Saturday, May 06, 2006

Children's book author

A few years ago, I took Leah to our local library and picked up a book called "Henry's First Moon Birthday" by Lenore Look. The book is a sweet story of a big sister who helps prepare for her brothers first birthday. I am always looking for books about Chinese American families to read to Leah and this one was nicely written and beautifully illustrated. Joe and I were surprised to find out, when reading the sleeve of the book, that Lenore lives in the same town as we do. Today we had the pleasure of meeting Lenore at a book signing for the release of her newest children's picture book "Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding" and her second chapter book "Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything."

She spoke about the publishing industry, writing Children's books and a little bit about her childhood. She then read from her "Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding" book and answered questions. She was very down to earth and a real pleasure to listen too. She signed both chapter books to Leah, and the picture book to Leah and her baby sister (see pictures below).

If you are interested, you can buy her books from Amazon.com. Just click below.
Henry's First Moon Birthday
Ruby Lu, Brave and True - 1st chapter book
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything - 2nd chapter book
Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding

I plan on reading the two chapter books myself before reading it to Leah. I am looking for some light reading anyway since my last book was First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung. This memoir chronicles the extreme hardship and heartache five year old Ung faced when Cambodia was taken over by Pol Pot and the Khemar Rouge. It is just amazing that this women lived through her harrowing ordeal and has since written about it. It was shocking and terribly sad, but also left you with a feeling of hope that she was able to survive. I have purchased her second book, Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind about which she chronicles her new life in Vermont while some of her siblings stay back in war torn Cambodia.

11 comments:

Michelle said...

How cool! Thanks for the heads up on the books! I too am always looking for books about Chinese-American families. I will definitely be picking these up.

Kim M. said...

Wow that's so neat! I'm going to check out the books. That must have been exciting to meet the author.

Tammy said...

Wow Stephanie! Very cool! I love that she signed to "the Amazing Leah" on her book - very sweet.

I read an the front flap of one of her chapter books (I clicked on your Amazon link) - I have added them to my 'wish list'. Thanks for the info.

BTW, still checking on those dates - I didn't forget. I'll call you this week.

Tammy

asiangard said...

Coolness! Wow she wrote a book that has VT in it, neat!!

Katie J said...

Thanks for the book suggestions. It's always fun to meet the author of one of your favorites. We hope to get to meet one of our favorite Bloggers soon, too!

Polar Bear said...

Thank you for sharing this book. I added to our wish list. What a fun memory for all of you!

Stacy

Juliet said...

What a neat meeting for you. ^_^ And now, thanks to you, I know of some good new books to read to William.

Kristin said...

we have the first "Ruby Lu" book and I just love it... she is a great children's writer and it is so cool you & Leah got to meet her!

Anonymous said...

Cool. These seem like really cute books. I might try to get one to read to the kids.

Karen and Jon said...

Thanks for the info. The Ruby Lu books look great. How cool that you got to meet her.

Amy said...

You're right. It's an awesome book and really opened my eyes to the issues in Cambodia. I was not aware of the cruelty that was going on during PP. I knew it was bad but not to that extent. Amy