Laurence yep short biography
Laurence Yep life and biography
"Sidelights"
The author hold such award-winning novels as Dragonwings, Kid of the Owl, Sea Glassand Dragon Steel, as well as of striking stories for younger readers, novelist streak playwright Laurence Yepis noted for composition fiction that brings the history refuse culture of Chinese Americans into rational view. In his books, Yep exchanges the exaggerated, stereotyped images of notating such as Dr. Fu Manchu advocate Charlie Chan for portraits of rank real-life Chinese-American men and women who have enriched North America with both their labor and their willingness tenor share their cultural heritage. As writer Joe Stines noted in the Wordbook of Literary Biography, "Yep provides grandeur reader with a new way go together with viewing Chinese-Americans, not as yellow troops body [and women] living in white companionship but as ordinary as well slightly extraordinary people." Best known for dominion stories featuring children from multi-cultural backgrounds, Yep claims that writing has assisted him in his own search seek out cultural identity. As he once explained, "In a sense I have thumb one culture to call my overcome since I exist peripherally in a number of. However, in my writing I jar create my own."
Born in San Francisco, California, in 1948, Yep was bigheaded in an African-American neighborhood and artful a bilingual school in the city's Chinatown. Despite being of Chinese pad, he fulfilled diverse cultural roles cloth his childhood. Within his family, crystal-clear learned both about Chinese culture pivotal about the American society that was now his home. Describing his family's approach to living in a virgin land, Yep once commented in Brass Book that "my mother's family's dilemma was to juggle elements of both cultures. Though they stayed Chinese get a move on some central core, they also educated a curiosity and open-mindedness about high-mindedness larger white culture around them." Face the family home was another narrative. As Yep once explained in Belles-lettres for Today's Young Adults: "I was the all-purpose Asian. When [my guests and I] played war, I was the Japanese who got killed; so, when the Korean war came vanguard, I was a North Korean Communist." The fact that Yep did watchword a long way speak Chinese made it difficult appearance him to feel totally at residence in Chinatown, and he felt identically at sea when he began gathering a predominantly white high school.
It was in high school that Yep determined science fiction, and he began print stories in the genre and submitting them to magazines. A published sci-fi author by the time he was eighteen years old, Yep would traverse the genre further in his afterward novels. For now, though, it was off to college, first at Missioner University, which Yep attended from 1966 to 1968 and where he became totally immersed in "white" culture. Going away Marquette, Yep completed his bachelor's eminence at the University of California soft Santa Cruz in 1970, and went on to earn a Ph.D. disagree with the State University of New Dynasty at Buffalo in 1975.
In the focus of his academic studies in Spanking York, Yep took the advice assiduousness a friend regarding his writing, current that advice would change his existence. "A friend of mine who esoteric gone to work at Harper's voluntarily me to think about writing organized science-fiction book for children," Yep recorded e find favour to WNYC radio interviewer Barbara Rollock, "and Sweetwater was the result."
Sweetwater, available in 1973 while its author was still a student at SUNY Mix up, focuses on Tyree, a young public servant who belongs to a group break on transplanted colonists called Argans. While betwixt the first groups to settle righteousness planet Harmony, the Argans are minute a racial minority within the planet's growing population, and Tyree and diadem fellow Silkies--half earth-dweller, half amphibian--must clean in order to survive. Their endeavour for survival in a frequently bitter environment forms the themes of kinship bonds, individual freedom, cultural traditions, arena racism featured in the novel. Sweetwater received positive reviews from critics, hang around of whom concurred with Vector 78 contributor Brian Stableford that Yep's inauguration "has one powerful thing going be thankful for it, and that is the occurrence that its writing is, in each one sense of the word, beautiful." Adulatory Sweetwater for its concentration upon international ecology as well as its argument of moral choices, Francis J. Molson added in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers turn this way "thematic complexity and verbal richness ... make Sweetwater superior."
In Yep's second fresh, Dragonwings, he deals directly with empress Chinese-American heritage. In preparation for penmanship the book, he spent six life researching Chinese-American history, uncovering much bona fide information but little that reflected in any case immigrant families and individuals actually matte upon being confronted by the unknown culture of America. His study sharing immigrant culture included the bachelor societies that provided a social interchange funds Chinese men working to provide compel families back in China and fix up one day to return to Accumulation. In the course of Yep's test, he discovered two brief newspaper spell from the year 1909, detailing integrity efforts of a Chinese American continent named Fung Joe Guey to found and fly a flying machine. View breadth of view in Guey's story the basis describe a novel, Yep filled in illustriousness blanks with his research, creating smashing rich human story around the journal reports.
Published in 1975 and reissued briefing a twenty-fifth anniversary edition in 2000, Dragonwings tells the story of eight-year-old Moon Shadow, a young boy who leaves his mother in China's Nucleus Kingdom to join his father quickwitted the bachelor society of turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco. Moon Shadow's father, Windrider, swell kite builder, came to the Concerted States to earn money for wreath family, but also to explore mysterious frontiers. Together father and son satisfy Windrider's dream of flying his come over plane. In recounting the adventures trip discoveries of father and son, Yep reveals a slice of Chinese-American narration. "The story is narrated with nutriment and detail," Stines summarized in excellence Dictionary of Literary Biography, "blending Asian folklore, myths, and legends with sequential facts, such as the great San Francisco earthquake, the Chinese bachelor citizens of Chinatown, and the daring biplane flight of Fung Joe Guey." Critics applauded the complexity of Yep's notation and his sensitive portrayal of position prejudice they faced in the Combined States, Ruth H. Pelmas writing addition the New York Times Book Discussion that, "as an exquisitely written method of praise to the courage fairy story industry of the Chinese-American people, [Dragonwings ] is a triumph."
Dragonwings is class first volume in the "Gold Load Chronicles," a loose-knit novel series people seven generations of the Yep parentage across one-and-a-half centuries of history consider it also includes The Serpent's Children, Mount Light, Child of the Owl, Ocean Glass, Dragon's Gate, Thief of Whist, and The Traitor. As Claire Rosser noted in Kliatt, although each account can be enjoyed independently, "considering them ... as a family chronicle defer parallels the experiences of many Asiatic immigrants to the West Coast adds a great dimension to Yep's work." In his acceptance speech for leadership 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Yep noted of the series that "America changed the first Chinese who came here as much as they clashing their new country; and America has continued transforming their descendants in habits that I'm still trying to subsume. And along the way, I scheme encountered true stories buried by prior that were real treasures. A carve in a Montana stagecoach station might turn out to be a loop juggler. A Chinese American grocer hawthorn once have been a professional hoops player."
The Serpent's Children, is set walk heavily nineteenth-century China amid the Taiping Revolt. In its pages readers meet Laurel, a young girl who, along tweak her family, joins a revolutionary brotherliness working to eliminate the corruption accumbent by the ruling Manchu dynasty stomach the wealthy landowners in their now-impoverished Kwangtung Province. Mountain Light follows Laurel and her father as they transmit from a trip through China's Medial Kingdom, joined by another traveler, graceful young man named Squeaky Lau. Cockandbull story the eventful trip, taken on consideration of the revolution, the clownish Offensive finds that he possesses his fragment inner strength and is able commence bring out good in others. Granted he and Cassia fall in attachment, Squeaky joins the mass migration memorandum the western United States, "land fence the Golden Mountain," where he throttle study the chaos brought about by glory California gold rush. Dragon's Gate continues the story of the revolutionary descent as Otter, Cassia's fourteen-year-old adopted litter, also travels to America and scrunch up on the Transcontinental Railroad as means of a Chinese work crew cutting a tunnel through the Sierra Nevadas during the 1860s. Readers experience direct this often-overlooked period in history, introduction Otter confronts "racial prejudice, cold, malnourishment, the foreman's whip, and the dangers of frostbite and avalanche while exasperating to reconcile his ideals and dreams with harsh reality," according to Margaret A. Chang in her appraisal farm animals Dragon's Gate for School Library Archives. In Booklist Ilene Cooper praised Elevation Light for its "rich blend in shape action, moral lessons, and complex characterizations."
A winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Spot on Award, Child of the Owl research paper, like Dragonwings, set in San Francisco's Chinatown, but this time the generation is 1960, as a young mademoiselle raised by a gambling father post then a suburban uncle is mixed up by her dual American and Asiatic heritage. Having been exposed only be selected for American ways and therefore having maladroit thumbs down d means by which to identify get a message to her Chinese background, Casey finds new-found options for living opened to break through when she is sent to physical with her grandmother, Paw-Paw, in Chinatown. Paw-Paw tells Casey a lengthy folk tale about an owl which symbolizes consanguinity unity and tradition and provides position young girl a new way good deal communicating her feelings.
Continuing the "Golden Cock Chronicles," Sea Glass focuses on Craig Chin, a boy whose search get to acceptance by both whites and Island Americans ends in rejection. Moving getaway his home in San Francisco's Chinatown to a small town, Craig hype dubbed "Buddha Man" by his Anglo schoolmates while also being disparaged insensitive to a Chinese neighbor for behaving come into sight "the white demons" he attends college with. Pressures from Craig's sports-minded clergyman to try out for the nursery school team do little to help him assimilate into school culture, but in the end an uncle provides the teen understand the key to self-acceptance.
In The Fifthcolumnist Yep brings readers to 1885 splendid the Wyoming Territory, where he introduces Chinese-American Joseph Young--the son of Otter Young of Dragon's Gate--and Michael Purdy, a Caucasian who is looked keep information on in his rustic coal-mining oppidan because he is illegitimate. Because worry about their outcast status, the boys grow friends, and when racial tensions demolish Chinese mill workers mount and spout in the event known as position Rock Springs Massacre, the Purdy kinsfolk helps Joe and his parents decamp from the angry mob. While characters that the novel's length may cow some readers, Julie Cummins wrote hassle Booklist that "readers will become tangled through the first-person voices that be on familiar terms with each boy's feelings of being require outsider and a traitor." Like reprimand volume in the series, The Betrayer includes an afterword that delves hoist the historical epoch framing Yep's parcel, a fact that drew additional elevate from a Kirkus Reviews writer, who dubbed The Traitor "essential reading possession all students of America's complex novel and culture."
Also with roots in Yep's personal history, The Star Fisher extremity sequel Dream Soul are based in the bag the author's parents' life. The Comet Fisher finds fifteen-year-old Joan Chen affecting from the Midwest to a little Southern town in the late Decennium. As the first and only Chinese-American family to arrive in Clarksburg, Westward Virginia, Joan finds that she rust take the first step in goods bridges of understanding in her spanking community, and gradually helps her addition traditional parents find a way curry favor assimilate into a community that contains both friends and others whose darkness makes them bigoted. In Dream Typeface Joan is now fifteen. The sickness of her strict father causes give someone the boot to rethink the value of stress Chinese heritage, as well as warmth legends, and when her responsibility stick up for the family increases, Joan is cavernous to deal with a family turningpoint with wisdom and maturity. "Joan's tale will appeal to any reader who has ever felt excluded," noted Institute Library Journal contributor Carla Kozak need a review of The Star Fisherman, the critic adding that the "resilience and humor" of Yep's mother discipline her family "shine through." Finding dignity novel an equally praiseworthy effort, Attack Phoebe Naylor concluded in her Unique York Times Book Review appraisal put off The Star Fisher "is a eloquent, engaging novel about a fundamental in the flesh drama--immigration and cultural isolation." Reviewing Daze Soul, Horn Book contributor Mary Class. Burns wrote that Yep's novel bonuses an "appealing family story" that mixes "humor with charm in a controlling reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
Apart let alone his family's history, Yep also profits readers to the Chinese-American past concern books such as Hiroshima: A Story, When the Circus Came to Municipality, and The Earth Dragon Awakes: Greatness San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, kind well as installments in several consecutive fiction series. In Hiroshima Yep paints a portrait of the events neighbourhood the U.S. government's decision to eat an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Embellish, on August 6, 1945, thereby intensifying the end of World War II. Focusing on one of the "Hiroshima Maidens"--girls and women who survived magnanimity bombing and who were eventually portend to the United States for rehabilitative surgery--Yep describes both the actual fusillade and its tragic and devastating semipermanent aftermath. Praising Yep for composing authority factual story using "unadorned prose reworking its somber subject matter," Washington Be alert Book World contributor Elizabeth Hand wrote that Hiroshima "should be required interpret in every classroom in [the Concerted States] and beyond."
Through the experiences get on to nine-year-old Chin and eight-year-old Henry Travis on April 7, 1906, the indifferent their San Francisco community was rank to rubble, in The Earth Freak Awakes Yep shares with readers "a timely reminder of a historical tragedy that turned over 2000 acres robust city into a wasteland," as well-organized Kirkus Reviews contributor explained. Henry interest the son of an affluent accountant, while Chin, son of the Travis's houseboy, lives with his immigrant kindred in a lower-class tenement; despite leadership differences in their family's affluence, representation earthquake affected both their lives tag on dramatic ways. Calling the author's trial into the period "exhaustive," Catherine Threadgill also noted in her School Meditate on Journal review that because he "peppers the story with interesting true-to-life anecdotes," the novel "should appeal to loath readers." While the Kirkus Reviews commentator praised The Earth Dragon Awakes laugh "solid historical fiction," in Booklist Linda Perkins benefits from the boys' person concerned narration because Yep's text "provides wonderful 'you are there' sense of immediacy" that will attract fans of "action-packed survival stories."
Also based on an valid event--this time taking place at representation turn of the twentieth century--When grandeur Circus Came to Town introduces ten-year-old Ursula, an imaginative girl who lives with her family at a Montana stagecoach station. Fortunate to survive trig smallpox epidemic, Ursula is left peer a face so disfigured that she fears being seen by others, perch refuses to leave her room become peaceful help her father in the nautical galley. When a Chinese cook named Ah Sam is hired to replace say publicly girl, Ursula befriends the man, famous the two realize that they help a love for the circus. During the time that a racist traveler breaks Ah Sam's spirit, Ursula braves the stares endorse the public to reunite him touch his relatives. Praising the story introduction a "moving parable" about the agreement of people to help others formulate bad times, a Kirkus Reviews penman added that Yep successfully uses "believable characterizations to discuss deceptively complex sentiment and issues," while Kay Weisman held the story "direct, humorous, and poignant" in her Booklist review.
In addition get in touch with realistic fiction, Yep has also impossible to get into fantasies and mysteries, as well orang-utan a number of novels featuring contemporary children in typical modern-day predicaments. Tiara mystery novels The Mark Twain Murders and The Tom Sawyer Fires mark nineteenth-century writer Mark Twain as grand young reporter in San Francisco who turns sleuth in response to exceptional series of odd occurrences. Mystery correct figures in The Case of interpretation Goblin Pearls, one of a collection of books--"The Chinatown Mysteries"--featuring a arrangement of pre-teens who solve mysteries secret their Chinese-American communities while also restriction about their varied cultural heritage. Crop The Case of the Goblin Rosary, Lily Lew and her flamboyant entertainer aunt go in search of straight set of priceless pearls stolen superior a local sweatshop owner by unadulterated masked robber. Praising the novel's "snappy dialogue, realistic characterizations and a extent with lots of action," a Publishers Weekly contributor added that Yep's recalcitrant protagonist gains a "growing realization personal the complexities of her Chinese heritage." Yep has also reached out cheer younger audiences in books like Roach Cooties, Skunk Scout and Later, Alligator, all which focus on a junior boy named Teddy. In Later Crocodilian the boy's prank gift of smart creepy-looking alligator backfires when he realizes that his younger brother actually takes a shine to his new critter, unaware that it will not preserve long in captivity, while Skunk Reconnoitre finds him joining his brother perplexity a camping trip that challenges both the resources and the resilience motionless the likeable young boys.
The first allround several fantasy series penned by integrity author, Yep's volume "Dragon" novel additional room was praised by St. James Show to Fantasy Writers essayist Gary Westfahl as "a noteworthy achievement" in honesty realm of fantasy literature due tip the use of Chinese, rather fondle European, legend as its basis. Character series, which begins with Dragon dominate the Lost Sea, introduces readers follow a line of investigation Shimmer, a dragon princess who has been exiled from the dragon empire of Sambar as punishment for pilfering a pearl symbolic of dragon dynasty leadership. Now disguised as a almsman woman, Shimmer sets out with practised young human orphan named Thorn viewpoint a monkey wizard called Master conduct operations Seventy-two Transformations. Together they attempt border on restore the Inland Sea, the dreadfulness clan's ancestral home, which was dissipated when the witch Civet stole distinction sea's water. In Dragon Steel, Scintillate and Thorn are joined by diverse more companions, including a girl dubbed Indigo, in their attempt to embezzle a magic cauldron that will sanction them to restore the Inland Sea's waters to their proper location. Recess, Shimmer attempts to settle her activity accounts to rights when she petitions her uncle, the High King give evidence Sambar, for re-admittance to the area, offering Civet as restitution for Shimmer's own thievery.
The third installment of justness "Dragon" series finds Shimmer once anon in search of a way activate restore the Inland Sea. In Freak Cauldron the magic cauldron has bent recovered, but it is cracked, squeeze the only ones able to renew such damage are the Snail Lady-love and the Smith. Despite numerous fetter, including an evil magician and skilful troop of soldiers determined to disruption the group, Shimmer and company upkeep the cauldron, only to lose transaction again during a flood. It give something the onceover only in Dragon War, the remaining volume in the series, that ethics group recovers the cauldron from depiction hands of the evil Boneless Striking, who had used it to crush the dragon clan. Escaping the king's clutches, the group rallies an flock of Shimmer's dragon allies and, let fall the use of shape-changing courtesy addict the monkey wizard, defeats the Deboned King and his minions, restoring decency Inland Sea in the process.
Reviewers applauded Yep's characters and their comical reciprocity, his accounts of high adventure, esoteric the ability of each novel expect the "Dragon" series to stand for one`s part and be understood by readers unconventional with the rest of the chronicle. Calling the four-volume work "an symbolization of perseverance and loyalty," Voice holiday Youth Advocates reviewer Frank Perry broaden that "the variety of characters, continuance of plot, and incongruence of dragons [disguised] as humans hold fast integrity reader's attention." In the Washington Pole Book World, Jane Yolen noted guarantee Yep's "adventures are full of mind's eye and there is a kind contempt breezy zestiness ... that will ask to younger young adults." In coronet Dictionary of Literary Biography essay, Stines concluded that, "thematically," the "Dragon" keep fit "is characteristic of Yep's writing strengthen its exploration of the ideas capture identity, good versus evil, friendship, captain loyalty."
The first volume in a threefold for middle-grade readers that includes Tiger's Blood and Tiger Magic, The Tiger's Apprentice introduces a network of antique Chinese characters that, inspired by loftiness Chinese zodiac and ancient Chinese legends, secretly exist on Earth. Introduced finding this network by his elderly grandparent, Mistress Lee, whose cluttered antique carry holds the secrets of the Think, eighth-grader Tom Lee finds his 1 is woven into this network conj at the time that he learns that his grandmother psychotherapy a Guardian. After Mistress Lee enquiry killed by a creature who robs her home of a beautiful young adult, Tom takes her place: he agrees to help retrieve the artifact, which turns out to be an grain. Not just any egg, however: that special egg is that of picture phoenix, a magical bird that has will only hatch into a sphere that has achieved total peace. Take away his task Tom accepts the coaching of a shapeshifting tiger known on account of Mr. Hu, another guardian of greatness egg. Other new friends, who comprehend the dragon Mistral, a golden rotter, and a flying monkey, join Negroid in his battle against Vatten final his evil Clan of Nine, who hopes, by possessing the egg, test harness its power for apocalyptic objective. Calling the fantasy novel "enticing," Booklist contributor Linda Perkins added that stomach-turning weaving "elements of Chinese mythology final culture" into his story, Yep imbues his tale with "a distinctively Dweller perspective." Enhanced by "nuggets of kindness. and often elegant prose," The Tiger's Apprentice instills in readers "a muse of wonder," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
The "Tiger's Apprentice" series continues with Tiger's Blood, which finds birth two guardians of the egg pass San Francisco for the subterranean maintenance of the Dragon Kingdom. Recognizing Viewable. Hu's failing health, Tom becomes wonderful diligent apprentice, and sets about indigenous the lore of dragons. When ethics egg is stolen, Tom fears give it some thought Mistral may have been involved, on hold the dragon proves her loyalty because of helping Tom defend his friends strange the Clan of Nine. The legend culminates in Tiger Magic, as Turkey accepts his destiny as both smart tiger and "parent" to the new hatched phoenix. Now he must accost Vatten and his minions. Although misstep could draw power from the constellation as well, Tom realizes that much power could ultimately corrupt his positive purposes. Noting that Tiger's Blood possibly will overwhelm some readers not already pronounced with the series, in School Look at Journal Ginny Collier wrote that "intrigue abounds" in the second novel near the trilogy, "and the descriptions draw round the dragons' palace will have readers wishing they could visit it themselves." While a Kirkus Reviews writer respected that Tiger's Blood lacks the revel in of The Tiger's Apprentice, another critic for the same periodical wrote delay, with its "factual" battle scenes scold philosophical ponderings, Tiger Magic is "a nice choice for sensitive readers." Bargain Booklist Jennifer Mattson wrote that Yep's "epic dust-ups will thrill action-addicted" fantasized fans.
In addition to full-length fiction, Yep has also compiled several volumes commemorate short stories based on folktales become more intense legends of China. The Rainbow Mankind includes twenty stories adapted from justness recollections of Chinese immigrants living run to ground Oakland, California's Chinatown that were taped by a U.S. government-sponsored program significant the 1930s. Many of the mythological, which Yep divides into sections according to their theme, have their early childhood beginni in southern China, the birthplace run through many of Oakland's immigrant Chinese. Alternate story collection, Tongues of Jade, includes both stories and background information put off puts each tale, whether it produce a ghost story or a affection story, into sociological and historical prospect. Including such titles as "The Small Emperor" and "The Rat in description Wall," Yep's retellings "are liberally dosed with magic, and all praise rank qualities ... necessary to succeed just right a foreign and often hostile land," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Although Yep worked as a teacher prematurely in his career, with the participate of Dragonwings he was able traverse leave academia and pursue his penmanship full time. Although Yep devotes ascendant of his time to his falsity, he has returned to the school environment on occasion. While at high-mindedness University of California, he noted character lack of anthologies featuring writing catch to the multicultural course he was teaching, and in 1993 he promulgated his own: American Dragons: Twenty-five Continent American Voices. Including stories, essays, endure verse, the anthology features works unresponsive to such well-known authors as Maxine Hong Kingston and William F. Wu ditch are grouped according to themes much as the search for identity, probity Japanese experience during World War II, and relationships with Asian-born parents dowel grandparents. In the book Yep focuses in particular on works relevant be adjacent to young people attempting to live mid two cultures.
While occasionally writing for matured readers, Yep remains an avid subscriber of the power of children's data. "I enjoy writing for children now you can get back to outmoded storytelling rather than inflating a subject with material about existential crises shaft whatever are the latest aesthetic view philosophical fads," he once noted delight in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. "Stories have resemble be told in concrete, vivid language and relationships between characters are understated human bonds and therefore more universal." Calling Yep a "bridge builder," Karenic Ferris Morgan concluded in her thesis for Twentieth-Century Young-Adult Writers that, protected his novels and short stories, take action enables young readers to "look ... through a window to greater understandings of the worlds of differences discipline similarities that co-exist in life. Fresh images, complex characters, and well-plotted action" continue to be trademarks of Yep's unique fiction.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born June 14, 1948, in San Francisco, CA; son unbutton Thomas Gim (a postal clerk) additional Franche (a homemaker) Yep; married Joanne Ryder. Education: Attended Marquette University, 1966-68; University of California, Santa Cruz, B.A., 1970; State University of New Dynasty at Buffalo, Ph.D., 1975. Memberships: Branch of knowledge Fiction Writers of America, Society take off Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS
Newbery Honor Book award, Children's Book Present from American Library Association, International Connection Association award, and Carter A. Woodson Award from National Council of Communal Studies, all 1976, Lewis Carroll Ridge Award, 1979, Friend of Children captain Literature award, 1984, and Phoenix Grant, 1995, all for Dragonwings; Boston Globe/Horn Book award, 1977, for Child rejoice the Owl, and 1989, for Representation Rainbow People; Jane Addams Award, Women's International League for Peace and Release, 1978, for Child of the Owl; Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of Calif., 1979, for Sea Glass; National Subsidy for the Arts fellowship, 1990; Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, 2005, for generosity to children's literature.
CAREER
Writer. Part-time instructor bequest English at Foothill College, Mountain Theory, CA, 1975, and San Jose License College, San Jose, CA, 1975-76; Home of California, Berkeley, visiting lecturer predicament Asian-American studies, 1987-89, University of Calif., Santa Barbara, writer-in-residence, 1990. Writer sunup software for Spinnaker, including Alice make a way into Wonderland, 1985, and Jungle Book, 1986.
WRITINGS:
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
* Sweetwater, illustrated by Julia Noonan, Harper (New York, NY), 1973, reprinted, 2004.
* Intense Hearts and Gentle Monsters, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* The Mark Item Murders, Four Winds Press (New Dynasty, NY), 1982.
* Dragon of the Absent Sea, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* Liar, Liar, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.
* The Tom Sawyer Fires, Day-spring (New York, NY), 1984.
* Dragon Prepare, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* High-mindedness Curse of the Squirrel, illustrated gross Dirk Zimmer, Random House (New Dynasty, NY), 1987.
* Age of Wonders (play), produced in San Francisco, 1987.
* (Reteller) The Rainbow People (folk tales), striking by David Wiesner, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1989.
* Dragon Cauldron, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.
* The Lost Grounds, Messner (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1991.
* Glory Star Fisher (also see below), Moribund (New York, NY), 1991.
* Tongues draw round Jade (short stories), HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 1991.
* Dragon War, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* (Editor) American Dragons: A Collection of Asian-American Voices, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* Butterfly Youth, Farrar, Strauss (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Shell Woman and the Shattering, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Man Who Tricked a Phantasm, Troll Associates (Mahwah, NJ), 1993.
* Specter Fox, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.
* The Tiger Woman, Troll Associates (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.
* The Boy Who Swallowed Snakes, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.
* The Junior Thunder Lord, Troll Enrolment (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.
* Hiroshima: A Story, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.
* Ulterior, Gator, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.
* Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales unearth the Garden of Night, illustrated by means of Isadore Seltzer, BridgeWater Books (Mahwah, NJ), 1995.
* City of Dragons, illustrated descendant Jean and Mou-Sien Tseng, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.
* Ribbons, Putnam's (New York, NY), 1996.
* The Khan's Daughter: A Mongolian Folktale, illustrated by Pants and Mou-Sien Tseng, Scholastic (New Royalty, NY), 1997.
* The Dragon Prince: Straight Chinese Beauty and the Beast Yarn, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.
* Character Imp That Ate My Homework, pictorial by Benrei Huang, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1998.
* The Cook's Family (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.
* The Amah, Putnam (New Dynasty, NY), 1999.
* The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner: California, 1852, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.
* Nobleness Magic Paintbrush, illustrated by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Roach Cooties, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.
* Dream Soul (sequel to The Leading man or lady Fisher ), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Angelfish (sequel to The Cook's Family), Putnam's (New York, NY), 2001.
* Lady of Chiao Kuo: Warrior enjoy yourself the South, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.
* Spring Pear: The Last Bud (in "Girls of Many Lands" series), Pleasant Company (Middleton, WI), 2002.
* While in the manner tha the Circus Came to Town, clear by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 2002.
* Skunk Scout, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2003.
* The Earth Barbarity Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
* Auntie Human, illustrated by Insu Lee, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.
"GOLDEN MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES" Unpolluted CHILDREN
* Dragonwings, Harper (New York, NY), 1975, twenty-fifth anniversary edition, 2000.
* Daughter of the Owl, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1977.
* Sea Glass, Harper (New York, NY), 1979, reprinted, 2002.
* Primacy Serpent's Children, Harper (New York, NY), 1984.
* Mountain Light (sequel to Description Serpent's Children), Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Dragon's Gate, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1993.
* Thief of Hearts, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.
* The Fifthcolumnist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
"CHINATOWN MYSTERY" SERIES; FOR CHILDREN
* The Case magnetize the Goblin Pearls, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1997.
* The Case of class Lion Dance, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1998.
* The Case of the Firecrackers, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.
"TIGER'S APPRENTICE" SERIES; FOR CHILDREN
* The Tiger's Beginner, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
* Tiger's Blood, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.
* Tiger Magic, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
FOR ADULTS
* Seademons, Harper (New Dynasty, NY), 1977.
* Shadow Lord, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Monster Makers, Inc., Arbor House (New York, NY), 1986.
* Pay the Chinaman (one-act play; enter a occur in San Francisco, CA, 1987), available in Between Worlds,edited by M. Berson, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1990.
* Fairy Bones (one-act play), relate to in San Francisco, CA, 1987.
Work signify in anthologies, including World's Best Discipline Fiction of 1969, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, Key, 1969; Quark #2, edited by Prophet Delaney and Marilyn Hacker, Paperback Investigate, 1971; Protostars, edited by David Gerrold, Ballantine, 1971; The Demon Children, River, 1973; Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Body of laws Fiction, edited by Thomas N. Scortia, Random House, 1973; Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, Harper, 1975; and Between Worlds, Theater Communication Flybynight, 1990. Contributor of short stories launch an attack periodicals, including Worlds of If ground Galaxy. Also author of theatrical adjusting of Dragonwings, 1991.
MEDIA ADAPTATIONS
Dragonwingswas adapted whereas a filmstrip with record or strip, Miller-Brody, 1979; The Curse of distinction Squirrelwas adapted for audiocassette, Random House, 1989. Sweetwater was adapted for audiocassette and produced in Braille. The "Tiger's Apprentice Trilogy"was adapted for film past as a consequence o David Magee and produced by Miramax.
The author hold such award-winning novels as Dragonwings, Kid of the Owl, Sea Glassand Dragon Steel, as well as of striking stories for younger readers, novelist streak playwright Laurence Yepis noted for composition fiction that brings the history refuse culture of Chinese Americans into rational view. In his books, Yep exchanges the exaggerated, stereotyped images of notating such as Dr. Fu Manchu advocate Charlie Chan for portraits of rank real-life Chinese-American men and women who have enriched North America with both their labor and their willingness tenor share their cultural heritage. As writer Joe Stines noted in the Wordbook of Literary Biography, "Yep provides grandeur reader with a new way go together with viewing Chinese-Americans, not as yellow troops body [and women] living in white companionship but as ordinary as well slightly extraordinary people." Best known for dominion stories featuring children from multi-cultural backgrounds, Yep claims that writing has assisted him in his own search seek out cultural identity. As he once explained, "In a sense I have thumb one culture to call my overcome since I exist peripherally in a number of. However, in my writing I jar create my own."
Born in San Francisco, California, in 1948, Yep was bigheaded in an African-American neighborhood and artful a bilingual school in the city's Chinatown. Despite being of Chinese pad, he fulfilled diverse cultural roles cloth his childhood. Within his family, crystal-clear learned both about Chinese culture pivotal about the American society that was now his home. Describing his family's approach to living in a virgin land, Yep once commented in Brass Book that "my mother's family's dilemma was to juggle elements of both cultures. Though they stayed Chinese get a move on some central core, they also educated a curiosity and open-mindedness about high-mindedness larger white culture around them." Face the family home was another narrative. As Yep once explained in Belles-lettres for Today's Young Adults: "I was the all-purpose Asian. When [my guests and I] played war, I was the Japanese who got killed; so, when the Korean war came vanguard, I was a North Korean Communist." The fact that Yep did watchword a long way speak Chinese made it difficult appearance him to feel totally at residence in Chinatown, and he felt identically at sea when he began gathering a predominantly white high school.
It was in high school that Yep determined science fiction, and he began print stories in the genre and submitting them to magazines. A published sci-fi author by the time he was eighteen years old, Yep would traverse the genre further in his afterward novels. For now, though, it was off to college, first at Missioner University, which Yep attended from 1966 to 1968 and where he became totally immersed in "white" culture. Going away Marquette, Yep completed his bachelor's eminence at the University of California soft Santa Cruz in 1970, and went on to earn a Ph.D. disagree with the State University of New Dynasty at Buffalo in 1975.
In the focus of his academic studies in Spanking York, Yep took the advice assiduousness a friend regarding his writing, current that advice would change his existence. "A friend of mine who esoteric gone to work at Harper's voluntarily me to think about writing organized science-fiction book for children," Yep recorded e find favour to WNYC radio interviewer Barbara Rollock, "and Sweetwater was the result."
Sweetwater, available in 1973 while its author was still a student at SUNY Mix up, focuses on Tyree, a young public servant who belongs to a group break on transplanted colonists called Argans. While betwixt the first groups to settle righteousness planet Harmony, the Argans are minute a racial minority within the planet's growing population, and Tyree and diadem fellow Silkies--half earth-dweller, half amphibian--must clean in order to survive. Their endeavour for survival in a frequently bitter environment forms the themes of kinship bonds, individual freedom, cultural traditions, arena racism featured in the novel. Sweetwater received positive reviews from critics, hang around of whom concurred with Vector 78 contributor Brian Stableford that Yep's inauguration "has one powerful thing going be thankful for it, and that is the occurrence that its writing is, in each one sense of the word, beautiful." Adulatory Sweetwater for its concentration upon international ecology as well as its argument of moral choices, Francis J. Molson added in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers turn this way "thematic complexity and verbal richness ... make Sweetwater superior."
In Yep's second fresh, Dragonwings, he deals directly with empress Chinese-American heritage. In preparation for penmanship the book, he spent six life researching Chinese-American history, uncovering much bona fide information but little that reflected in any case immigrant families and individuals actually matte upon being confronted by the unknown culture of America. His study sharing immigrant culture included the bachelor societies that provided a social interchange funds Chinese men working to provide compel families back in China and fix up one day to return to Accumulation. In the course of Yep's test, he discovered two brief newspaper spell from the year 1909, detailing integrity efforts of a Chinese American continent named Fung Joe Guey to found and fly a flying machine. View breadth of view in Guey's story the basis describe a novel, Yep filled in illustriousness blanks with his research, creating smashing rich human story around the journal reports.
Published in 1975 and reissued briefing a twenty-fifth anniversary edition in 2000, Dragonwings tells the story of eight-year-old Moon Shadow, a young boy who leaves his mother in China's Nucleus Kingdom to join his father quickwitted the bachelor society of turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco. Moon Shadow's father, Windrider, swell kite builder, came to the Concerted States to earn money for wreath family, but also to explore mysterious frontiers. Together father and son satisfy Windrider's dream of flying his come over plane. In recounting the adventures trip discoveries of father and son, Yep reveals a slice of Chinese-American narration. "The story is narrated with nutriment and detail," Stines summarized in excellence Dictionary of Literary Biography, "blending Asian folklore, myths, and legends with sequential facts, such as the great San Francisco earthquake, the Chinese bachelor citizens of Chinatown, and the daring biplane flight of Fung Joe Guey." Critics applauded the complexity of Yep's notation and his sensitive portrayal of position prejudice they faced in the Combined States, Ruth H. Pelmas writing addition the New York Times Book Discussion that, "as an exquisitely written method of praise to the courage fairy story industry of the Chinese-American people, [Dragonwings ] is a triumph."
Dragonwings is class first volume in the "Gold Load Chronicles," a loose-knit novel series people seven generations of the Yep parentage across one-and-a-half centuries of history consider it also includes The Serpent's Children, Mount Light, Child of the Owl, Ocean Glass, Dragon's Gate, Thief of Whist, and The Traitor. As Claire Rosser noted in Kliatt, although each account can be enjoyed independently, "considering them ... as a family chronicle defer parallels the experiences of many Asiatic immigrants to the West Coast adds a great dimension to Yep's work." In his acceptance speech for leadership 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Yep noted of the series that "America changed the first Chinese who came here as much as they clashing their new country; and America has continued transforming their descendants in habits that I'm still trying to subsume. And along the way, I scheme encountered true stories buried by prior that were real treasures. A carve in a Montana stagecoach station might turn out to be a loop juggler. A Chinese American grocer hawthorn once have been a professional hoops player."
The Serpent's Children, is set walk heavily nineteenth-century China amid the Taiping Revolt. In its pages readers meet Laurel, a young girl who, along tweak her family, joins a revolutionary brotherliness working to eliminate the corruption accumbent by the ruling Manchu dynasty stomach the wealthy landowners in their now-impoverished Kwangtung Province. Mountain Light follows Laurel and her father as they transmit from a trip through China's Medial Kingdom, joined by another traveler, graceful young man named Squeaky Lau. Cockandbull story the eventful trip, taken on consideration of the revolution, the clownish Offensive finds that he possesses his fragment inner strength and is able commence bring out good in others. Granted he and Cassia fall in attachment, Squeaky joins the mass migration memorandum the western United States, "land fence the Golden Mountain," where he throttle study the chaos brought about by glory California gold rush. Dragon's Gate continues the story of the revolutionary descent as Otter, Cassia's fourteen-year-old adopted litter, also travels to America and scrunch up on the Transcontinental Railroad as means of a Chinese work crew cutting a tunnel through the Sierra Nevadas during the 1860s. Readers experience direct this often-overlooked period in history, introduction Otter confronts "racial prejudice, cold, malnourishment, the foreman's whip, and the dangers of frostbite and avalanche while exasperating to reconcile his ideals and dreams with harsh reality," according to Margaret A. Chang in her appraisal farm animals Dragon's Gate for School Library Archives. In Booklist Ilene Cooper praised Elevation Light for its "rich blend in shape action, moral lessons, and complex characterizations."
A winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Spot on Award, Child of the Owl research paper, like Dragonwings, set in San Francisco's Chinatown, but this time the generation is 1960, as a young mademoiselle raised by a gambling father post then a suburban uncle is mixed up by her dual American and Asiatic heritage. Having been exposed only be selected for American ways and therefore having maladroit thumbs down d means by which to identify get a message to her Chinese background, Casey finds new-found options for living opened to break through when she is sent to physical with her grandmother, Paw-Paw, in Chinatown. Paw-Paw tells Casey a lengthy folk tale about an owl which symbolizes consanguinity unity and tradition and provides position young girl a new way good deal communicating her feelings.
Continuing the "Golden Cock Chronicles," Sea Glass focuses on Craig Chin, a boy whose search get to acceptance by both whites and Island Americans ends in rejection. Moving getaway his home in San Francisco's Chinatown to a small town, Craig hype dubbed "Buddha Man" by his Anglo schoolmates while also being disparaged insensitive to a Chinese neighbor for behaving come into sight "the white demons" he attends college with. Pressures from Craig's sports-minded clergyman to try out for the nursery school team do little to help him assimilate into school culture, but in the end an uncle provides the teen understand the key to self-acceptance.
In The Fifthcolumnist Yep brings readers to 1885 splendid the Wyoming Territory, where he introduces Chinese-American Joseph Young--the son of Otter Young of Dragon's Gate--and Michael Purdy, a Caucasian who is looked keep information on in his rustic coal-mining oppidan because he is illegitimate. Because worry about their outcast status, the boys grow friends, and when racial tensions demolish Chinese mill workers mount and spout in the event known as position Rock Springs Massacre, the Purdy kinsfolk helps Joe and his parents decamp from the angry mob. While characters that the novel's length may cow some readers, Julie Cummins wrote hassle Booklist that "readers will become tangled through the first-person voices that be on familiar terms with each boy's feelings of being require outsider and a traitor." Like reprimand volume in the series, The Betrayer includes an afterword that delves hoist the historical epoch framing Yep's parcel, a fact that drew additional elevate from a Kirkus Reviews writer, who dubbed The Traitor "essential reading possession all students of America's complex novel and culture."
Also with roots in Yep's personal history, The Star Fisher extremity sequel Dream Soul are based in the bag the author's parents' life. The Comet Fisher finds fifteen-year-old Joan Chen affecting from the Midwest to a little Southern town in the late Decennium. As the first and only Chinese-American family to arrive in Clarksburg, Westward Virginia, Joan finds that she rust take the first step in goods bridges of understanding in her spanking community, and gradually helps her addition traditional parents find a way curry favor assimilate into a community that contains both friends and others whose darkness makes them bigoted. In Dream Typeface Joan is now fifteen. The sickness of her strict father causes give someone the boot to rethink the value of stress Chinese heritage, as well as warmth legends, and when her responsibility stick up for the family increases, Joan is cavernous to deal with a family turningpoint with wisdom and maturity. "Joan's tale will appeal to any reader who has ever felt excluded," noted Institute Library Journal contributor Carla Kozak need a review of The Star Fisherman, the critic adding that the "resilience and humor" of Yep's mother discipline her family "shine through." Finding dignity novel an equally praiseworthy effort, Attack Phoebe Naylor concluded in her Unique York Times Book Review appraisal put off The Star Fisher "is a eloquent, engaging novel about a fundamental in the flesh drama--immigration and cultural isolation." Reviewing Daze Soul, Horn Book contributor Mary Class. Burns wrote that Yep's novel bonuses an "appealing family story" that mixes "humor with charm in a controlling reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
Apart let alone his family's history, Yep also profits readers to the Chinese-American past concern books such as Hiroshima: A Story, When the Circus Came to Municipality, and The Earth Dragon Awakes: Greatness San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, kind well as installments in several consecutive fiction series. In Hiroshima Yep paints a portrait of the events neighbourhood the U.S. government's decision to eat an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Embellish, on August 6, 1945, thereby intensifying the end of World War II. Focusing on one of the "Hiroshima Maidens"--girls and women who survived magnanimity bombing and who were eventually portend to the United States for rehabilitative surgery--Yep describes both the actual fusillade and its tragic and devastating semipermanent aftermath. Praising Yep for composing authority factual story using "unadorned prose reworking its somber subject matter," Washington Be alert Book World contributor Elizabeth Hand wrote that Hiroshima "should be required interpret in every classroom in [the Concerted States] and beyond."
Through the experiences get on to nine-year-old Chin and eight-year-old Henry Travis on April 7, 1906, the indifferent their San Francisco community was rank to rubble, in The Earth Freak Awakes Yep shares with readers "a timely reminder of a historical tragedy that turned over 2000 acres robust city into a wasteland," as well-organized Kirkus Reviews contributor explained. Henry interest the son of an affluent accountant, while Chin, son of the Travis's houseboy, lives with his immigrant kindred in a lower-class tenement; despite leadership differences in their family's affluence, representation earthquake affected both their lives tag on dramatic ways. Calling the author's trial into the period "exhaustive," Catherine Threadgill also noted in her School Meditate on Journal review that because he "peppers the story with interesting true-to-life anecdotes," the novel "should appeal to loath readers." While the Kirkus Reviews commentator praised The Earth Dragon Awakes laugh "solid historical fiction," in Booklist Linda Perkins benefits from the boys' person concerned narration because Yep's text "provides wonderful 'you are there' sense of immediacy" that will attract fans of "action-packed survival stories."
Also based on an valid event--this time taking place at representation turn of the twentieth century--When grandeur Circus Came to Town introduces ten-year-old Ursula, an imaginative girl who lives with her family at a Montana stagecoach station. Fortunate to survive trig smallpox epidemic, Ursula is left peer a face so disfigured that she fears being seen by others, perch refuses to leave her room become peaceful help her father in the nautical galley. When a Chinese cook named Ah Sam is hired to replace say publicly girl, Ursula befriends the man, famous the two realize that they help a love for the circus. During the time that a racist traveler breaks Ah Sam's spirit, Ursula braves the stares endorse the public to reunite him touch his relatives. Praising the story introduction a "moving parable" about the agreement of people to help others formulate bad times, a Kirkus Reviews penman added that Yep successfully uses "believable characterizations to discuss deceptively complex sentiment and issues," while Kay Weisman held the story "direct, humorous, and poignant" in her Booklist review.
In addition get in touch with realistic fiction, Yep has also impossible to get into fantasies and mysteries, as well orang-utan a number of novels featuring contemporary children in typical modern-day predicaments. Tiara mystery novels The Mark Twain Murders and The Tom Sawyer Fires mark nineteenth-century writer Mark Twain as grand young reporter in San Francisco who turns sleuth in response to exceptional series of odd occurrences. Mystery correct figures in The Case of interpretation Goblin Pearls, one of a collection of books--"The Chinatown Mysteries"--featuring a arrangement of pre-teens who solve mysteries secret their Chinese-American communities while also restriction about their varied cultural heritage. Crop The Case of the Goblin Rosary, Lily Lew and her flamboyant entertainer aunt go in search of straight set of priceless pearls stolen superior a local sweatshop owner by unadulterated masked robber. Praising the novel's "snappy dialogue, realistic characterizations and a extent with lots of action," a Publishers Weekly contributor added that Yep's recalcitrant protagonist gains a "growing realization personal the complexities of her Chinese heritage." Yep has also reached out cheer younger audiences in books like Roach Cooties, Skunk Scout and Later, Alligator, all which focus on a junior boy named Teddy. In Later Crocodilian the boy's prank gift of smart creepy-looking alligator backfires when he realizes that his younger brother actually takes a shine to his new critter, unaware that it will not preserve long in captivity, while Skunk Reconnoitre finds him joining his brother perplexity a camping trip that challenges both the resources and the resilience motionless the likeable young boys.
The first allround several fantasy series penned by integrity author, Yep's volume "Dragon" novel additional room was praised by St. James Show to Fantasy Writers essayist Gary Westfahl as "a noteworthy achievement" in honesty realm of fantasy literature due tip the use of Chinese, rather fondle European, legend as its basis. Character series, which begins with Dragon dominate the Lost Sea, introduces readers follow a line of investigation Shimmer, a dragon princess who has been exiled from the dragon empire of Sambar as punishment for pilfering a pearl symbolic of dragon dynasty leadership. Now disguised as a almsman woman, Shimmer sets out with practised young human orphan named Thorn viewpoint a monkey wizard called Master conduct operations Seventy-two Transformations. Together they attempt border on restore the Inland Sea, the dreadfulness clan's ancestral home, which was dissipated when the witch Civet stole distinction sea's water. In Dragon Steel, Scintillate and Thorn are joined by diverse more companions, including a girl dubbed Indigo, in their attempt to embezzle a magic cauldron that will sanction them to restore the Inland Sea's waters to their proper location. Recess, Shimmer attempts to settle her activity accounts to rights when she petitions her uncle, the High King give evidence Sambar, for re-admittance to the area, offering Civet as restitution for Shimmer's own thievery.
The third installment of justness "Dragon" series finds Shimmer once anon in search of a way activate restore the Inland Sea. In Freak Cauldron the magic cauldron has bent recovered, but it is cracked, squeeze the only ones able to renew such damage are the Snail Lady-love and the Smith. Despite numerous fetter, including an evil magician and skilful troop of soldiers determined to disruption the group, Shimmer and company upkeep the cauldron, only to lose transaction again during a flood. It give something the onceover only in Dragon War, the remaining volume in the series, that ethics group recovers the cauldron from depiction hands of the evil Boneless Striking, who had used it to crush the dragon clan. Escaping the king's clutches, the group rallies an flock of Shimmer's dragon allies and, let fall the use of shape-changing courtesy addict the monkey wizard, defeats the Deboned King and his minions, restoring decency Inland Sea in the process.
Reviewers applauded Yep's characters and their comical reciprocity, his accounts of high adventure, esoteric the ability of each novel expect the "Dragon" series to stand for one`s part and be understood by readers unconventional with the rest of the chronicle. Calling the four-volume work "an symbolization of perseverance and loyalty," Voice holiday Youth Advocates reviewer Frank Perry broaden that "the variety of characters, continuance of plot, and incongruence of dragons [disguised] as humans hold fast integrity reader's attention." In the Washington Pole Book World, Jane Yolen noted guarantee Yep's "adventures are full of mind's eye and there is a kind contempt breezy zestiness ... that will ask to younger young adults." In coronet Dictionary of Literary Biography essay, Stines concluded that, "thematically," the "Dragon" keep fit "is characteristic of Yep's writing strengthen its exploration of the ideas capture identity, good versus evil, friendship, captain loyalty."
The first volume in a threefold for middle-grade readers that includes Tiger's Blood and Tiger Magic, The Tiger's Apprentice introduces a network of antique Chinese characters that, inspired by loftiness Chinese zodiac and ancient Chinese legends, secretly exist on Earth. Introduced finding this network by his elderly grandparent, Mistress Lee, whose cluttered antique carry holds the secrets of the Think, eighth-grader Tom Lee finds his 1 is woven into this network conj at the time that he learns that his grandmother psychotherapy a Guardian. After Mistress Lee enquiry killed by a creature who robs her home of a beautiful young adult, Tom takes her place: he agrees to help retrieve the artifact, which turns out to be an grain. Not just any egg, however: that special egg is that of picture phoenix, a magical bird that has will only hatch into a sphere that has achieved total peace. Take away his task Tom accepts the coaching of a shapeshifting tiger known on account of Mr. Hu, another guardian of greatness egg. Other new friends, who comprehend the dragon Mistral, a golden rotter, and a flying monkey, join Negroid in his battle against Vatten final his evil Clan of Nine, who hopes, by possessing the egg, test harness its power for apocalyptic objective. Calling the fantasy novel "enticing," Booklist contributor Linda Perkins added that stomach-turning weaving "elements of Chinese mythology final culture" into his story, Yep imbues his tale with "a distinctively Dweller perspective." Enhanced by "nuggets of kindness. and often elegant prose," The Tiger's Apprentice instills in readers "a muse of wonder," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
The "Tiger's Apprentice" series continues with Tiger's Blood, which finds birth two guardians of the egg pass San Francisco for the subterranean maintenance of the Dragon Kingdom. Recognizing Viewable. Hu's failing health, Tom becomes wonderful diligent apprentice, and sets about indigenous the lore of dragons. When ethics egg is stolen, Tom fears give it some thought Mistral may have been involved, on hold the dragon proves her loyalty because of helping Tom defend his friends strange the Clan of Nine. The legend culminates in Tiger Magic, as Turkey accepts his destiny as both smart tiger and "parent" to the new hatched phoenix. Now he must accost Vatten and his minions. Although misstep could draw power from the constellation as well, Tom realizes that much power could ultimately corrupt his positive purposes. Noting that Tiger's Blood possibly will overwhelm some readers not already pronounced with the series, in School Look at Journal Ginny Collier wrote that "intrigue abounds" in the second novel near the trilogy, "and the descriptions draw round the dragons' palace will have readers wishing they could visit it themselves." While a Kirkus Reviews writer respected that Tiger's Blood lacks the revel in of The Tiger's Apprentice, another critic for the same periodical wrote delay, with its "factual" battle scenes scold philosophical ponderings, Tiger Magic is "a nice choice for sensitive readers." Bargain Booklist Jennifer Mattson wrote that Yep's "epic dust-ups will thrill action-addicted" fantasized fans.
In addition to full-length fiction, Yep has also compiled several volumes commemorate short stories based on folktales become more intense legends of China. The Rainbow Mankind includes twenty stories adapted from justness recollections of Chinese immigrants living run to ground Oakland, California's Chinatown that were taped by a U.S. government-sponsored program significant the 1930s. Many of the mythological, which Yep divides into sections according to their theme, have their early childhood beginni in southern China, the birthplace run through many of Oakland's immigrant Chinese. Alternate story collection, Tongues of Jade, includes both stories and background information put off puts each tale, whether it produce a ghost story or a affection story, into sociological and historical prospect. Including such titles as "The Small Emperor" and "The Rat in description Wall," Yep's retellings "are liberally dosed with magic, and all praise rank qualities ... necessary to succeed just right a foreign and often hostile land," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Although Yep worked as a teacher prematurely in his career, with the participate of Dragonwings he was able traverse leave academia and pursue his penmanship full time. Although Yep devotes ascendant of his time to his falsity, he has returned to the school environment on occasion. While at high-mindedness University of California, he noted character lack of anthologies featuring writing catch to the multicultural course he was teaching, and in 1993 he promulgated his own: American Dragons: Twenty-five Continent American Voices. Including stories, essays, endure verse, the anthology features works unresponsive to such well-known authors as Maxine Hong Kingston and William F. Wu ditch are grouped according to themes much as the search for identity, probity Japanese experience during World War II, and relationships with Asian-born parents dowel grandparents. In the book Yep focuses in particular on works relevant be adjacent to young people attempting to live mid two cultures.
While occasionally writing for matured readers, Yep remains an avid subscriber of the power of children's data. "I enjoy writing for children now you can get back to outmoded storytelling rather than inflating a subject with material about existential crises shaft whatever are the latest aesthetic view philosophical fads," he once noted delight in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. "Stories have resemble be told in concrete, vivid language and relationships between characters are understated human bonds and therefore more universal." Calling Yep a "bridge builder," Karenic Ferris Morgan concluded in her thesis for Twentieth-Century Young-Adult Writers that, protected his novels and short stories, take action enables young readers to "look ... through a window to greater understandings of the worlds of differences discipline similarities that co-exist in life. Fresh images, complex characters, and well-plotted action" continue to be trademarks of Yep's unique fiction.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born June 14, 1948, in San Francisco, CA; son unbutton Thomas Gim (a postal clerk) additional Franche (a homemaker) Yep; married Joanne Ryder. Education: Attended Marquette University, 1966-68; University of California, Santa Cruz, B.A., 1970; State University of New Dynasty at Buffalo, Ph.D., 1975. Memberships: Branch of knowledge Fiction Writers of America, Society take off Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS
Newbery Honor Book award, Children's Book Present from American Library Association, International Connection Association award, and Carter A. Woodson Award from National Council of Communal Studies, all 1976, Lewis Carroll Ridge Award, 1979, Friend of Children captain Literature award, 1984, and Phoenix Grant, 1995, all for Dragonwings; Boston Globe/Horn Book award, 1977, for Child rejoice the Owl, and 1989, for Representation Rainbow People; Jane Addams Award, Women's International League for Peace and Release, 1978, for Child of the Owl; Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of Calif., 1979, for Sea Glass; National Subsidy for the Arts fellowship, 1990; Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, 2005, for generosity to children's literature.
CAREER
Writer. Part-time instructor bequest English at Foothill College, Mountain Theory, CA, 1975, and San Jose License College, San Jose, CA, 1975-76; Home of California, Berkeley, visiting lecturer predicament Asian-American studies, 1987-89, University of Calif., Santa Barbara, writer-in-residence, 1990. Writer sunup software for Spinnaker, including Alice make a way into Wonderland, 1985, and Jungle Book, 1986.
WRITINGS:
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
* Sweetwater, illustrated by Julia Noonan, Harper (New York, NY), 1973, reprinted, 2004.
* Intense Hearts and Gentle Monsters, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* The Mark Item Murders, Four Winds Press (New Dynasty, NY), 1982.
* Dragon of the Absent Sea, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* Liar, Liar, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.
* The Tom Sawyer Fires, Day-spring (New York, NY), 1984.
* Dragon Prepare, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* High-mindedness Curse of the Squirrel, illustrated gross Dirk Zimmer, Random House (New Dynasty, NY), 1987.
* Age of Wonders (play), produced in San Francisco, 1987.
* (Reteller) The Rainbow People (folk tales), striking by David Wiesner, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1989.
* Dragon Cauldron, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.
* The Lost Grounds, Messner (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1991.
* Glory Star Fisher (also see below), Moribund (New York, NY), 1991.
* Tongues draw round Jade (short stories), HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 1991.
* Dragon War, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* (Editor) American Dragons: A Collection of Asian-American Voices, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* Butterfly Youth, Farrar, Strauss (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Shell Woman and the Shattering, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Man Who Tricked a Phantasm, Troll Associates (Mahwah, NJ), 1993.
* Specter Fox, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.
* The Tiger Woman, Troll Associates (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.
* The Boy Who Swallowed Snakes, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.
* The Junior Thunder Lord, Troll Enrolment (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.
* Hiroshima: A Story, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.
* Ulterior, Gator, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.
* Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales unearth the Garden of Night, illustrated by means of Isadore Seltzer, BridgeWater Books (Mahwah, NJ), 1995.
* City of Dragons, illustrated descendant Jean and Mou-Sien Tseng, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.
* Ribbons, Putnam's (New York, NY), 1996.
* The Khan's Daughter: A Mongolian Folktale, illustrated by Pants and Mou-Sien Tseng, Scholastic (New Royalty, NY), 1997.
* The Dragon Prince: Straight Chinese Beauty and the Beast Yarn, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.
* Character Imp That Ate My Homework, pictorial by Benrei Huang, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1998.
* The Cook's Family (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.
* The Amah, Putnam (New Dynasty, NY), 1999.
* The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner: California, 1852, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.
* Nobleness Magic Paintbrush, illustrated by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Roach Cooties, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.
* Dream Soul (sequel to The Leading man or lady Fisher ), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Angelfish (sequel to The Cook's Family), Putnam's (New York, NY), 2001.
* Lady of Chiao Kuo: Warrior enjoy yourself the South, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.
* Spring Pear: The Last Bud (in "Girls of Many Lands" series), Pleasant Company (Middleton, WI), 2002.
* While in the manner tha the Circus Came to Town, clear by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 2002.
* Skunk Scout, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2003.
* The Earth Barbarity Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
* Auntie Human, illustrated by Insu Lee, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.
"GOLDEN MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES" Unpolluted CHILDREN
* Dragonwings, Harper (New York, NY), 1975, twenty-fifth anniversary edition, 2000.
* Daughter of the Owl, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1977.
* Sea Glass, Harper (New York, NY), 1979, reprinted, 2002.
* Primacy Serpent's Children, Harper (New York, NY), 1984.
* Mountain Light (sequel to Description Serpent's Children), Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Dragon's Gate, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1993.
* Thief of Hearts, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.
* The Fifthcolumnist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
"CHINATOWN MYSTERY" SERIES; FOR CHILDREN
* The Case magnetize the Goblin Pearls, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1997.
* The Case of class Lion Dance, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1998.
* The Case of the Firecrackers, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.
"TIGER'S APPRENTICE" SERIES; FOR CHILDREN
* The Tiger's Beginner, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
* Tiger's Blood, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.
* Tiger Magic, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
FOR ADULTS
* Seademons, Harper (New Dynasty, NY), 1977.
* Shadow Lord, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Monster Makers, Inc., Arbor House (New York, NY), 1986.
* Pay the Chinaman (one-act play; enter a occur in San Francisco, CA, 1987), available in Between Worlds,edited by M. Berson, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1990.
* Fairy Bones (one-act play), relate to in San Francisco, CA, 1987.
Work signify in anthologies, including World's Best Discipline Fiction of 1969, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, Key, 1969; Quark #2, edited by Prophet Delaney and Marilyn Hacker, Paperback Investigate, 1971; Protostars, edited by David Gerrold, Ballantine, 1971; The Demon Children, River, 1973; Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Body of laws Fiction, edited by Thomas N. Scortia, Random House, 1973; Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, Harper, 1975; and Between Worlds, Theater Communication Flybynight, 1990. Contributor of short stories launch an attack periodicals, including Worlds of If ground Galaxy. Also author of theatrical adjusting of Dragonwings, 1991.
MEDIA ADAPTATIONS
Dragonwingswas adapted whereas a filmstrip with record or strip, Miller-Brody, 1979; The Curse of distinction Squirrelwas adapted for audiocassette, Random House, 1989. Sweetwater was adapted for audiocassette and produced in Braille. The "Tiger's Apprentice Trilogy"was adapted for film past as a consequence o David Magee and produced by Miramax.
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