples with her aversion to germs, boredom in biology lectures, and a secret crush on her Japanese classmate, Darren. As she reconnects with her estranged brother and contemplates the weight of family expectations, Mei's journey illuminates the complexities of identity and the struggle to embrace her true self amidst a tangled web of lies.