Episode #146: How old were you when you started to write books? with Kao Kalia Yang
Welcome back to our new year of Kids Ask Authors! On today’s episode, we welcome special guest author Kao Kalia Yang. Grace and Kao will answer a great kid question: “How old were you when you started to write books?”
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and the picture book, A Big Moon Cake for Little Star. Today, I am here with Kao Kalia Yang, the author of The Most Beautiful Thing, illustrated by Khoa Le, as well as A Map Into the World, illustrated by Seo Kim, and From the Tops of the Trees, illustrated by Rachel Wada. Those are all picture books.
Well, welcome, Kao.
Kao Kalia Yang: Thank you so much.
Grace Lin: Thank you for coming on today. Are you ready for today's kid question?
Kao Kalia Yang: I am. I'm excited for it.
Grace Lin: All right. Today's question is from a kid named Juliana, and Juliana asks...
Juliana: How old were you when you started writing books?
Grace Lin: How old were you when you started to write books?
Kao Kalia Yang: Thank you for this question, Juliana. For me, when I think back to my whole life through 41 years, I think back to being a second grader, my second year in America, learning English for the first time. The first time I went onto the page thinking I was going to write a real story, a real book in my head, it was a story about a watermelon seed. I was in second grade and wrote it with a pencil on huge lined papers. It's a story about a watermelon seed that did not want to grow up because she knew that if she grew up then one day she would get eaten. [inaudible 00:01:33] the water, she tried to crawl up from the holes of the ground, but without hands or feet she couldn't [inaudible 00:01:38]. She couldn't move. And every day she got bigger and bigger and bigger.
And the day finally came when the girl came and she said, "I'm going to eat you today watermelon." Then the watermelon made a single wish to the moon. "Let the wind blow all the seeds away so that I can live again." And that's precisely what happened. The next day, when the watermelon was eaten, all of her seeds are flown away to different parts of the world and she could live again. And that was the very first story that, in my head and my heart, that I ever actually put down thinking it would be awesome if somebody else read this.
Grace Lin: Wow, that's a beautiful story. So dark though in the beginning when you were saying she didn't want to grow up because she was afraid to be eaten. I was like, ooh, my gosh. I'm so impressed and a little, I don't know what the word is, but in second grade that that was things that were haunting you.
Kao Kalia Yang: Yeah, I was a refugee kid. I think that's a big part of the story. I was born in a refugee camp and the first time I exited the refugee camp was to come to America, so I was not afraid of the darkness.
Grace Lin: Oh, that makes a lot of sense, and that puts a lot more things in perspective. I guess I was thinking more in terms of my own background, which is much, much more privileged. So thank you for sharing that.
Kao Kalia Yang: Well, thank you so much to Juliana for asking a wonderful question.
Grace Lin: When I was thinking about the first books that I wrote, I also wrote a story that was about a plant. It was interesting because mine was definitely kind of a takeoff of the Hans Christian Andersen stories that I had been reading. It was about this dandelion that wanted to see the world, and so she asked the wind to take her to see the world, and the wind said, "But if I take you, you'll die." And the dandelion was very melodramatic, said, "It'll be worth it." So the wind took the dandelion to see the world, and she saw the world and she came back and she told the rest of the flowers and then she died. So mine also was very melodramatic in a very different way.
Kao Kalia Yang: Yes, and a little bit dark as well.
Grace Lin: Yeah, now that I think about it. Maybe, as adults looking back, we don't realize how dark we were.
Kao Kalia Yang: This is true. This is definitely true.
Grace Lin: And I think we are much darker as kids than we realize.
Kao Kalia Yang: Yes. But really, Juliana, there's also the other question, right? I was 21 years old, and my grandmother was dying, and her wish was that she'd be remembered. My grandma had never been to school. She didn't know how to read or write, so my first published book was actually for my grandmother. It was so that the world might remember her with me when I grow old.
Grace Lin: Oh. That's so sweet.
Kao Kalia Yang: So, there's two answers to your question. The first, in my head and heart, second grader, and then as a 21-year-old starting a book and having that book come out when I was 27. And that's a book for adults, I should say.
Grace Lin: And can you repeat the title of that one?
Kao Kalia Yang: Yeah, that one is called The Late Home Comer because Grandma always said that she would only be going home, that she would be the last to be returning home to her family.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's beautiful.
Kao Kalia Yang: Thank you.
Grace Lin: All right. Well, thank you so much, Kao, for answering today's question. And thank you, Juliana, for asking such a great one.
Kao Kalia Yang: Thank you, Grace and Juliana.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Today’s two KID BOOK REVIEWS!:
Our first book review today comes from Dorrie. Dorrie is reviewing The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang.
Hi my name is Dorrie and the book I would like to talk about is The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang illustrated by Khoa Le. This book is about a girl and her grandma. The girl doesn't know how old the grandma is, neither does her older sister Dawb, not her older cousin Lei and even her dad. Her older cousin Lei gets to wash grandma’s clothes. Her older sister Dawb got to wash grandma’s soft brown back, and the girl got to clip grandma’s fingernails and toenails while her grandma sat at her favorite stool by the window. I like this book because it shows the hard times and love they have.
Thank you Dorrie!
Our second Kid Book Review today comes from Elaine. Elaine is reviewing, The Shared Room by Kao Kalia Yang.
The book I want to talk about is The Shared Room, written by Kao Kalia Yang and illustrated by Xee Reiter. This book is about a boy remembering his younger sister who died. His family kept his sister’s bedroom untouched for 7 months, and then, when the parents felt ready, they moved the boy out of the room he shared with his brother, into his sister’s old room. I like how the older brother always has his sister in his heart. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever lost someone from their family and was really sad that they will never be coming back.
Thank you so much Elaine!
More about today’s authors:
Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong-American writer. She is the author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, The Song Poet, and Somewhere in the Unknown World. Yang is also the author of the children’s books A Map Into the World, The Shared Room, The Most Beautiful Thing, and Yang Warriors. She co-edited the ground-breaking collection What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Native Women and Women of Color. Yang’s work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA literary awards, the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize, as Notable Books by the American Library Association, Kirkus Best Books of the Year, the Heartland Bookseller’s Award, and garnered four Minnesota Book Awards. Kao Kalia Yang lives in Minnesota with her family, and teaches and speaks across the nation.
Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.
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