Episode #171: What color do you use the most and why? -with Hyewon Yum
Welcome back to Kids Ask Authors!
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, Children's Book Author and Illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, When the Sea Turned to Silver and the picture book, A Big Moon Cake for Little Star. Today I'm here with Hyewon Yum, the author and illustrator of many picture books, including Grandpa Across the Ocean, Lion Needs a Haircut and The Twins Blanket. The art from the Twins Blanket is also featured in the picture book exhibit, Asians Everyday, which you can now see online. Hi, Hyewon.
Hyewon Yum: Hi, Grace.
Grace Lin: Thank you so much for coming on today's episode.
Hyewon Yum: Thank you for having me.
Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's kid question?
Hyewon Yum: Yes.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's kid question is from a kid named Fiona and Fiona asks, what color do you use the most and why?
Hyewon Yum: I think it's yellow and that's my twin sister's favorite color. But yellow makes all the pictures so bright and yeah, warm and nice. That's why I think I use yellow.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's so interesting. Do you know Eric Carl, who did the Very Hungry Caterpillar? Yellow was his favorite color too.
Hyewon Yum: Oh, yeah?
Grace Lin: And he said it was his favorite color because it was the color of the Sun.
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, it is.
Grace Lin: So I always thought that was interesting. Well, I don't know. I think the color I use... I'm trying to think what color I use the most. I think I tend to use red a lot.
Hyewon Yum: Oh, yeah.
Grace Lin: I think I use red a lot because I do a lot of stories that deal with Asian culture and especially Chinese culture, that red is a really big, big deal.
Hyewon Yum: Of course. Yeah. I love red. Yeah.
Grace Lin: Yeah. Because it's the lucky color. Is it lucky in your culture, as well?
Hyewon Yum: Not really. Yeah, red really pops up from any background. So yeah, it's a good color.
Grace Lin: Yeah. But even though I use red a lot, I don't know if that's my favorite color. I think I like pink a little bit better. Like a bright, bright pink that pops up a lot.
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, that's my favorite color too.
Grace Lin: Is it?
Hyewon Yum: When I was a kid, I always picked pink and my twin sister picked yellow, so it's in the book, Twins Blanket. Yeah.
Grace Lin: That you like pink and she likes yellow?
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, yeah.
Grace Lin: Oh, so why do you like pink?
Hyewon Yum: I'm not sure, but I just love pink, that bright pink shade. Very, yeah, [inaudible 00:03:05].
Grace Lin: I was trying to think why I liked pink and I like it better than red. And I think the reason why is, red is such a passionate color and I like how it pops up. We were talking how it pops up and it's very passionate. But I think pink pops up too, and it has a lot of energy, but instead of passionate, I feel like it's very enthusiastic. It's very exciting, but without the pain of red.
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, it's true. Yeah.
Grace Lin: So are you Korean?
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, I'm Korean.
Grace Lin: Is there a lucky color in Korean culture? In Chinese culture, the lucky color is red.
Hyewon Yum: I don't think so. No.
Grace Lin: They just love all colors?
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, I just love all the colors.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's nice. Well, I love all the colors too.
Hyewon Yum: Yeah.
Grace Lin: Thank you so much, Hyewon, for answering today's question and thank you Fiona, for asking it.
Hyewon Yum: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me and thank you Fiona.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Hyewon Yum: Bye.
About today’s authors:
Hyewon Yum is the author and illustrator of Lion Needs a Haircut; Grandpa Across the Ocean; Last Night, a Fiction Honorable Mention for the Bologna Ragazzi Award and winner of the Golden Kite Award; There Are No Scary Wolves, winner of the Society of illustrators' Founder's Award; The Twins' Blanket, a Junior Library Guild selection; Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten!, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award and was selected as a Kirkus Best Book of the Year; and Saturday is Swimming Day, which earned her a Charlotte Zolotow Honor. Yum lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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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