Sunday Paper!

I just recently began a weekend subscription for the NY Times and since then my books have been mentioned in it, not just once, but twice! Yes, Thanking the Moon was mentioned in today's paper! Yay! I'm planning a string of posts to celebrate its release this week, so this was a great way to start!

Also notice my friend Barbara O'Connor's book The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester is also mentioned. I wonder if she just got a subscription, too?



In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me Sunday the 19th in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

fortune cookie friday

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.”
-Chinese Proverb

upcoming intimidation

On September 26th, I'll be one of the four authors honored at the Literary Lights for Children Tea Party. And I mean it when I say honored. Because the other authors are:

Eeks! All I can think is they needed to include a cheap local to the party which is how I'm in there. I'm a tad bit intimidated. Okay, make that very intimidated. Ugh.

I hope this means I'll at least be able to get my Coraline book autographed, right?

Minipage Me!

Last week, I was featured in the MiniPage! The MiniPage are the Sunday newspaper supplement for kids, inserted with the colored comics (oh, how I loved those!). I think my younger readers were more impressed with this than seeing Ling & Ting in the NYTimes.

Wasn't in your paper? It wasn't in mine either, but you can download the MiniPage issue HERE!

book talk tuesday

THE BOY WHO CLIMBED INTO THE MOON, by David Almond

IndieBound Description:
There are some strange ideas floating around in Paul’s apartment block. There’s Mabel, who now calls herself Molly and whose brother hides under a paper bag. Then there’s Clarence, the poodle who thinks he can fly. But the strangest notion of all is Paul’s. You see, Paul believes that the moon is not the moon but a great hole in the sky. And he knows that sausages are better than war. How on earth (or not) will he find out if he is bonkers or a genius? With a few equally bonkers (or genius) helpers and a very long ladder, that’s how! From a master of magical realism and a celebrated artist comes another delightfully outrageous expedition.

My Thoughts:
This book was completely charming and lovely as were the illustrations. Part of me wants to dissect the book piece by piece to learn from it, while the other part wants me just to leave it alone and enjoy it for the story it is. Regardless, after reading this, I realized what a master author David Almond is. In the hands of almost any other author, the whimsical ideas and nature of this book could've easily become light, trite and overly sentimental. But he is able to write it so deftly that it is truly a delight. I'm jealous!

on my desk monday

My first brush painting! I'm taking Chinese brush painting class as part of my research for "Dumpling Days."

fortune cookie friday

“A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all.”
-Chinese Proverb

Come to the Mid-Autumn Moon Family Festival!

Mark your calendars! I'm launching my book, Thanking the Moon:Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival at the Mid-Autumn Moon Family Festival at the Museum of Chinese in America!!

Description:

Mooncakes, lanterns and the Jade Rabbit in the moon! Join MOCA for a day-long series of activities in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (中秋节), including storytellings, drop-in arts and crafts activities, gallery tours and lantern making workshops with special readings by Asian American children's book authors Grace Lin (that's me!!) & Lenore Look.

WHEN: September 19th, 12pm reading and signing (other activites will be going on all day from 10-5)

WHERE: Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013

I hope to see you there! Please come!!

vacation!

trying to hold onto the summer sun!

For the last ten days I've been on vacation! When you are a freelance author, vacations can be infrequent (just like how Libby said). Most of the time, my vacations are a mix of work and fun; places to help inspire my writing or illustrating. However, this vacation was planned for pure enjoyment, relaxation and fun. See:

Doesn't that look like pure fun? It was! Because that's me up there! Really! Here, we'll zoom up:


Because, I spent my vacation on the shores of North Carolina at Okracoke Island and Kitty Hawk and had a fun, fun time swimming, getting tan, looking for sea glass, and eating lots of bad (but delicious) things. We rented a house right on the beach. To live with the ocean as a daily companion was a new and magical experience for me. In the mornings I could watch the sunrise:


and at night I could see the moonlight on the water:


Even when it stormed, it was beautiful. A child was a bit careless with his large, clear beach ball and during a storm it was slowly washed out to sea. It looked like a giant bubble, delicately riding the waves:



There was something bittersweet and poetic about it. In fact, it gave me an idea for a book...ah! For freelance authors, there really is no such thing as a non-working vacation!

book talk tuesday

TOUCH BLUE by Cynthia Lord

IndieBound Description:

Touch Blue and your wish will come true.

"Why take chances?" says eleven-year-old Tess Brooks. "Especially when it’s so easy to let the universe know what you want by touching blue or turning around three times or crossing your fingers."

But Tess is coming to know that it’s not always that simple.

The state of Maine plans to shut down her island’s schoolhouse, which would force Tess’s family to move to the mainland--and Tess to leave the only home she has ever known. Fortunately, the islanders have a plan too: increase the numbers of students by having several families take in foster children. So now Tess and her family are taking a chance on Aaron, a thirteen-year-old trumpet player who has been bounced from home to home. And Tess needs a plan of her own--and all the luck she can muster. Will Tess’s wish come true or will her luck run out?

Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord offers a warm-hearted, humorous, and thoughtful look at what it means to belong--and how lucky we feel when we do. Touch Blue, sure as certain, will touch your heart.

My Thoughts
I admit I picked this up because at the moment, while struggling with my own book, I am interested in what book Newbery Honor authors write after winning. Expectations seem to run higher and I was curious how other authors handle the pressure. Cynthia Lord obviously handles it well, as this book was a touching and well-written. Tess is a completely believable narrator whom you immediately relate and root for; and the setting feels very authentic. It was a great book to read near the ocean--made me want to start my own collection of sea glass while on vacation!