It would be difficult to review each story individually because they all build off of each other, but this was both realistically frustrating and heartwarming at the same time. I love how this shows many of the narrators being inspired or supported by each other, especially when inside no one feels as brave as they might look.

A wonderful interrelated collection featuring a full cast of Asian Americans set in the Chicago Airport. Each story handles some heavy topics including racism, generational trauma, and xenophobia but handles in such an approachable for younger readers.

Overall, loved the idea and execution of interconnected short stories as well as the airport setting. I think this was a very timely collection that addressed lots of different Asian-American experiences, especially with microaggressions and the new kind of racism amidst Covid. I definitely enjoyed some of the stories and characters more than others, but that comes with the territory of an anthology. However, as an Asian-American adult who has had lots of time to reflect on my childhood experiences, and been thinking more deeply about her identity and what that word means as a political identity, I couldn't help but feel like some of the situations were almost caricatures or played out tropes of examples of racism, which made it lose its nuance. I mean, are we really still telling the stinky lunch story as a pan-Asian-Am experience? Even AI can write it word for word now. (Highly recommend the Eater article Great! AI Can Generate All the Diaspora Food Writing Tropes)

Review: 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Allida for the copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

When 12 different Asian American authors came together to weave interconnecting short stories representing diversity, I knew I had to read it.

While I am more based in Canada and do not go through some of the extreme racism America seems to have, I have close relatives there, and I am constantly worried about them, especially with the recent pandemic. I can also relate heavily, having come to a foreign country from South East Asia many years ago and feeling so lost and out of touch with the culture and expectations.

I felt so represented in the book. They took all the elements of being an Asian: filial piety, silence in safety, don't do things like that, don't speak up, being invisible, and keeping to self; combined it with the elements of being American: speak up, stand up for yourself, advocate for yourself, love yourself to weave a wonderfully diverse story in a diverse airport setting. There was also the representation of autism, immigration, mixed parental lineages, adoption, friendship bonds, siblings' love, the love of a parent for their children and so much more.

I also love how it came in a full circle in the last story, with most of the characters from past stories playing tiny cameo roles. Most of the characters featured are more South East Asia and East Asia, and I find it interesting to see each other's take on capturing the essence of the experience each character struggles with or is going through.

My only small thing is I wish they would label which author wrote what story, as I would love to know which sense of writing style I connected most with and check out the author's other works.

My heart feels so full reading this, thank you for reminding me how proud I am to be South East Asian.

I thoroughly enjoyed this interwoven collection of stories about Asian American families from different cultural backgrounds sharing their experiences of struggling to be seen as American and treated with respect. This book would be a wonderful way to start discussions about prejudice and how we respond to anyone/anything different from our own known experience. I loved how the families bumped into, observed, and supported each other in crisis, even though they were strangers and came from completely different Asian cultures themselves. I can't imagine the work that went into creating and weaving these stories by separate authors together. Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, and Allida for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this book for an honest review.

“You Are Here: Connecting Flights” was such an unexpected gem for me to discover! I was deeply moved and inspired by the book. I plan to purchase it right away so my grade school aged daughter and her friends can read it.

The book was written by 12 award-winning and bestselling Asian American authors with a powerful message of contemporary Asian American identity through the experiences of 12 middle grade travelers.

Each chapter introduces a different character and their personal story, but the entire book takes place during the same timeframe at the same Chicago airport. I have read other books similar to this one with multiple characters and interwoven plots, and but I was very impressed with the cleverness and seamless transitions between the stories in this book.

I really connected with several of the characters and their situations. Even though I’m not Asian American, I can certainly empathize with their feelings and circumstances. The writing was exceptional between all 12 authors, and I will be looking into reading more books written by all of them.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to older children, young adults, teens, and even adults since it powerfully delivers some struggles and victories for Asian Americans during modern times. I would also strongly recommend this book for teachers to use in their classrooms. This is certainly the most influential children’s book I have read this year!

Have you ever stopped to think about the countless stories walking, running, and sitting in the airport on any given day? You Are Here: Connecting Flights takes a series of unconnected travelers and winds them together. I loved the backstories and complications. Each story is told by a different author, making for unique voices for each of the traveling groups. Race-based interactions are the central theme to helping readers understand (or remember) ways in which our words and actions can make others feel uncomfortable when the language is negative about entire groups of people. I will absolutely be recommending and buying this book.

I think kids need this book, especially after the worst days of the pandemic - and especially city kids. Racism against Asian-Americans isn't taken seriously even at the best of times, and I think this book provides a thoroughly engaging (and thoroughly enraging) set of examples as to how that prejudice manifests, as well as the resilience that often emerges as a necessary result. Furthermore, I think even the most enlightened non-Asian readers need to be reminded that, while there are themes and patterns common to many AAPI individuals and families - uncertainty about how to be "both" American and Asian, for example, or whether to speak up in answer to casual racist remarks from close friends - there are as many ways to be Asian-American as there are Asian-Americans.

What a wonderful collection of interrelated stories that perfectly sum up (at least for me) what it’s like to grow up in the United States as an Asian- American. The need to feel like you fit in is difficult – your differences are always pointed out, no matter if in the US or your country of origin and you never quite fit in anywhere. It took reaching adulthood before I could really be comfortable with this. The stories touch on different nationalities and the common thread of not causing a commotion and just blending in, but feeling the need to speak your truth. I loved every single minute of this and felt that it truly captured bits and pieces of my childhood and that one incident can be interpreted so many different ways. The airport setting was perfect to mix all these beautiful nationalities together.

YOU ARE HERE: CONNECTING FLIGHTS had me at Ellen Oh. All of the anthologies she has edited and/or participated in have been such high quality and such fantastic editions to the books I use in my creative writing classes. I have used both FLYING LESSONS and BLACK BOY JOY and students have found the stories eye-opening, engaging, and, often, reflective of their own experiences. To now have this collection of Asian American identities is thrilling. I can't wait to share this with my writing students.

You Are Here: Connecting Flights is a collaboration of many authors. This book focuses on the experiences of twelve young Asian Americans at an airport. Throughout the book, you can see how the stories intersect and tie together. This focuses on many important topics and highlights the discrimination that people face. It should lead to important discussions. I look forward to sharing this with my students.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

If I had to describe the You Are Here anthology with one word, it'd be "forced."

I like the idea of an anthology of interwoven stories set at an airport, but I just didn't connect with this one. The stories weren't connected in any kind of meaningful way. This might be my fault for expecting the stories to have more crossover, but it felt like we just got obligatory cameos where other characters were just awkwardly stuffed into the story instead of any kind of meaningful thread woven throughout these supposedly related chapters.

For the most part, the "connections" felt forced and out-of-place. The stories themselves didn't really have much of a plot individually, and they didn't collectively make a particularly compelling story, either. Unfortunately, I think the authors were so focused on the message that they neglected the story. I appreciate what they were trying to do, especially after reading the whole heartfelt author's note at the end, but shoving a bunch of examples of racism and microaggressions down the readers' throats seems like a really clumsy way of "exploring themes of identity and belonging." I am all for celebrating Asian American voices, but this just felt like a heavy-handed, one-dimensional. Again, I get the timing of COVID and the intention behind wanting to highlight Asian hate, but the authors basically packed the book with every racist encounter they could think of ("go back to China" remarks, squinty eyes, "dO yOu SpEaK eNgLish??," and the hallmark "weird" lunchbox moment) and left us with very loosely connected musings on the struggles of being Asian American that never came together make a coherent story.

I can't imagine how difficult it would be to try to corral twelve different authors with different ideas and backgrounds and get them to write a single story, but I can't help but think You Are Here needed a lot more work before it ended up on the shelves. Really, only the first and last stories are the only ones that managed to tie the other characters in in any meaningful way, and even then, it was a bit stilted and forced. I am curious to see what Harper Collins' new imprint, Allida, has in store. Unfortunately, this first encounter didn't work for me.

I loved this book! I liked all the little stories and how they worked together. This is a very charming middle grade book that I highly recommend it.

Glad to read this well written book in advance 💖 Thank you NetGalley, publisher and writers to let me access the e-ARC.

I really like this book and would love to recommend it to as many people as possible. It's well represent Asian-Americans where they perhaps confuse with their identities because they are force to choose only one of half of themselves and when they experience so much pressure and discrimination because of their race.

Through this book, I gain another perspective of white-American and America society who has too much prejudice to outsiders, in this case Asian/Asian-American. This book is another representation of discriminative American and they are not that good as they try to impress the world 🤷🏻‍♀️

This book so well written, every story interconnecting to each other very well. There is no miss, in my observation. This book also wrapped up well, the last story conclude all scene and there all story obvious link each other.

This book's quite political to me but in the good way, because it represents and tries to fight Asian-Americans stand to get equal treatment from the society and acknowledge as the American too, because they are.

As the writers expect this book to teach empathy to children readers, I'm optimistic they will learn many good things to follow later. Hopefully, the readers of this book will be ones that treat every people equally no matter where they come from and how they look like.

Great job for writers, publisher, and Net Galley! Good luck for this book, hopefully it will receive bunch of love from readers 💖

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for review.

It's hard to put into words how special this book is to me. Not only do the authors cohesively encapsulate how chaotic and stressful airport anxiety is, but the blend of Asian American identities and the struggles we face regarding our identity were seamlessly worked into the stories. Each story is powerful and important in its own right. I went through a kaleidoscope of emotions reading each story. I am Chinese American so there were certain stories that particularly resonated with me but reading about the experiences of other Asian American identities was really eye-opening in understanding that the Asian American diaspora has similar foundations no matter what ethnicity you identify as. Books like "You Are Here: Connecting Flights" are prime examples of why representation is so important and meaningful.

I LOVED this book! It was amazing to see how each of the authors was able to connect the characters together and it was a lot of fun to see the story unfold through different parts of the airport. It was very enlightening to hear the stories of so many Asian Americans and the types of microaggressions and racism that is experienced on a daily basis. The authors and editors did an amazing job of making their wide range of characters come together into a collective and interesting novel. This is a title that should be read by everyone, everywhere.

This book has earned its way onto my favorite books of 2023, and it's no surprise why. Written by 12 asian-american authors about young asian-americans that intersect in one Chicago airport, this book is a wonderful and entertaining read that I think adults and middle grade readers alike are going to enjoy.

There's so much diversity in this book: autistic characters, Jewish characters, characters from all different background converging in 12 interlacing stories that deal with standing up for themselves, finding their voices, and above all: discovering what it means to be American. This book has many themes of racism and many of the characters struggle with fitting in. Whether this be because they became Americans when they were younger, or have lived here their entire lives and struggle with their identity. This is a wonderful parallel between each of them, and it shows the sense of community and understanding each of the characters have with each other throughout each one.

These 12 amazing writers came together to write an enticing short story collection that have so many themes that work beautifully together. Reading about the characters through their thoughts, and then seeing them viewed by another character in the next story is a treat I would love to see more of! The mention of Garretts, and the love and connection the last story created with it, made my Chicago heart so happy!

This is going to end up on my recommendations list for years to come!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

You Are Here: Connecting Flights is a collection of interconnected stories by twelve Asian American authors which follow twelve young Asian American characters on a chaotic day in the airport.

Rather than being presented as individual stories, each new character introduced in this book was simply given a new chapter, which greatly aided the flow of story to story, though made it difficult to know which author was writing which character (fortunately at the end of the book mini author bios are provided which state which characters were written by which authors). In all, I thought that this book was fun, had a lot to say about its characters and their lives -- many of which related back to the authors' unique experiences -- and was ultimately full of love and joy. Even in its hardest moments, every page of this book was so clearly written with care, the whole experience was simultaneously thought-provoking and heartwarming.

I enjoyed the interconnecting stories of young Asian Americans at an airport in Chicago, told by twelve well known American authors of different East and Southeast Asian backgrounds - Korean, Chinese, Thai, Filipino, Taiwan.

What impressed me about the stories were that they showed Asian American young people learning to get out of their shell and help others and to stand up for themselves and others in the face of bias and discrimination, and general unfairness.

The stories also showed the variety of people termed "Asian American" and what brings them together in this airport situation in spite of having different family situations and backgrounds.

This is an excellent book for young people with immigrant families who face challenges to their "Americanness" every day and who must learn to face them and stand up for themselves.

If you are looking for a book that has Asian-American representation in spades, look no further. This is it, folks. This book features 12 intersecting short stories, each told by a different character with ancestry in the Asian diaspora. All of the characters are stuck at an international airport in Chicago thanks to a storm. There is so much representation in this book - LGBTQ+, transracial adoption, neurodivergence, and the aforementioned Asian American representation. Each character faces some form of anti-Asian racism during their chapter. It sometimes felt like a lot of hate when I totaled it all up, but I also know there is a LOT of hate in our country right now. None of the examples in the book felt contrived. This book would be a great addition to any middle-grade library or bookshelf. I really enjoyed it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐/5