Episode 50: Are you famous? with Mitali Perkins
Welcome to our 50th episode! Today a kid asks Mitali Perkins and Grace Lin, “Are you famous?”
TRANSCRIPTS:
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 Mooncake for Little Star. Today, I'm here with Mitali Perkins, the author of many books including the middle grade novels, Rickshaw Girl, Tiger Boy and Bamboo People. Hi, Mitali.
Mitali Perkins: Hi, Grace. How are you?
Grace Lin: Good. How are you?
Mitali Perkins: I'm doing well, thanks. Happy to talk to you.
Grace Lin: I'm so happy to talk to you because I have a great question for you. Are you ready?
Mitali Perkins: I am ready.
Grace Lin: All right. This is today's question. Today's question is from a person named [Kiernan 00:00:42] and they ask...
Kiernan: Are you famous?
Grace Lin: Are you famous?
Mitali Perkins: Oh, wow. Kiernan, that is a wonderful question. I love that question because I can answer it by saying, "I'm not famous now but I was famous once. I was really, really famous." And I want to tell you why. When I was born, I did not want to come out of my mom's tummy. I did not want to come out so I stayed in much longer than most people. I stayed in 10 months instead of nine months. And when I came out, I was a very, very, very big baby. I weighed a lot of pounds. And so, when I came out, all the doctors came running in because they couldn't believe what a huge baby had come out of this person. And so, what happened was all the newspapers found out and so they came running to the hospital. And the day that I was born, there were all these newspaper headlines in the city where I was born, which is Calcutta, India. And the headline said, "Fattest baby ever born in Calcutta."
Mitali Perkins: And that's when I was famous, Kiernan, I made headlines and I was a celebrity. So, yes, I was famous but I'm not famous now.
Grace Lin: You should make that into a book and then you can be famous again.
Mitali Perkins: Yes. Call it Fattest Baby Ever Born in Calcutta, my biography.
Grace Lin: That's so funny.
Mitali Perkins: Yes.
Grace Lin: Well, maybe you're not as famous as you were as a baby in Calcutta but I still think you are very well known. I mean, I think-
Mitali Perkins: Yeah. Well-
Grace Lin: ... And I think people really know your books as well. I guess it depends on how you judge fame, right?
Mitali Perkins: Right. I'll tell you two things about that, Grace and Kiernan. One is that I am the only Mitali Perkins in the whole universe. There is no other combination of that name. In India, Mitali is a very common name. And, of course, here in the States and all around England, Perkins is a very common name but Mitali Perkins is not a common combination. So, that is a very unique name. If you Google me, it's very easy to find me so if that makes you famous, well, I guess I'm famous.
Mitali Perkins: And the other thing I want to share is this wonderful poem. You can find it on the internet. It's called Famous and it's by one of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye. And among the questions she asks in that poem is there's a line in there I love and it says, "The tear," you know the tear when you cry, "Is famous to the cheek." And she goes on in that poem, talking about how some things are famous to other things. I would say I'm very famous to my two puppies and I'm very famous to my sons and my family and my mom. And they're sort of my cheek if I'm the tear. So, I love that poem.
Grace Lin: That's such a beautiful way of putting it. Because whenever I get this question, I always try to explain it the same way but not as beautifully as that poem because I'll have to say, "Well, I'm famous depending on who you ask."
Mitali Perkins: Right.
Grace Lin: I'm famous to people who know my books and love my books. I'm famous to my family. I'm famous to my chickens but I'm not famous to anybody who doesn't know me.
Mitali Perkins: Well, that's right. And so, the things that you named, Grace, those are your cheeks, right? Those are the place where you land. And I think that all of us, Kiernan, even you are probably famous because there are people that are your cheek that when you walk in the room, they light up when they see you, like maybe your grandmother or somebody else who just absolutely thinks you're the most, best celebrity ever. And then that's our cheek, right?
Grace Lin: That's true. And on the reverse side, there are huge celebrities who we might all think everybody knows but you'll go to certain places and they have no idea who you're talking about. I guess here in the United States, we'd say, "Who do you think is the biggest celebrity here in the United States right now?" I was thinking... I'm going to age myself really fast. I'm trying to think of somebody that everybody-
Mitali Perkins: Let's say Taylor Swift.
Grace Lin: Yes.
Mitali Perkins: Taylor Swift has a lot of Twitter followers so let's say Taylor Swift.
Grace Lin: Yes. You can say, "Taylor Swift is the most famous celebrity here." And when you say Taylor Swift, everybody knows who she is and you think she's so famous. But if you go someplace, maybe in China, maybe in another country and you say, "Taylor Swift." there's also a chance that they're like, "Who? What?" And they're not that famous. So, it all depends on where you are and who you're talking to.
Mitali Perkins: Yeah, that's true, Grace. And I think there's a big difference between the word celebrity and the word hero because sometimes people can be a celebrity and they actually have done really nothing that's valuable. And then you have all these heroes that we're seeing today, in this time that we're facing, that are people that are laying down their lives and sacrificing and maybe we don't know their names, but they're heroes, right?
Grace Lin: Yes, true.
Mitali Perkins: I think I would rather be a hero than a celebrity if that was my goal, because then you're talking about who you are and what you do to help other people, not so much how beautiful you are or what kind of money you have and those things that really don't last.
Grace Lin: Yes, that's true. I just want our listeners to know that we are actually recording this during the time of the pandemic. It is April 2020. We are recording this, not in person. We are recording this over the internet. We are very safe, but so I just want people to know the heroes that we're talking about are the heroes that are the ones that are going to work every day, stocking the grocery store, delivering our mail, working in the hospitals.
Mitali Perkins: That's right.
Grace Lin: And in some ways, they're not famous but they are true heroes.
Mitali Perkins: That's right. And so, for the kids who are listening, I would say you could be a celebrity and then after you're gone, everyone forgets your name. But if you're a true hero, then you really get to have this amazing impact. And maybe your name isn't famous but you do things that help you be a hero.
Grace Lin: And have made a difference in the world.
Mitali Perkins: Mm-hmm (affirmative).That's right.
Grace Lin: So, that's better than being famous any day.
Mitali Perkins: Yes, that's right. That's why Grace Lin is my hero because she writes great stories for kids and makes us all happy with her beautiful stories. And that's why she's my hero.
Grace Lin: And you're my hero too, Mitali.
Mitali Perkins: Or we're famous to each other, Grace.
Grace Lin: Exactly.
Mitali Perkins: You're my cheek and I'm your cheek.
Grace Lin: Thank you so much, Mitali, for answering this question. And thank you, Kiernan, for asking it.
Mitali Perkins: Yes. Thanks so much, Grace and Kiernan.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Mitali Perkins: Bye.
Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Violet! She’s reviewing the “Dumpling Days” by Grace Lin!
Hi. My name is violet, and I'm going to talk about Dumpling Days by Grace Lin. Dumpling Days is among my favorite books I've ever read. My mouth was watering every time I read a chapter. Of course I was reading it after dinner at night. Now I'm begging my parents to bring me to Taiwan, but if I never go, that will be okay because I feel like I've already went to Taiwan. I hope you read Dumpling Days because Grace Lin is an amazing author and it is so good. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you Violet!
More about today’s authors:
Mitali Perkins (mitaliperkins.com) has written many books for young readers, including Between Us and Abuela (Winner of the Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature), Forward Me Back To You (SLJ and Kirkus Best YA Books of the year), You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for a National Book Award, six starred reviews), and Rickshaw Girl (adapted into a film by Sleeperwave Productions), all of which explore crossing different kinds of borders. Mitali's fiction explores poverty, immigration, child soldiers, microcredit, and human trafficking, thanks to living overseas for many years and studying Political Science at Stanford and Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley. Her goal is to make readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening. She lives and writes in the East Bay.
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.
Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.
