Lunar New Year 2022

Celebrating Lunar New Year 2022!

What’s New in the Year of the Tiger?

Ellen Oh’s newest novel:

Find­ing Junie Kim has been recognized:

  • Asian/Pacific Amer­i­can Award for Lit­er­a­ture Hon­or Book
  • NPR’s 2021 Books We Love List
  • 2021 Nerdie Award Winner

Paula Yoo sends this news:

From a Whis­per to a Ral­ly­ing Cry: The Killing of Vin­cent Chin and the Tri­al that Gal­va­nized the Asian Amer­i­can Move­ment  was rec­og­nized with a YALSA Excel­lence in Non­fic­tion Hon­or 2022.

Paula Yoo’s new work of YA non­fic­tion will explore a sem­i­nal moment in Kore­an Amer­i­can his­to­ry, Sa I Gu, the 1992 Los Ange­les civ­il unrest move­ment. Ris­ing from the Ash­es: How the 1992 Los Ange­les Upris­ing Bridged Two Com­mu­ni­ties will focus on the destruc­tion and rebirth of L.A.’s his­toric Kore­atown, tak­ing an in-depth look at the rela­tion­ship between the Kore­an Amer­i­can and Black com­mu­ni­ties dur­ing these events and since. Pub­li­ca­tion is slat­ed for fall 2023 from Nor­ton Young Read­ers (W.W. Nor­ton & Co.). Learn more.

Pho­to at left, cred­it Hyung­won Kang: Decem­ber 2021: Paula Yoo vis­it­ed West­ern Avenue in L.A.’s Kore­atown, where many stores had burned to the ground in 1992. Almost 30 years lat­er, trendy fash­ion bou­tiques, boba cof­fee­hous­es and Kore­an pop cul­ture street art like “Squid Game” have risen from those ash­es, as well as the birth of a new sol­i­dar­i­ty move­ment between the Kore­an Amer­i­can and Black communities.

Year of the Tiger

Angela Ahn shares:

Com­ing August 30, 2022, a new MG nov­el, Dou­ble O Stephen and the Ghost­ly Realm (hope to have a cov­er to share with you soon).

Peter Lee’s Notes from the Field earned a nom­i­na­tion for the Gov­er­nor General’s Lit­er­ary Award in Young People’s Lit­er­a­ture (a big Cana­di­an award!). Look for the audio book in Jan­u­ary 2022 and the paper­back in April 2022.

Krista Kim-Bap will have an audio book in 2022.

A new poetry collection from Janet Wong:

2022 NCTE Poet­ry Notable

Wong’s orig­i­nal col­lec­tion was the first book of Asian Amer­i­can children’s poems to explore issues of race, cul­ture, and identity.

In these 50 new pages of mem­oir, mus­ings, social stud­ies con­nec­tions, and writ­ing prompts, Janet Wong offers a fresh look at these top­ics and invites young read­ers to dive more deeply into the text.

Kat Cho says:

Once Upon a K‑Prom releas­es May 17, 2022.

What would you do if the world’s biggest K‑pop star asked you to prom? Per­fect for fans of Jen­ny Han and Sand­hya Menon, this hilar­i­ous and heart­felt nov­el brings the glam­our and dra­ma of the K‑pop world straight to high school.

Erin Yun’s Pippa Park has a companion:

A com­pan­ion jour­nal to Pip­pa Park Rais­es Her Game full of quizzes, lis­ti­cles, and writ­ing prompts, that help tweens cre­ate a time cap­sule of their lives.

Sarah Jung invites you to read:

… this pic­ture book writ­ten by Fran­cie Dekker and illus­trat­ed by Sarah Jung, Our World of Dumplings cel­e­brates how food brings peo­ple and cul­tures togeth­er! On sale on Sep­tem­ber 6th, 2022!

ll Sung Na shares:

Big Bear Lit­tle Fish will be out on Sep­tem­ber 6, 2022. Sto­ry by San­dra Nick­el and illus­trat­ed by me.

Also, I am one of 78 win­ners Bologna Chil­dren’s Book Fair Illus­tra­tors Exhi­bi­tion this year. 

We welcome Grace Shim with her news:

The Noh Fam­i­ly will be released on May 22, 2022. It’s a con­tem­po­rary young adult nov­el, about which Kirkus Reviews wrote, “An enjoy­able, pacy fam­i­ly drama.”

The news from Anna Kang?

This is (Not) Enough will be pub­lished on March 1, 2022, the sixth book in the You Are (Not) Small series.

Jane Park has news!

Chelsea Clin­ton will be read­ing Juna’s Jar for Read Across Amer­i­ca Day on March 2.  Enjoy the read­ing!

Two new books this year:

Hid­den Ani­mal Col­ors, writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Jane Park, will be avail­able March 1, 2022 from Mill­brook Press

Juna and Appa, illus­trat­ed by Feli­cia Hoshi­no, pub­lished by Lee & Low Books, May 1, 2022

From Hyewon Yum:

I have three books com­ing out this year:

Lion Needs a Shot, which I wrote and illus­trat­ed, will be released on May 17, 2022 (Abrams).

Look for Luli and the Lan­guage of Tea, writ­ten by Andrea Wang. It is sched­uled for pub­li­ca­tion on May 17, 2022 (Neal Porter Books).

Some­times I Grum­b­lesquinch, writ­ten by Rachel Vail, is due out July 19, 2022 (Orchard Books).

Chris Soentpiet invites you:

Attached is a pho­to of me hold­ing my book The Last Drag­on cel­e­brat­ing Lunar New Year.  I’ll be upload­ing a Lunar New Year video to tie in with this hol­i­day on Feb­ru­ary 1, 2022. You can watch it on YouTube.

Year of the Tiger

Hanna Cha is busy:

Cir­cle Round, writ­ten by Anne Sib­ley O’Brien, was pub­lished by Charles­bridge in Octo­ber, 2021.

I’m cur­rent­ly work­ing on the illus­tra­tions for a book by Julie Leung called The Truth About Drag­ons, which will be avail­able in late 2023.

What are we looking forward to from Aram Kim?

The paper­back edi­tion of Let’s Go to Taek­won­do! comes out on April 5, 2022.

From Jiyeon Pak:

My new pic­ture book just came out in Korea. It’s called Mamaloo­bie. It’s a sto­ry about an extrater­res­tri­al life who takes care of stars.

Sarah Suk shares:

Made in Korea paper­back releas­es May 24, 2022.

“Details about con­tem­po­rary Kore­an Amer­i­can life and cul­ture ring true… An engag­ing, fast-paced romance between two teens long­ing for accep­tance.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Good news from Linda Sue Park:

Hon­ors for The One Thing You’d Save:

  • ALA Notable
  • Kirkus Best Books
  • Horn Book Fanfare
  • NPR Books We Love
  • Texas Blue­bon­net mas­ter list 2022–2023
  • Nerdy Award for Poet­ry & Verse
  • Illus­tra­tions by Robert Sae-Heng cho­sen for the Soci­ety of Illus­tra­tors Orig­i­nal Art Show Exhibit

From Soma Han:

Many thanks to Natal­ie Paulie, pro­pri­etor of the chil­dren’s web­site Card­board Mom, for her enthu­si­as­tic dou­ble review of my last two books, Maya and the Tur­tle: A Kore­an Fairy Tale (Tut­tle) and Land of Morn­ing Calm: Kore­an Cul­ture Then and Now (Shen’s). Vis­it Card­board Mom.

The image? One of Soma’s famous tigers, Avatara.

June Jo Lee and Readers to Eaters bring us:

In May, look for San­dor Katz and the Tiny Wild, a pic­ture book biog­ra­phy about San­dor Ellix Katz, the “fer­men­ta­tion revival­ist,”  on his jour­ney of trans­for­ma­tion and how fer­men­ta­tion con­nects all, ALL of us on plan­et Earth. June Jo Lee and Jacque­line Brig­gs Mar­tin are the co-authors and Julie Wil­son is the illus­tra­tor. Book 4 in our Food Heroes series.

Suzanne Park’s newest:

  • An NPR Best Book of the Year
  • A Pop­Sug­ar Best Book of June!
  • Nom­i­nat­ed to the 2022 YALSA Quick Picks for Young Adult Reluc­tant Read­ers list

Kore­an Amer­i­can social media influ­encer Sun­ny is shipped off to a dig­i­tal detox camp in this hilar­i­ous, charm­ing roman­tic com­e­dy. Per­fect for fans of laugh-out-loud com­ing-of-age stories.

“An absolute joy to read. I com­plete­ly demol­ished it one sitting.”—NPR.org

Ann Yu-Kyung Choi shares:

My new children’s book fea­tures a love­ly tiger illus­trat­ed by Kore­an-Cana­di­an artist Soyeon Kim. Once Upon an Hour was pub­lished by Orca Books in 2020. Enjoy this bed­time tale about the 12 ani­mals of the Kore­an zodiac.

An author-illustrator, Dan-ah Kim is new to kiBooka:

Praise for The Grand­mas­ter’s Daugh­ter:

“Young Sun­ny, already an accom­plished black belt, prac­tices taek­won­do at a school of mar­tial arts. … She leads a taek­won­do class filled with stu­dents diverse in race and abil­i­ties. … Kim’s bright palette and ener­getic car­toon art­work … bring depth to each page. … A light­heart­ed tale of respon­si­bil­i­ty with plen­ty of fun.” (Kirkus Reviews)

A new book from Rebecca Kim Wells:

Bri­ar Girls is an anthem for queer female self-dis­cov­ery in fan­ta­sy form. Lena har­ness­es her inner strength and intel­lec­tu­al prowess to escape vic­tim­hood and gain her agency.” (Shelf Aware­ness)

Year of the Tiger

From Dana Wulfekotte:

A favorite stuffed ani­mal can’t be too loved … or can it? Toy Sto­ry meets Knuf­fle Bun­ny in this pic­ture book explor­ing the endur­ing bond between a child and her beloved stuffed pen­guin. A must-have for fans of Strict­ly No Ele­phants and Bear Is a Bear.

Graci Kim sends these updates:

forth­com­ing releases

The Last Fall­en Star (Gift­ed Clans tril­o­gy, book 1) paper­back releas­es May 3, 2022 

The Last Fall­en Moon (Gift­ed Clans tril­o­gy, book 2) hard­cov­er releas­es June 7, 2022

awards, hon­ors, oth­er good news

The Last Fall­en Star was a 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards Nom­i­nee for “Best Mid­dle Grade & Chil­dren’s Book” 

The Cursed Car­ni­val and Oth­er Calami­ties anthol­o­gy debuted at #3 on the New York Times best­seller list 

what I’m work­ing on now

The Last Fall­en Realm (the final book in the Gift­ed Clans tril­o­gy) releas­es in 2023!

Julie Lee shares:

I have a com­pan­ion nov­el to Broth­er’s Keep­er com­ing out in 2022 by Hol­i­day House.

The Tai­wanese trans­la­tion edi­tion of Broth­er’s Keep­er (pic­tured at left) is cur­rent­ly out, and Turk­ish and South Kore­an edi­tions are on the way.

I will also be a par­tic­i­pat­ing author at the Young Read­ers Fes­ti­val by the Hong Kong Inter­na­tion­al Lit­er­ary Fes­ti­val in March 2022.

Three new books in 2022 from Jaime Kim:

First up, Ready for the Spot­light, which I wrote and illus­trat­ed, was pub­lished on Jan­u­ary 25, 2022.

Mom­my’s Home­town, writ­ten by Hope Lim, will be released on April 12, 2022.

You’ll find Night on the Sand, by Mon­i­ca Mayper, on book­shelves August 16, 2022.

From Helena Ku Rhee:

Based loose­ly on the author’s child­hood, Rosa’s Song (Ran­dom House Stu­dio, June 7, 2022) is a sto­ry is about an intense friend­ship between two kids from com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent back­grounds. The sto­ry also fea­tures a charm­ing par­rot named Pollito.

Takami Nieda

Takami Nieda, translator, says:

Read “A Trans­la­tor’s Note about Trans­lat­ing The Col­or of the Sky is the Shape of the Heart (Soho Press, April 22, 2022).”

This book, now in trans­la­tion for the first time (Taka­mi Nie­da, trans­la­tor), the award-win­ning debut by Chesil that broke lit­er­ary ground in Japan explores dias­po­ra, prej­u­dice, and the com­plex­i­ties of a teen girl’s expe­ri­ence grow­ing up as a Zainichi Kore­an, rem­i­nis­cent of Min Jin Lee’s clas­sic Pachinko and San­dra Cisneros’s The House on Man­go Street.

A new book from Lyla Lee:

Flip the Script. In this sim­mer­ing, joy­ous YA nov­el, author Lyla Lee deliv­ers a ten­der romance set between two brave teens who decide that when the script isn’t work­ing, it’s time to rewrite it themselves.

avail­able May 31, 2022 (Kather­ine Tegen Books)

Year of the Tiger

Junghwa Park has a new book out June 22, 2022:

I do have a new book, 12 Days of Kind­ness, com­ing out in June 2022. It is writ­ten by Irene Lath­am and will be pub­lished by Putnam.

And I am work­ing on a new book, Big Girl Eats Tteokguk, as an author and illus­tra­tor. It will be pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown in win­ter 2024. The sto­ry is based on the Kore­an Lunar New Year and Tteokguk tradition. 

From Joowon Oh:

Look for the paper­back edi­tion of Our Favorite Day, avail­able from Can­dlewick Press in August 2022.

David Yoon writes:

I have a book called City of Orange com­ing out May 24, 2022. 

From the pub­lish­er: This imag­i­na­tive and affect­ing new nov­el is beloved, best­selling, and award-win­ning author David Yoon at his finest: thought-pro­vok­ing and heart-pierc­ing, by turns fun­ny and chal­leng­ing, and at all times deeply human.

A man who can­not remem­ber his own name wakes up in an apoc­a­lyp­tic land­scape, injured and alone. He has vague mem­o­ries of life before, but he can’t see it clear­ly and can’t grasp how his cur­rent sit­u­a­tion came to be. He must learn to sur­vive by find­ing sources of water and for­ag­ing for food. Then he encoun­ters a boy—and he real­izes noth­ing is what he thought it was, nei­ther the past nor the present.