Thank you to my husband for taping our NCTE panel: Food: The Universal Language that Connects Us All panel What’s a more universal experience than sharing a meal? Food brings people together, connects communities, and unites generations through tradition. In this moderated panel, four authors will discuss how food is a multidimensional cross-curricular topic that…
11 Picture Books to Teach Idioms
An idiom is a word or phrase where the meaning can’t be determined by individual words themselves. The meaning stems from an association with something else, such as a cultural reference. I wrote Boxer Baby Battles Bedtime! to showcase how many popular idioms have boxing origins that perhaps people don’t know about. But I also…
Katia Wish’s Character Design Class
Through a variety of exercises, students will learn basic anatomy and movements of children and animals. They will apply their observational skills into developing unique, believable and appealing characters suitable for children’s books. The emphasis is on creating characters who are consistent through a variety of facial expressions and movements. Katia Wish’s Character Design…
I’m Signing Books at ALA San Diego!
I’ll be doing two book signings at the upcoming American Library Association (ALA) Conference in San Diego. On Saturday, June 29th, I’ll be signing Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World at 11:00 am. On Sunday, June 20th, I’ll be signing We Sing From the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their…
154 Japanese American Books for Kids & Teens
It was strange to me that many important Japanese American stories were not told by Japanese Americans. I tried, therefore, to focus my Top 10: Japanese American Children’s Books list on lesser known authors telling important stories. I hope this list will inspire more authors in this genre!
6 Funny Chapter Books Featuring BIPOC Main Characters & GIVEAWAY
Please welcome my guest author Vicky Fang. We are both in the Soaring 20’s picture book together. She grew up in Newton, MA, where I live now, so we also have that in common! Her newest book is the Ava Lin series, a sweet and funny chapter book series about Chinese American girl navigating social…
157 Chinese American Books for Kids and Teens
I chose these books because there was something special about each of them that helps me to connect to my Chinese roots and I hope that you enjoy them to, even if your ancestry isn’t Asian.