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)

A Must-Read!!

What a wonderful collection of American stories!!! I have told everyone I know about this book.
My only complaint, if I could, is that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s chapter was cut off :( I was really looking forward to hearing his contribution.

Congratulations and a big thank you to America Ferrera for putting this together!

AMAZING!!!!

I LOVED IT, AMAZED, WOW, SOMETHING FRESH AND I FELT IT WAS ME IN PARTS

beautifully done.

I loved this. Hearing other people perspectives from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures was wonderful.

Full Spectrum of Stories

The diversity and beauty of cultures is so rich in this book. Ms. America Ferrera has been promoted from one of my favorite actresses to one of my favorite storytellers, as well 😊

must read!!!

Everyone should read this book! Easy but very thought provoking. So interesting to hear about all different types of experiences in America.

best book ever

Please read it's worth it and has opened my eyes to multiple things regarding the struggles immigrants face and POC

I wanted more

it makes feel even more American, love all the stories, I felt very releate to must of them but they all beautiful writing.

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!