Rad Dad in LA 11/12/11: An Asian-American-Family-Entertainment-Palooza!

Today, Saturday, November 12, I have the honor of reading from the new Rad Dad: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Fatherhood anthology at my old neighborhood bookstore, Los Feliz' venerable indie Skylight Books.

Please join me, editor Tomás Moniz, and two very special guests, YA/middle grade novelist Lisa Yee and kindie musician Mista Cookie Jar at 5:00 p.m. for an awesome, kid-friendly celebration of family and fatherhood.

The "rad" in Rad Dad is "radical" as in "politics," not "hipster," and the pieces explore fatherhood as a political act through a myriad of voices. Race, gender, class, sexuality, all are touched on in these pages, and readers of Rice Daddies will be no strangers to these kinds of conversations about parenting.

We are so happy to have our special guests joining us at this reading. Lisa is the author of a whole slew of books for young readers featuring Asian American and multiracial characters, including the Bobby Ellis-Chan books, which feature the multiracial protagonist's football-star-turned-Stay-At-Home-Dad. Mista Cookie Jar, a.k.a. C.J. Pizarro, has been wowing kids and their grown-ups with his funky family band, the Chocolate Chips, as well as having his single "The Love Bubble" featured on Sirius XM Kids Place Live and performing at Little Tokyo's Tuesday Night Project.

We hope you'll be able to spend your Saturday afternoon/evening with us!

Interview with Author Lisa Yee

Earlier this year I interviewed children's author Lisa Yee. Find out how Yee got started writing novels for kids, if she made a conscious decision to have Asian Americans be central characters in some of her books, and how an obsession with putting marshmallow Peeps into a microwave turned into a great way to meet famous authors. Her latest book, Warp Speed is available in bookstores starting March 1, 2011.

How did you get started writing children's books? What drew you to writing children's books?
I'd been almost every sort of writer before penning novels for kids. I was a journalist, a television writer, copywriter, jingle writer, you name it! However, I had always wanted to write children's books. It wasn't until I was a mom that I realized, how could I tell my kids they should pursue their dreams, if I wasn't pursuing mine?

Since I was working full time, I had to write late at night. I didn't have an agent when I first started, so I just sent something to Arthur Levine, the editor of the HARRY POTTER series. He pulled it out of the "slush pile." I've been publishing with Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books ever since. WARP SPEED will be our seventh book together.

Many of the central characters of your books are Asian American. Was it conscious effort to create stories with Asian American characters?
It wasn't a conscious effort at first. When my first novel, MILLICENT MIN, GIRL GENIUS, came out in 2003, the main character just happened to be Chinese American, probably because I was. I didn't think twice about it. Later, I was shocked to learn that the book was the first children's contemporary fiction with a photo of an Asian girl on the cover.

My second book, STANFORD WONG FLUNKS BIG-TIME, featured a boy who was Millicent's enemy. It took place during the same timeframe as her story, only from his point of view. However, this time around I was aware that I was writing about an Asian protagonist, so I decided to go against stereotype when writing about a Chinese American jock who was flunking school.

Since then, not all my books have Asian protagonists, but they all have Asian characters. Two of my books, BOBBY THE BRAVE (SOMETIMES) and BOBBY VS. GIRLS (ACCIDENTALLY) are about a Hapa kid and his family. Plus, my most recent American Girl books, ALOHA, KANANI and GOOD JOB, KANANI also feature a Hapa girl, this time from Kaua'i.

Your latest book release is Warp Speed. What is the story about and how did you decide to write the story?
WARP SPEED is about a Star Trek geek who gets beat up everyday at school. I was inspired to write the book when a boy stood up at a school assembly and said, "I need to know what happened to Marley." I had almost forgotten who Marley was, then I recalled he was a minor character in Stanford's book--a nobody who gets pushed around. Later, the boy's teacher told me that he was exactly like Marley, and I knew I had to write that book.

As a Star Trek geek, which of the various Star Trek TV shows is your favorite? Who is your favorite Star Trek character of all time?
I love TOS, the original series. I remember watching "The Man Trap" episode as a kid and being terrified of the Salt Monster. It gave me nightmares. Like Marley Sandelski in WARP SPEED, I'd have to say my favorite character is Spock. Marley even has a temporary tattoo on his hand that says, "WWSP" -- What Would Spock Do?

Tell me about your obsession with Peeps? How did that all start? Do you find that "Peepy" your plush Peep is a great ice breaker?
I liked blowing up marshmallow Peeps in the microwave and would blog about it (http://lisayee.livejournal.com). One day a fan sent me the plush Peep that I named Peepy. Since I travel so much, I decided that she'd go with me and I'd blog about our adventures. It's so cool because when Peepy's around I'm not shy about going up to a famous author or someone and saying, "May I take a photo of you with my Peep?"

What advice do you have for other aspiring children's book authors?
Read, read, read, write, read and write. Know what's out there, but don't try to copy--instead find your own voice. Also, join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. It's the group I credit with jump starting my career.

When you are not writing, what are some things you enjoy doing in your spare time? Any guilty pleasures?
Hmmm . . . spare time? I'm not sure what that is.

I love spending time with my family. And reading's on the top of my list, too. It's also been a goal of mine to take a nap, but I haven't mastered that yet.

What is a typical day like for Lisa Yee?
I still do most of my serious writing very late at night and quit around 2 or 3 a.m. In the morning I pretend to be awake while I answer email and do lots of business stuff like arranging for school/library visits, etc. Afternoon is time to blog, goof off on facebook, and begin writing. Just as I'm gearing up and feeling good about what I'm writing, it's time to stop. Grocery shopping, laundry, mom stuff. Later, when everyone's asleep, I start writing again.

And finally, what would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for helping make my dream come true. I can't imagine a better job than being an author. Also, I do hope everyone likes WARP SPEED. It's about bullying, and I want kids who are being bullied to know that they are not alone.

Rice Daddies Turns 5! To Celebrate, We're Giving You Gifts!

Rice Daddies, the group blog by Asian American dads, launched on February 6, 2006. Which means that yesterday, we turned 5! And we're still here! I mean, happy birthday to us! Heh. Five years ago, I wrote:

We're a group of dads of the Asian persuasion, most of us only 2 years or less into the parenting game. We're bicoastal and multiethnic, Chinese- and Japanese- and Filipino- and Korean- and biracial- Americans. We're writers and lawyers and businessmen and teachers (oh my!), stay-at-home and work-at-home and wish-we-could-work-at-home dads. We're dads who happen to be Asian, and Asians who happen to be dads. And we mention both, matter-of-factly, because they both matter.

Which is not to say that this is gonna be all serious all the time, or all political, or all race-centric. Of course, we're not promising that when we try to be funny, that'll work all the time either. (Except for MetroDad. We give you a money-back guarantee that he will always be piss-your-pants funny.) But really, this is just a place where we can muddle through our own experiences of what it means to be raising the next generation of Asian American young'ns in the technicolor 21st century.

Since then, we've seen old contributors go and welcomed new voices on board, and we've gotten more diverse in terms of ethnic background, geographic location, and length and breadth of parenting experience. (And we're always looking for more, so shoot us a note at ricedaddies@gmail.com if you wanna add your voice to the fray.) We've enjoyed making connections and building community with other Asian American parents, parents of color, and parents of children of color both on- and off-line (and we hope to meet a lot of you at the big Banana 2 AsAm blogger confab on Feb. 26 in LA!), and we look forward to continuing the discussion as our kids get older and teach us more about what it means to Asian Americans who are dads and dads who are Asian American.

To celebrate our 5th blogaversary, the amazing and prolific author Lisa Yee has graciously donated 5 sets of her two Bobby Ellis-Chan books to give away to Rice Daddies readers, signed by both her and illustrator (and AsAm dad) Dan Santat. Lisa's middle-grade novels have always featured Asian American characters, like Millicent Min, Stanford Wong, and her American Girl books, and her Bobby Ellis-Chan books portray the everyday life of an interracial family, comprised of a boy trying to find his place in his family and school, his princess-obsessed little sister, his football star older sister, their Chinese American businesswoman mom, and their non-Asian pro-football-player-turned-stay-at-home-dad, with humor, a keen, sensitive eye, and a matter-of-factness about the family's racial background that I found refreshing. And my six-year-old daughter absolutely loved them!



To enter to win a set of autographed copies of Bobby Vs. Girls (Accidentally) and Bobby The Brave (Sometimes) for your young readers, leave a comment on this post by midnight PST on Saturday, February 26, listing your or your kids' favorite children's book either by an author or illustrator of color or featuring characters of color. At the end of the contest, we'll compile all of your recommendations into a single post and we'll have a random drawing for five winners.

Thank you for all of your support over the years, for reading, commenting, linking, and coming back. You're why this isn't just a blog, but a community. (Okay, sappiness over. Heh.)