American Like Me

By: America Ferrera

Narrated by: America Ferrera, Bambadjan Bamba, Joy Cho, Auli'I Cravalho, Tim Chiou, Janina Edwards, Jennifer Ikeda, Lameece Issaq, Eugene Kim, Jennifer Lim, Sunil Malhotra, Ramón De Ocampo, Roxana Ortega, Geena Rocero, Martin Sensmeier

From award-winning actress and political activist America Ferrera comes a vibrant and varied collection of first person accounts from prominent figures about the experience of growing up between cultures.

America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents’ homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday morning salsa-dance parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity.

Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative.

Now, in American Like Me, America invites 31 of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all.

Ranging from the heartfelt to the hilarious, their stories shine a light on a quintessentially American experience and will appeal to anyone with a complicated relationship to family, culture, and growing up.

Full cast of narrators includes: America Ferrera, Bambadjan Bamba, Joy Cho, Auli'I Cravalho, Tim Chiou, Janina Edwards, Jennifer Ikeda, Lameece Issaq, Eugene Kim, Jennifer Lim, Sunil Malhotra, Ramón De Ocampo, Roxana Ortega, Geena Rocero, Martin Sensmeier, Heather Alicia Simms, Neela Vaswani, and Tanaya Winder.

©2018 America Ferrera (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"[America] Ferrera is confident, articulate, and measured as she tells of losing her first love to a blonde, blue-eyed classmate.... An equally talented cast of narrators candidly delivers the disappointments of childhood, encounters with discrimination, and growing awareness of the world.... This is an audiobook to savor." (AudioFile)

Exceptional stories

This compilation of stories was a treat. Listening to the experiences from the people themselves kept it authentic and made me reflect on my own story. Thanks America for gathering all these precious and important narratives!

American like me

I grew up as a 3rd generation Mexican American. I was always labeled as Mexican by my american friends and as too american by my latio friends. this book reflects the many faces of immigration in America. Each of us has our own story!

diverse and reflective

As a first generation immigrant, i appreciated and connected to a lot of the stories in this book. Living across cultures and learning what it means to be American, only to find out that America is me. The many voices were well compiled and provided much needed reflection, wonder and clarity on what it means to be American in the year 2018. Thank you America!

Excellent read!

Absolutely phenomenal listen that only gets better by hearing these stories through many of the author’s actual storytelling (though it is a bummer that some of the chapters aren’t read by the author). Each narrative brought a new take/perspective on what it meant to them to be American and how the history of their family, culture, and people intersected with that. Really appreciated the vulnerability, humor, and insight within each narrative.

*for audiobook listeners: I think Lin Manuel Miranda’s chapter was cut short? The way it ended felt strange. If someone with the actual book text wants to let us know how it ends, that’d be great.

Deeply reflective

This powerful ensemble of stories made me reflect on my own life as a Chinese American woman like none other! Brilliant!

Important Stories

I hope this book of essays becomes part of high school curriculums throughout the nation. This is an important representation of what it is like being from an immigrants family in the US. I so appreciated getting to hear personal accounts from very public figures and hope these essays spark conversations that pave the way for positive life experiences of future immigrant Americans.

great to build awareness and break stereotypes

passionate narrative, outstanding diversity of stories, I loved it. I recommend the book for everyone in America regardless of the background.

Amazing stories

I wish everyone's story was in their own voice, but I enjoyed the book.

Great compilation

This is a great book that compiles the stories of different successful immigrants that came with their families to The States. What I appreciated is the diversity in the stories. I often get tired of the “I moved to -America- to give my family a better life” doctrine. I appreciated those who did not glorify the struggle, fought for preserving their culture and language as well as those who refused to assimilate. I like objective views not romanticized ones and this book has plenty of both. Not all essayers read their pieces though, I guess it was hard to get them all. Great job I recommend this book.

Great Book

Such a great stories, thank you America Ferrera for this great book. I could not put it down.