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Good morning. How are you two
doing today? Wonderful? Thank you.

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We got to start off with the
cover of the book. I know they

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tell us do not judge a book
by its cover, but what I love

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about the cover of this book.
First of all, the colors are amazing,

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but the thing that really to me
grabbed my soul was that made in

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Asian America. Look at the different
Asians featured. We all think one thing

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sometimes and that's wrong, and you
really do put a lot of time and

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energy into describing how we all look. If you know what I mean.

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Yes, absolutely, this is Erica, and we're so thrilled with the cover

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of the book and glad that you
think it's amazing as well. And for

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sure, we wanted the diversity of
those who identify as Asian Americans to be

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represented, not only the words in
the book, but especially on the cover,

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because, as my sister and middle
librarian tells me, the kids will

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only pick up books that have compelling, in cool, grabbing covers. You're

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so right about that. One of
the things that I've learned about talking with

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ya authors is that they want to
be able to see themselves on that cover.

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And that's what I love about how
publishers are so open to that these

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days, because people see themselves and
then they dive into the story. Absolutely,

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and Erica and I both grew up, you know, in history classes,

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not seeing ourselves represented in the books
that we were reading. I actually

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did not read a book by an
Asian American author the entire time I was

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in school. Wasn't until I was
an adult. And I mean that's a

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huge part of why we wrote this
book, so that kids can see themselves.

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They can learn about Asian Americans and
their incredible role in our nation's history

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and to respect it and see And
I think that's where I really started growing

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with the Asian cultures because in taekwondo, they made sure my South Korean instructor

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told me, he goes, if
you don't know my country's history, you

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don't know the martial art, and
that opened up the entire door of learning

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about the Asian culture. Absolutely,
there's so many different ways that we and

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the United States start to learn about
It's incredibly diverse cultures, people and history.

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Sometimes it can be through stereotypes.
We actually have a great section that

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Christina introduced about Asian American food because
I think for so many we understand Asia

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Asian Americans through the restaurants that we
might visit, whether it's Panda Express or

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you know, something that may be
a little bit quote unquote more authentic.

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And so we we really try to
reach our readers through both what they they

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may know already and sort of interact
with on a day to day basis,

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but also encourage them to dig deeper
into what they may not know and what

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they may not have been taught in
their own classrooms, in their own library

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book. That's so funny that you
bring that up, because part of my

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studies for taekwondo was is they said
that they didn't put it on the outside

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of the building because people would come
in thinking it was a restaurant. They

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didn't know what taekwondo it was.
They didn't know what kung fu was until

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it was a television show, and
so many people judge on that kind of

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thing. And that's why on all
buildings it seems it says karate because people

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know it. But you're absolutely right
about those restaurants. Is it authentic?

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That's where I want to go.
I want to go to an authentic restaurant

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and support as they grow in our
community. That's wonderful. And I and

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you know, Erica and I both
hail from restaurant families. And it's funny

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that you talk about authentic because my
parents moved to a small town in Texas

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opened up the very first Asian restaurant
in the county, and even though we

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were Thai maya family is from Thailand, we opened a Chinese restaurant because that's

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what people would know. And on
our menu we serve chicken fried steak because

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this was the nineteen eighties and that's
that's what you had to do. I

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love how in your book ordinary people
doing extraordinary acts. I love that because

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that's that inspiration or that push forward
for someone who's reading the book to go,

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I can do it. They said
I could. I'm going to go

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do something extraordinary today. We tried
to select as many stories of real people

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as possible and tell history through their
eyes because we felt like that would be

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most relevant, most interesting to our
young readers. And we knew, you

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know, there are going to be
some folks that are very well known,

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like Passey Mink was a House representative
who was the architect of Title nine,

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or Sunny Lee, who is an
Olympic gold medalists. But we also had

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these incredible stories of regular people,
most of them kids teenagers, that we

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found that are not covered in many
history books that most people wouldn't know.

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But yes, just through their everyday
actions of resilience, perseverance, and standing

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up for what's right for themselves and
for other people, they are just as

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much heroes as anyone else. I
love the idea that you're reaching to the

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young people because I believe that they
can be the conversation starter for their elders,

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and you know, to just get
the conversation going, because we live

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in this generation now where it seems
like the elders who have lived this life

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don't don't get to really, you
know, to share their story because because

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everybody else is going on. I'm
just getting on with my own life.

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But a book like this says,
wait a minute, take your time,

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understand what's going on. Let's create
a conversation. Yes, I think you're

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absolutely right. I've gotten so many
emails, and it is from readers of

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my books that have been written for
adults, telling me how, for the

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first time they were able to better
understand where their parents had come from and

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why they grew up the way that
they did. And it's our hope that

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with this new book reaching a new
generation of young people, that they were

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able to have those conversations as well
to see themselves in these histories, to

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like you said earlier, see themselves
as changed because the histories that we profile

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are almost exclusively about people who were
doing amazing things when they were young,

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when they were in middle and high
school. We start and end with activists

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today who have been advocating for Asian
American history and studies in their own high

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schools and curriculum, and we hope
that this is a bridge not only for

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the next generation, but also a
source of inspiration for them. What did

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you two learn from this, Because
when you go into a book like this

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your students and as students, you've
got to create that that that path that's

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going to reach a reader. Yes, and oh my gosh, what I

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learned so much. So I actually
came to this project having read Erica's book

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for adults just as a reader.
And I remember the first time I read

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her book, The Making of Asian
America, and it was eye opening how

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much history I didn't know about my
own history. This is my own story

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of how my family came to America, and I had no idea and then

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so you could did I was to
be getting the call that I'm going to

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be working with her on a project
like this for young people. But just

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the way that she helps you see
patterns across time and how they pop up

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again and again. So for example, the ways that Asian Americans have them

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escapegoaded in the past, or bringing
disease to America or for taking away jobs.

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Gosh, doesn't that sound relevant to
things that we hear, you know,

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in recent history, right in just
the last few years. And so

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when you notice those patterns, when
you see those things repeating, that's when

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we can take action and say,
Okay, we're not going to let these

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things happen again. We're going to
stop, stand up and make sure we're

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changing history in the moment. Wow, is there a website? Because people

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are going to read this book and
they're going to want more? Where can

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people go to continue to grow forward? Erica and I both have websites,

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So mine is soon tornbot dot com
and Erica is erica lead dot org,

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and we both have links to the
book there. And we also have this

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incredible discussion guide that was written by
educators. That's going to help guide the

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conversations that are going to come up
around the book. That is so cool.

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You guys have got to come back
to the show anytime in the future.

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Please use this platform as a way
to reach new people. Thank you

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so much. Will you be brilliant
today? You too, Okay, so much