Full name: Grace Lin
Birth date: Year of the Tiger!
Hometown: New Hartford, NY
Current location: Somerville, MA
Website/Blog: www.gracelin.com; www.outergrace.blogspot.com; www.facebook.com/authorgracelin
Genre: children's books for kids pre-school to 6th grade
WiP or most recently published work:
Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, an early reader (1st, 2nd grade)
Writing credits:
Author/illustrator of over a dozen picture books, including Dim Sum For Everyone! and The Ugly Vegetables. Author/illustrator of middle grade novels, including Year of the Dog and Newbery Honor Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
How frequently do you update your site?
I update my blog approx. 3-4 times a week, my website twice a year.
Is your site designed for reader interaction?
My blog and Facebook page are, especially the Facebook page. The website, not so much.
Post of note, something in particular you want readers to check out:
For more about me, I was recently interviewed at the Smithsonian's BookDragon blog.
100 words or less: How would you describe your work?
For me, my work is not meaningful unless there is a personal element to it. Most of my books are Asian-American as that is what I am and is a part of what I want to share with my audience. But even before the multicultural aspects of my work, the most important thing is that the book is greatly enjoyable. So, I'd like my work to be described as fun and entertaining, but still meaningful & heartwarming.
100 words or less: Please share your thoughts on children and reading.
Sometimes writing for children gets looked down upon as lesser writing, especially for the younger reading levels. I can understand the fallacy as, of course, the vocabulary, sentence structure, and style is simpler. However, anyone who has studied haiku poetry knows that simpler does not mean less skillful or less important. Writing for children is perhaps the most important writing any author can do, it is the skill of a children's author that changes "a child who can read" to "a real reader." In other words, please do not look down on authors of children's literature. We are writing so that kids will love reading books so much that they will grow up and read forever!
Author photo credit: Alexandre Ferron
5 comments:
Loving the date of Birth answer. The Ling and Ting trailer is very cute.
Its nice to see an early reader that features kids of color.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was one of my favorite books last year.
I just finished Where the Mountain Meets the Moon yesterday. Such a charming book! Btw, I narrated a simplified version to my three-year-old, and he loved it as much as I did.
Niranjana: Awww!
@ Tarie: You know, asking the old man on the moon why a dragon can't fly is not fantasy to a three year old :)
Niranjana: OMG. Good point. *warm fuzzies*
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