Good morning. How are you two doing today? Wonderful? Thank you.
We got to start off with the cover of the book. I know they
tell us do not judge a book by its cover, but what I love
about the cover of this book. First of all, the colors are amazing,
but the thing that really to me grabbed my soul was that made in
Asian America. Look at the different Asians featured. We all think one thing
sometimes and that's wrong, and you really do put a lot of time and
energy into describing how we all look. If you know what I mean.
Yes, absolutely, this is Erica, and we're so thrilled with the cover
of the book and glad that you think it's amazing as well. And for
sure, we wanted the diversity of those who identify as Asian Americans to be
represented, not only the words in the book, but especially on the cover,
because, as my sister and middle librarian tells me, the kids will
only pick up books that have compelling, in cool, grabbing covers. You're
so right about that. One of the things that I've learned about talking with
ya authors is that they want to be able to see themselves on that cover.
And that's what I love about how publishers are so open to that these
days, because people see themselves and then they dive into the story. Absolutely,
and Erica and I both grew up, you know, in history classes,
not seeing ourselves represented in the books that we were reading. I actually
did not read a book by an Asian American author the entire time I was
in school. Wasn't until I was an adult. And I mean that's a
huge part of why we wrote this book, so that kids can see themselves.
They can learn about Asian Americans and their incredible role in our nation's history
and to respect it and see And I think that's where I really started growing
with the Asian cultures because in taekwondo, they made sure my South Korean instructor
told me, he goes, if you don't know my country's history, you
don't know the martial art, and that opened up the entire door of learning
about the Asian culture. Absolutely, there's so many different ways that we and
the United States start to learn about It's incredibly diverse cultures, people and history.
Sometimes it can be through stereotypes. We actually have a great section that
Christina introduced about Asian American food because I think for so many we understand Asia
Asian Americans through the restaurants that we might visit, whether it's Panda Express or
you know, something that may be a little bit quote unquote more authentic.
And so we we really try to reach our readers through both what they they
may know already and sort of interact with on a day to day basis,
but also encourage them to dig deeper into what they may not know and what
they may not have been taught in their own classrooms, in their own library
book. That's so funny that you bring that up, because part of my
studies for taekwondo was is they said that they didn't put it on the outside
of the building because people would come in thinking it was a restaurant. They
didn't know what taekwondo it was. They didn't know what kung fu was until
it was a television show, and so many people judge on that kind of
thing. And that's why on all buildings it seems it says karate because people
know it. But you're absolutely right about those restaurants. Is it authentic?
That's where I want to go. I want to go to an authentic restaurant
and support as they grow in our community. That's wonderful. And I and
you know, Erica and I both hail from restaurant families. And it's funny
that you talk about authentic because my parents moved to a small town in Texas
opened up the very first Asian restaurant in the county, and even though we
were Thai maya family is from Thailand, we opened a Chinese restaurant because that's
what people would know. And on our menu we serve chicken fried steak because
this was the nineteen eighties and that's that's what you had to do. I
love how in your book ordinary people doing extraordinary acts. I love that because
that's that inspiration or that push forward for someone who's reading the book to go,
I can do it. They said I could. I'm going to go
do something extraordinary today. We tried to select as many stories of real people
as possible and tell history through their eyes because we felt like that would be
most relevant, most interesting to our young readers. And we knew, you
know, there are going to be some folks that are very well known,
like Passey Mink was a House representative who was the architect of Title nine,
or Sunny Lee, who is an Olympic gold medalists. But we also had
these incredible stories of regular people, most of them kids teenagers, that we
found that are not covered in many history books that most people wouldn't know.
But yes, just through their everyday actions of resilience, perseverance, and standing
up for what's right for themselves and for other people, they are just as
much heroes as anyone else. I love the idea that you're reaching to the
young people because I believe that they can be the conversation starter for their elders,
and you know, to just get the conversation going, because we live
in this generation now where it seems like the elders who have lived this life
don't don't get to really, you know, to share their story because because
everybody else is going on. I'm just getting on with my own life.
But a book like this says, wait a minute, take your time,
understand what's going on. Let's create a conversation. Yes, I think you're
absolutely right. I've gotten so many emails, and it is from readers of
my books that have been written for adults, telling me how, for the
first time they were able to better understand where their parents had come from and
why they grew up the way that they did. And it's our hope that
with this new book reaching a new generation of young people, that they were
able to have those conversations as well to see themselves in these histories, to
like you said earlier, see themselves as changed because the histories that we profile
are almost exclusively about people who were doing amazing things when they were young,
when they were in middle and high school. We start and end with activists
today who have been advocating for Asian American history and studies in their own high
schools and curriculum, and we hope that this is a bridge not only for
the next generation, but also a source of inspiration for them. What did
you two learn from this, Because when you go into a book like this
your students and as students, you've got to create that that that path that's
going to reach a reader. Yes, and oh my gosh, what I
learned so much. So I actually came to this project having read Erica's book
for adults just as a reader. And I remember the first time I read
her book, The Making of Asian America, and it was eye opening how
much history I didn't know about my own history. This is my own story
of how my family came to America, and I had no idea and then
so you could did I was to be getting the call that I'm going to
be working with her on a project like this for young people. But just
the way that she helps you see patterns across time and how they pop up
again and again. So for example, the ways that Asian Americans have them
escapegoaded in the past, or bringing disease to America or for taking away jobs.
Gosh, doesn't that sound relevant to things that we hear, you know,
in recent history, right in just the last few years. And so
when you notice those patterns, when you see those things repeating, that's when
we can take action and say, Okay, we're not going to let these
things happen again. We're going to stop, stand up and make sure we're
changing history in the moment. Wow, is there a website? Because people
are going to read this book and they're going to want more? Where can
people go to continue to grow forward? Erica and I both have websites,
So mine is soon tornbot dot com and Erica is erica lead dot org,
and we both have links to the book there. And we also have this
incredible discussion guide that was written by educators. That's going to help guide the
conversations that are going to come up around the book. That is so cool.
You guys have got to come back to the show anytime in the future.
Please use this platform as a way to reach new people. Thank you
so much. Will you be brilliant today? You too, Okay, so much