Order of Gloria Chao Books

Gloria Chao is a Taiwanese-American author who burst on the scene with American Panda. Her books are aimed toward a younger audience with teenage Taiwanese-American girls as the protagonists.

Before becoming an author, Chao studied business at MIT for awhile before switching to dentistry. She spent time in both dance and martial arts as a younger person, but now prefers curling.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

If You Like Gloria Chao Books, You’ll Love…

• Mary H.K. Choi
• Rainbow Rowell
• Cynthia Hand

Chao’s debut novel is called American Panda. The book follows seventeen-year-old Mei who is already in college. Her parents had a master plan for her that involved skipping fourth grade and she is right on schedule. She’s a freshman at MIT with a track to become a doctor, just as her parents wanted. Mei has a secret that she is terrified to tell her parents, she hates this stuff. She doesn’t like germs, she falls asleep in lectures, and she likes a boy that is not Taiwanese like her. Mei gets in contact with her brother Xing who was estranged from the family for the same things she is doing now. Can she find a way to just be herself without all the lies while still maintaining a happy family life?

Chao followed that book up with Our Wayward Fate. This book follows a seventeen-year-old Asian girl named Ali Chu. Ali is the only Asian girl at her middle of Indiana school and she lives a boring life that tries to avoid the people around her who don’t understand her. Things change for her when a boy named Chase Yu comes to the school who is also Taiwanese. The two get a real spark together as they bond against the discrimination in their lives. Her parents are against the relationship though and want Ali to end it. She can’t help but to dig into why that might be and unearths a world of secrets that will change everything.