By Serena Kim
SISTER ACT
– Frances Park and Ginger Park are sisters who have written several books for adults and children. The award-winning authors grew up in Virginia and now live in Washington, D.C., where they also own a boutique called Chocolate Chocolate.
– Books: My Freedom Trip (Boyd Mills Press, 1998), The Royal Bee (Boyd Mills Press, 2000), When My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon (Miramax Books, 2001), Where on Earth is My Bagel? (Lee and Low Books, 2001), To Swim Across the World (Miramax Books, 2002), Good-bye, 382 Shin Dang Dong (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2002), The Have a Good Day Café (Lee and Low Books, 2005)
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– The Have a Good Day Café is about a working-class Korean American family that survives on the meager earnings of a fast food cart. When the boy’s grandmother can’t stop thinking about the food from the motherland, they think of a great way to revamp the cart’s culinary offerings. “In the kitchen Grandma opens the refrigerator,” writes the Parks. “She takes out a big piece of beef, two heads of cabbage, and all the carrots and zucchini she can find.” (Ages 5-9)
– Sarah Says: “Though they are co-authors, they actually work separately. One of them will sit down and start writing, and then the other one will either revise or continue writing the story.”
HISTORY BUFF
– Linda Sue Park, a Newbery Medalist, is a giant in children’s literature. She was born in Illinois and grew up near Chicago. As a child, she won several poetry competitions and was first published at age 9. After studying English at Stanford, Park worked as a public relations writer, journalist and teacher. She now lives in upstate New York with her husband and two kids.
– Books: Seesaw Girl (1999), The Kite Fighters (2000), A Single Shard (2001), When My Name Was Keoko (2002), The Firekeeper’s Son (Clarion Books, 2004), Mung-Mung: A Fold-out Book of Animal Sounds (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2004), Bee-bim Bop (Clarion Books, 2005), Yum! Yuck! A Fold-out Book of People Sounds (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2005), What Does Bunny See: A Book of Colors and Flowers (Clarion Books, 2005), Archer’s Quest (Clarion Books, 2006), Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems) (Clarion Books, 2007), Project Mulberry (Yearling, 2007)
– The Firekeeper’s Son is about a fire signal system used in 19th-century Korea to warn the king of invasions by sea. A boy’s father climbs the mountain near their village every evening to light a fire, which signals to the next firekeeper that all is well in the land. “He picked up one coal with the tongs — and dropped it,” writes Park. “It broke into a hundred red jewels that glowed for a moment, then died.” (Ages 5-8)
– Sarah Says: “Linda Sue Park fills a very important gap in providing well-researched Korean history to contemporary children’s audiences.”
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COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES
– Yangsook Choi is an award-winning author, illustrator and painter. She grew up in Korea and studied at Sangmyung Women’s University in Seoul. She earned her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she now lives.
– Books: The Sun Girl and The Moon Boy (Knopf, 1997), The Name Jar (Knopf, 2001), New Cat (FSG, 2001), Peach Heaven (FSG, 2005), Behind the Mask (Frances Foster Books/ FSG, 2006)
– Peach Heaven is about a young girl in the peach-growing community of Puchon, Korea, who helps out the farmers after one potentially devastating storm. “The road was muddy and the cart was heavy,” writes Choi. “But we pushed and pulled it up the mountain.” (For ages 4-8.)
– Sarah Says: “Yangsook Choi is a prolific writer and illustrator. Her colors are rich and lively, and she’s a good storyteller.”
WOMAN OF LETTERS
– Soyung Pak was born in Seoul, but immigrated to America at the age of two. She grew up in the suburbs of South New Jersey. She went to college at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and earned her master’s degree at the University of Chicago. Now the writer lives in the Windy City, but she also loves to travel the world.
– Books: Dear Juno (Viking, 1999), A Place to Grow (Arthur Levine Books, 2002), Sumi’s First Day of School (co-written with Joung Un Kim, Viking, 2003)
– Dear Juno is about a Korean American boy who communicates with his Halmeoni in Korea through a series of letters. This picture book won the prestigious Ezra Jack Keats Award, which honors new writers and illustrators in the field of multicultural children’s books. Pak writes, “He wondered if any of the planes came from a little town near Seoul where his grandmother lived, and where she ate persimmons every evening before going to bed.” (For ages 4-8.)
– Sarah Says: “Pak’s A Place to Grow — illustrated by Marcelino Truong, a Vietnamese English Frenchman — is my personal favorite. Pak wrote it with the concept that war, particularly the Korean War, uproots and displaces families. The synergy of the text and illustrations is absolutely stunning.”
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JUGGLING IDENTITIES
– Sun Yung Shin is a poet, essayist and children’s book author. Shin was born in Seoul in 1974 and adopted by white American parents at the age of 1. She grew up in Brookfield, Illinois, a working suburb of Chicago. Now she creates, mentors and lives in the Twin Cities. She and her husband have a daughter and son who are of mixed heritage.
– Books: Cooper’s Lesson (Children’s Book Press, 2004), Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption (South End Press, 2006), Skirt Full of Black (Coffee House Press, 2007), Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers (Borealis Books, 2008)
– Cooper’s Lesson is about a young biracial boy who feels left out of both the Korean and white world. He looks to a Korean greengrocer for answers. “Cooper sighed,” writes Shin. “His mom always insisted on speaking Korean to Mr. Lee, even though Cooper could barely follow along.” The book is in both Korean and English. (For ages 4-8.)
– Sarah Says: “It’s one of a few children’s books to broach the topic of biraciality, and Sun Yung Shin does it with nuance and believability.”
DIVING INTO HISTORY
– Paula Yoo has known she was going to tell stories for a living since she learned how to read in kindergarten. Yoo got her B.A. from Yale, a journalism degree from Columbia and an M.F.A. from the Warren Wilson College in South Carolina. She’s worked as a journalist for People magazine and the Seattle Times and also as a TV writer. She writes, camps, plays violin and lives with her husband in L.A.
– Books: Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story (Lee and Low, 2005), Good Enough (Harper Collins, 2008)
– Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story is about the first Korean American to win a gold medal in 1932. The diver was not admitted to the public pool because of the color of his skin. But he overcame these obstacles to make his athletic dreams come true. “Sammy would have to wait until Wednesday when people of color were allowed to go inside,” writes Yoo. “In the meantime, he would get no relief from the blazing California summer sun.” (Ages 5-10)
– Sarah Says: “Paula Yoo is definitely up and coming, and illustrator Dom Lee is just, well, awesome.”
For The Big Kids
Those who have grown out of the storytime phase can check out these KA authors who write for the young adult market
By Sook Nyul Choi:
• Year of Impossible Goodbyes (first in a trilogy)
• Echoes of the White Giraffe
• Gathering of Pearls
By Marie G. Lee:
• If It Hadn’t Been For Yoon Jun
• F is For Fabuloso
• Necessary Roughness
• Finding My Voice
• Night of the Chupacabra
• New Year, New Love
By An Na:
• Wait For Me
• A Step From Heaven
