Grace Lin : Children's Author & Illustrator

For readers of all ages who love folk and fairytales and stories with Asian flavor, Grace Lin’s books will capture your imagination. Grace Lin made a rare appearance at the Allen Public Library on Saturday, March 10, 2012.

Born in the United States and the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Grace graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. Quickly setting out to achieve her dream of creating children's books, her first book, The Ugly Vegetables, was published in 1999 and received a tremendous reception. Her most recent book, Ling & Ting is a 2011 Geisel Honor Book.
Grace's 2010 Newbery Honor book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was chosen for Al Roker's Today Show Kid's Book Club and was a New York Times Bestseller. In 2007, Year of the Dog received an Honorable Mention from the Asian/ Pacific American Awards for Literature and was nominated for a 2007-2008 Texas Bluebonnet Award.

American and Asian folk and fairy tales have common threads but different symbols. Grace observes, “Many people have called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon a Chinese Wizard of Oz.” I can see the similarities. There is a young girl on a quest, but instead of trying to see the Wizard, it is a search for the Old Man of the Moon. Instead of a scarecrow, Minli befriends a dragon. Chinese symbols such as longevity, peaches and goldfish replace the silver shoes. However, the book was never meant to be a reinterpretation of that classic tale. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was meant more of an homage to many Chinese folktales and myths-- Olive Lake, the Buffalo Boy and the Weaving Maid, the Lucky Twins--that I read in my youth and still enjoy to this day.”

Sponsored by Storyopolis Entertainment and Bach to Books, this program is free.