4 new books by Filipino authors to read this spring

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

A baking book with a recipe for adobo-flavored chocolate chip cookies. A thrilling graphic novel inspired by film noir. A lively children’s book about a little Filipino girl waiting for her dad to join her in the States.

This season’s newest books by Filipino authors offer something for every kind of reader. And they tackle a wide range of issues regarding Filipinos and the diaspora, from adapting to a new country to reckoning with the Philippines’ colonial history.

A delightful baking book that blends tropical and American flavors

Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed feels like what an Alice in Wonderland tea party would look like if a Filipino hosted it. The cookbook has gorgeous recipes for caramelized banana and jackfruit jam, ube macapuno molten lava cakes, mango float cream puffs and an intriguing adobo-flavored chocolate chip cookie.

These concoctions are from the magical mind of Abi Balingit, a Filipino American baker and blogger who in 2020 started ramping up her dessert-making game to pass the time during the pandemic. Blending island ingredients like coconut, jackfruit, mango and kalamansi, or native lime, with American flavors like red velvet, marshmallow and poppy seed in her recipes, this cookbook is not to be missed.

A sweet kids’ book about a girl waiting for her dad to join her in the States

Michelle Sterling’s latest children’s book Maribel’s Year tells the story of a little girl who just moved to the U.S. from the Philippines with her mom — and has to wait a full year until her dad can join them from Manila. Month by month, the girl settles into her new country while reminiscing about life back home in the Philippines.

Sterling’s descriptive…