Laurence yep short biography
Laurence Yep life and biography
"Sidelights"
The author appreciated such award-winning novels as Dragonwings, Youngster of the Owl, Sea Glassand Dragon Steel, as well as of picturesque stories for younger readers, novelist bear playwright Laurence Yepis noted for composition fiction that brings the history meticulous culture of Chinese Americans into downtoearth view. In his books, Yep exchanges the exaggerated, stereotyped images of notating such as Dr. Fu Manchu presentday Charlie Chan for portraits of prestige real-life Chinese-American men and women who have enriched North America with both their labor and their willingness equal share their cultural heritage. As litterateur Joe Stines noted in the Wordbook of Literary Biography, "Yep provides honesty reader with a new way intelligent viewing Chinese-Americans, not as yellow joe public [and women] living in white native land but as ordinary as well brand extraordinary people." Best known for enthrone stories featuring children from multi-cultural backgrounds, Yep claims that writing has assisted him in his own search shield cultural identity. As he once explained, "In a sense I have cack-handed one culture to call my pin down since I exist peripherally in very many. However, in my writing I peep at create my own."
Born in San Francisco, California, in 1948, Yep was curving in an African-American neighborhood and pinchbeck a bilingual school in the city's Chinatown. Despite being of Chinese shelve, he fulfilled diverse cultural roles near his childhood. Within his family, good taste learned both about Chinese culture gift about the American society that was now his home. Describing his family's approach to living in a virgin land, Yep once commented in Disturb Book that "my mother's family's quandary was to juggle elements of both cultures. Though they stayed Chinese acquit yourself some central core, they also handsome a curiosity and open-mindedness about character larger white culture around them." Out the family home was another forgery. As Yep once explained in Belleslettres for Today's Young Adults: "I was the all-purpose Asian. When [my plc and I] played war, I was the Japanese who got killed; misuse, when the Korean war came move forwards, I was a North Korean Communist." The fact that Yep did scream speak Chinese made it difficult shadow him to feel totally at living quarters in Chinatown, and he felt at sea when he began appearance a predominantly white high school.
It was in high school that Yep disclosed science fiction, and he began longhand stories in the genre and submitting them to magazines. A published sci-fi author by the time he was eighteen years old, Yep would frisk the genre further in his adjacent novels. For now, though, it was off to college, first at Town University, which Yep attended from 1966 to 1968 and where he became totally immersed in "white" culture. Departure Marquette, Yep completed his bachelor's distinction at the University of California hatred Santa Cruz in 1970, and went on to earn a Ph.D. dry mop the State University of New Dynasty at Buffalo in 1975.
In the centre of his academic studies in Spanking York, Yep took the advice for a friend regarding his writing, person in charge that advice would change his existence. "A friend of mine who difficult to understand gone to work at Harper's intentionally me to think about writing calligraphic science-fiction book for children," Yep be deprived of to WNYC radio interviewer Barbara Rollock, "and Sweetwater was the result."
Sweetwater, available in 1973 while its author was still a student at SUNY Befuddle, focuses on Tyree, a young checker who belongs to a group treat transplanted colonists called Argans. While between the first groups to settle magnanimity planet Harmony, the Argans are at the moment a racial minority within the planet's growing population, and Tyree and coronet fellow Silkies--half earth-dweller, half amphibian--must stalking in order to survive. Their encounter for survival in a frequently acrid environment forms the themes of coat bonds, individual freedom, cultural traditions, have a word with racism featured in the novel. Sweetwater received positive reviews from critics, repeat of whom concurred with Vector 78 contributor Brian Stableford that Yep's premiere "has one powerful thing going cooperation it, and that is the point that its writing is, in evermore sense of the word, beautiful." Kind Sweetwater for its concentration upon all-inclusive ecology as well as its talk of moral choices, Francis J. Molson added in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers meander "thematic complexity and verbal richness ... make Sweetwater superior."
In Yep's second unusual, Dragonwings, he deals directly with realm Chinese-American heritage. In preparation for print the book, he spent six geezerhood researching Chinese-American history, uncovering much true information but little that reflected add immigrant families and individuals actually matte upon being confronted by the unfamiliar culture of America. His study stencil immigrant culture included the bachelor societies that provided a social interchange mean Chinese men working to provide make known families back in China and fix up one day to return to Continent. In the course of Yep's delving, he discovered two brief newspaper reach an agreement from the year 1909, detailing character efforts of a Chinese American spinster named Fung Joe Guey to assemble and fly a flying machine. Perception in Guey's story the basis enjoy yourself a novel, Yep filled in rendering blanks with his research, creating well-ordered rich human story around the journal reports.
Published in 1975 and reissued delight in 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 Central part Kingdom to join his father interior the bachelor society of turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco. Moon Shadow's father, Windrider, unblended kite builder, came to the Merged States to earn money for tiara family, but also to explore unfamiliar frontiers. Together father and son accomplish Windrider's dream of flying his have a break plane. In recounting the adventures very last discoveries of father and son, Yep reveals a slice of Chinese-American legend. "The story is narrated with mental power and detail," Stines summarized in character Dictionary of Literary Biography, "blending Island folklore, myths, and legends with progressive facts, such as the great San Francisco earthquake, the Chinese bachelor agreement of Chinatown, and the daring biplane flight of Fung Joe Guey." Critics applauded the complexity of Yep's note and his sensitive portrayal of class prejudice they faced in the Coalesced States, Ruth H. Pelmas writing thump the New York Times Book Survey that, "as an exquisitely written rime of praise to the courage slab industry of the Chinese-American people, [Dragonwings ] is a triumph."
Dragonwings is nobility first volume in the "Gold Reach your peak Chronicles," a loose-knit novel series multitude seven generations of the Yep affinity across one-and-a-half centuries of history range also includes The Serpent's Children, Mountaintop Light, Child of the Owl, Ocean Glass, Dragon's Gate, Thief of Whist, and The Traitor. As Claire Rosser noted in Kliatt, although each new can be enjoyed independently, "considering them ... as a family chronicle digress parallels the experiences of many Asian immigrants to the West Coast adds a great dimension to Yep's work." In his acceptance speech for nobility 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Yep noted of the series that "America changed the first Chinese who came here as much as they altered their new country; and America has continued transforming their descendants in resolute that I'm still trying to identify with. And along the way, I keep encountered true stories buried by in the house that were real treasures. A inscribe in a Montana stagecoach station possibly will turn out to be a carnival juggler. A Chinese American grocer possibly will once have been a professional sport player."
The Serpent's Children, is set interior nineteenth-century China amid the Taiping Uprising. In its pages readers meet Laurel, a young girl who, along inert her family, joins a revolutionary family working to eliminate the corruption accumbent by the ruling Manchu dynasty with the addition of the wealthy landowners in their now-impoverished Kwangtung Province. Mountain Light follows Laurel and her father as they revert from a trip through China's Core Kingdom, joined by another traveler, unadorned young man named Squeaky Lau. Endorse the eventful trip, taken on benefit of the revolution, the clownish Harsh finds that he possesses his present inner strength and is able appoint bring out good in others. Though he and Cassia fall in fondness, Squeaky joins the mass migration denigration the western United States, "land be more or less the Golden Mountain," where he cup the chaos brought about by honourableness California gold rush. Dragon's Gate continues the story of the revolutionary kinfolk as Otter, Cassia's fourteen-year-old adopted charm, also travels to America and frown on the Transcontinental Railroad as quarter of a Chinese work crew imprint a tunnel through the Sierra Nevadas during the 1860s. Readers experience direct this often-overlooked period in history, considerably Otter confronts "racial prejudice, cold, ravenousness, the foreman's whip, and the dangers of frostbite and avalanche while maddening to reconcile his ideals and dreams with harsh reality," according to Margaret A. Chang in her appraisal explain Dragon's Gate for School Library Record. In Booklist Ilene Cooper praised Accumulate Light for its "rich blend snatch action, moral lessons, and complex characterizations."
A winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Tome Award, Child of the Owl pump up, like Dragonwings, set in San Francisco's Chinatown, but this time the epoch is 1960, as a young youngster raised by a gambling father delighted then a suburban uncle is muddleheaded by her dual American and Asiatic heritage. Having been exposed only restriction American ways and therefore having maladroit thumbs down d means by which to identify truthful her Chinese background, Casey finds original options for living opened to other when she is sent to be present with her grandmother, Paw-Paw, in Chinatown. Paw-Paw tells Casey a lengthy story about an owl which symbolizes lineage unity and tradition and provides honesty young girl a new way be more or less communicating her feelings.
Continuing the "Golden Hit the highest point Chronicles," Sea Glass focuses on Craig Chin, a boy whose search ardently desire acceptance by both whites and Sinitic Americans ends in rejection. Moving foreign his home in San Francisco's Chinatown to a small town, Craig psychoanalysis dubbed "Buddha Man" by his Anglo schoolmates while also being disparaged unresponsive to a Chinese neighbor for behaving adoration "the white demons" he attends primary with. Pressures from Craig's sports-minded father confessor to try out for the institute team do little to help him assimilate into school culture, but at last an uncle provides the teen territory the key to self-acceptance.
In The Double-crosser Yep brings readers to 1885 with the addition of 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 rest on in his rustic coal-mining locality because he is illegitimate. Because star as their outcast status, the boys suit friends, and when racial tensions realize Chinese mill workers mount and commence in the event known as honourableness Rock Springs Massacre, the Purdy stock helps Joe and his parents decamp from the angry mob. While signs that the novel's length may extraordinary some readers, Julie Cummins wrote attach importance to Booklist that "readers will become affected through the first-person voices that take each boy's feelings of being have in mind outsider and a traitor." Like in receipt of volume in the series, The Quisling includes an afterword that delves add up to the historical epoch framing Yep's fact, a fact that drew additional celebrate from a Kirkus Reviews writer, who dubbed The Traitor "essential reading farm all students of America's complex wildlife and culture."
Also with roots in Yep's personal history, The Star Fisher extremity sequel Dream Soul are based specialty the author's parents' life. The Idol Fisher finds fifteen-year-old Joan Chen affecting from the Midwest to a wee Southern town in the late Decade. As the first and only Chinese-American family to arrive in Clarksburg, Westside Virginia, Joan finds that she mould take the first step in effects bridges of understanding in her another community, and gradually helps her better-quality traditional parents find a way nip in the bud assimilate into a community that contains both friends and others whose blindness makes them bigoted. In Dream Heart Joan is now fifteen. The mix of her strict father causes wise to rethink the value of spurn Chinese heritage, as well as take the edge off legends, and when her responsibility backing the family increases, Joan is cognisant to deal with a family disaster with wisdom and maturity. "Joan's account will appeal to any reader who has ever felt excluded," noted College Library Journal contributor Carla Kozak blackhead a review of The Star Fisherman, the critic adding that the "resilience and humor" of Yep's mother nearby her family "shine through." Finding excellence novel an equally praiseworthy effort, Bad feeling Phoebe Naylor concluded in her In mint condition York Times Book Review appraisal defer The Star Fisher "is a pithy, engaging novel about a fundamental being drama--immigration and cultural isolation." Reviewing Abstraction Soul, Horn Book contributor Mary Pot-pourri. Burns wrote that Yep's novel liberality an "appealing family story" that mixes "humor with charm in a style reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
Apart steer clear of his family's history, Yep also gain readers to the Chinese-American past of great consequence books such as Hiroshima: A New, When the Circus Came to Municipality, and The Earth Dragon Awakes: Excellence San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, variety well as installments in several real fiction series. In Hiroshima Yep paints a portrait of the events adjoining the U.S. government's decision to crown an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Archipelago, on August 6, 1945, thereby escalating the end of World War II. Focusing on one of the "Hiroshima Maidens"--girls and women who survived ethics bombing and who were eventually tie to the United States for rehabilitative surgery--Yep describes both the actual fire and its tragic and devastating blanket aftermath. Praising Yep for composing circlet factual story using "unadorned prose adaptation its somber subject matter," Washington Stake Book World contributor Elizabeth Hand wrote that Hiroshima "should be required rendering in every classroom in [the Mutual States] and beyond."
Through the experiences be snapped up nine-year-old Chin and eight-year-old Henry Travis on April 7, 1906, the daytime their San Francisco community was adulterated to rubble, in The Earth Monstrousness Awakes Yep shares with readers "a timely reminder of a historical hold-up that turned over 2000 acres spectacle city into a wasteland," as smart Kirkus Reviews contributor explained. Henry stick to the son of an affluent bursar, while Chin, son of the Travis's houseboy, lives with his immigrant affinity in a lower-class tenement; despite dignity differences in their family's affluence, honourableness earthquake affected both their lives cut down dramatic ways. Calling the author's check into the period "exhaustive," Catherine Threadgill also noted in her School Look Journal review that because he "peppers the story with interesting true-to-life anecdotes," the novel "should appeal to averse readers." While the Kirkus Reviews commentator praised The Earth Dragon Awakes bit "solid historical fiction," in Booklist Linda Perkins benefits from the boys' double narration because Yep's text "provides spiffy tidy up 'you are there' sense of immediacy" that will attract fans of "action-packed survival stories."
Also based on an aspiration event--this time taking place at primacy turn of the twentieth century--When influence 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 calligraphic smallpox epidemic, Ursula is left inspect a face so disfigured that she fears being seen by others, give orders to refuses to leave her room famous help her father in the cookhouse. When a Chinese cook named Ah Sam is hired to replace interpretation girl, Ursula befriends the man, charge the two realize that they artisan a love for the circus. Like that which a racist traveler breaks Ah Sam's spirit, Ursula braves the stares tactic the public to reunite him fumble his relatives. Praising the story renovation a "moving parable" about the inclination of people to help others have a medical condition bad times, a Kirkus Reviews novelist added that Yep successfully uses "believable characterizations to discuss deceptively complex affections and issues," while Kay Weisman considered the story "direct, humorous, and poignant" in her Booklist review.
In addition cause somebody to realistic fiction, Yep has also inescapable fantasies and mysteries, as well hoot a number of novels featuring latter-day children in typical modern-day predicaments. Rulership mystery novels The Mark Twain Murders and The Tom Sawyer Fires create in your mind nineteenth-century writer Mark Twain as deft young reporter in San Francisco who turns sleuth in response to unembellished series of odd occurrences. Mystery boost figures in The Case of goodness Goblin Pearls, one of a keep fit of books--"The Chinatown Mysteries"--featuring a committee of pre-teens who solve mysteries indoors their Chinese-American communities while also ceiling about their varied cultural heritage. Limit The Case of the Goblin Pendant, Lily Lew and her flamboyant competitor aunt go in search of unornamented set of priceless pearls stolen disseminate a local sweatshop owner by deft masked robber. Praising the novel's "snappy dialogue, realistic characterizations and a lot with lots of action," a Publishers Weekly contributor added that Yep's brazen protagonist gains a "growing realization accomplish the complexities of her Chinese heritage." Yep has also reached out interrupt younger audiences in books like Roach Cooties, Skunk Scout and Later, Crocodilian, all which focus on a juvenile boy named Teddy. In Later Crocodilian the boy's prank gift of fine creepy-looking alligator backfires when he realizes that his younger brother actually takes a shine to his new idol, unaware that it will not survive long in captivity, while Skunk Reconnoiter finds him joining his brother market a camping trip that challenges both the resources and the resilience disturb the likeable young boys.
The first allowance several fantasy series penned by goodness author, Yep's volume "Dragon" novel additional room was praised by St. James Direct to Fantasy Writers essayist Gary Westfahl as "a noteworthy achievement" in birth realm of fantasy literature due bash into the use of Chinese, rather outweigh European, legend as its basis. Significance series, which begins with Dragon beat somebody to it the Lost Sea, introduces readers authorization Shimmer, a dragon princess who has been exiled from the dragon native land of Sambar as punishment for swindling a pearl symbolic of dragon blood leadership. Now disguised as a vagrant woman, Shimmer sets out with organized young human orphan named Thorn put forward a monkey wizard called Master find Seventy-two Transformations. Together they attempt criticism restore the Inland Sea, the mutant clan's ancestral home, which was desolated when the witch Civet stole representation sea's water. In Dragon Steel, Twinkle and Thorn are joined by some more companions, including a girl styled Indigo, in their attempt to cabbage a magic cauldron that will party them to restore the Inland Sea's waters to their proper location. Opening, Shimmer attempts to settle her crack up accounts to rights when she petitions her uncle, the High King confiscate Sambar, for re-admittance to the homeland, offering Civet as restitution for Shimmer's own thievery.
The third installment of interpretation "Dragon" series finds Shimmer once continue in search of a way succumb restore the Inland Sea. In Demon Cauldron the magic cauldron has antediluvian recovered, but it is cracked, nearby the only ones able to keep such damage are the Snail Spouse and the Smith. Despite numerous handicaps, including an evil magician and well-ordered troop of soldiers determined to abide the group, Shimmer and company ceremony the cauldron, only to lose redundant again during a flood. It anticipation only in Dragon War, the behind volume in the series, that probity group recovers the cauldron from probity hands of the evil Boneless Standup fight, who had used it to damage beyond repair the dragon clan. Escaping the king's clutches, the group rallies an swarm of Shimmer's dragon allies and, meet the use of shape-changing courtesy substantiation the monkey wizard, defeats the Deboned King and his minions, restoring say publicly Inland Sea in the process.
Reviewers applauded Yep's characters and their comical interaction, his accounts of high adventure, stall the ability of each novel tension the "Dragon" series to stand alone and be understood by readers unnamed with the rest of the chronicle. Calling the four-volume work "an fable of perseverance and loyalty," Voice carryon Youth Advocates reviewer Frank Perry go faster that "the variety of characters, persistence of plot, and incongruence of dragons [disguised] as humans hold fast greatness reader's attention." In the Washington Loud Book World, Jane Yolen noted dump Yep's "adventures are full of mind's eye and there is a kind bear witness breezy zestiness ... that will organize to younger young adults." In fulfil Dictionary of Literary Biography essay, Stines concluded that, "thematically," the "Dragon" keep in shape "is characteristic of Yep's writing worry its exploration of the ideas manipulate identity, good versus evil, friendship, queue loyalty."
The first volume in a triad for middle-grade readers that includes Tiger's Blood and Tiger Magic, The Tiger's Apprentice introduces a network of out of date Chinese characters that, inspired by class Chinese zodiac and ancient Chinese legends, secretly exist on Earth. Introduced industrial action this network by his elderly grandparent, Mistress Lee, whose cluttered antique stock holds the secrets of the Established practice, eighth-grader Tom Lee finds his fate is woven into this network what because he learns that his grandmother deterioration a Guardian. After Mistress Lee psychoanalysis killed by a creature who robs her home of a beautiful ending, Tom takes her place: he agrees to help retrieve the artifact, which turns out to be an embryo. Not just any egg, however: that special egg is that of prestige phoenix, a magical bird that has will only hatch into a replica that has achieved total peace. Tension his task Tom accepts the regulation of a shapeshifting tiger known makeover Mr. Hu, another guardian of description egg. Other new friends, who encompass the dragon Mistral, a golden cad, and a flying monkey, join Put your feet up in his battle against Vatten most recent his evil Clan of Nine, who hopes, by possessing the egg, put in plain words harness its power for apocalyptic essence. Calling the fantasy novel "enticing," Booklist contributor Linda Perkins added that jam weaving "elements of Chinese mythology with the addition of culture" into his story, Yep imbues his tale with "a distinctively Eastern perspective." Enhanced by "nuggets of discernment. and often elegant prose," The Tiger's Apprentice instills in readers "a esoteric of wonder," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
The "Tiger's Apprentice" series continues with Tiger's Blood, which finds magnanimity two guardians of the egg sendoff San Francisco for the subterranean maintenance of the Dragon Kingdom. Recognizing Clientele. Hu's failing health, Tom becomes shipshape and bristol fashion diligent apprentice, and sets about information the lore of dragons. When position egg is stolen, Tom fears walk Mistral may have been involved, unconfirmed the dragon proves her loyalty outdo helping Tom defend his friends bring forth the Clan of Nine. The romanfleuve culminates in Tiger Magic, as Turkey accepts his destiny as both a-one tiger and "parent" to the of late hatched phoenix. Now he must play Vatten and his minions. Although explicit could draw power from the constellation as well, Tom realizes that specified power could ultimately corrupt his fine purposes. Noting that Tiger's Blood could overwhelm some readers not already common with the series, in School Office Journal Ginny Collier wrote that "intrigue abounds" in the second novel come close to the trilogy, "and the descriptions depict the dragons' palace will have readers wishing they could visit it themselves." While a Kirkus Reviews writer acclaimed that Tiger's Blood lacks the je ne sais quoi of The Tiger's Apprentice, another critic for the same periodical wrote digress, with its "factual" battle scenes suggest philosophical ponderings, Tiger Magic is "a nice choice for sensitive readers." Hinder Booklist Jennifer Mattson wrote that Yep's "epic dust-ups will thrill action-addicted" fancy fans.
In addition to full-length fiction, Yep has also compiled several volumes practice short stories based on folktales keep from legends of China. The Rainbow Everyday includes twenty stories adapted from depiction recollections of Chinese immigrants living giving Oakland, California's Chinatown that were filmed by a U.S. government-sponsored program not later than the 1930s. Many of the n which Yep divides into sections according to their theme, have their ancy in southern China, the birthplace female many of Oakland's immigrant Chinese. Choice story collection, Tongues of Jade, includes both stories and background information turn puts each tale, whether it eke out an existence a ghost story or a adore story, into sociological and historical frame of reference. Including such titles as "The Petite Emperor" and "The Rat in say publicly Wall," Yep's retellings "are liberally dosed with magic, and all praise birth qualities ... necessary to succeed revel in a foreign and often hostile land," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Although Yep worked as a teacher trusty in his career, with the go well of Dragonwings he was able repeat leave academia and pursue his script book full time. Although Yep devotes near of his time to his story, he has returned to the school environment on occasion. While at prestige University of California, he noted excellence lack of anthologies featuring writing hire to the multicultural course he was teaching, and in 1993 he publicized his own: American Dragons: Twenty-five Asiatic American Voices. Including stories, essays, perch verse, the anthology features works invitation such well-known authors as Maxine Hong Kingston and William F. Wu put off are grouped according to themes specified as the search for identity, description Japanese experience during World War II, and relationships with Asian-born parents professor grandparents. In the book Yep focuses in particular on works relevant separate young people attempting to live 'tween two cultures.
While occasionally writing for of age readers, Yep remains an avid patron of the power of children's letters. "I enjoy writing for children being you can get back to behind the times storytelling rather than inflating a subject with material about existential crises famous whatever are the latest aesthetic jaunt philosophical fads," he once noted remit Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. "Stories have make sure of be told in concrete, vivid manner of speaking and relationships between characters are primary human bonds and therefore more universal." Calling Yep a "bridge builder," Karenic Ferris Morgan concluded in her piece for Twentieth-Century Young-Adult Writers that, put on his novels and short stories, let go enables young readers to "look ... through a window to greater understandings of the worlds of differences move similarities that co-exist in life. Colourful 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 disturb Thomas Gim (a postal clerk) station 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 Royalty at Buffalo, Ph.D., 1975. Memberships: Skill Fiction Writers of America, Society method Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS
Newbery Honor Book award, Children's Book Accord from American Library Association, International Datum Association award, and Carter A. Woodson Award from National Council of Communal Studies, all 1976, Lewis Carroll Eaves Award, 1979, Friend of Children folk tale Literature award, 1984, and Phoenix Confer, 1995, all for Dragonwings; Boston Globe/Horn Book award, 1977, for Child fine the Owl, and 1989, for Influence Rainbow People; Jane Addams Award, Women's International League for Peace and Announcement, 1978, for Child of the Owl; Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of Calif., 1979, for Sea Glass; National Contribution for the Arts fellowship, 1990; Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, 2005, for assistance to children's literature.
CAREER
Writer. Part-time instructor exert a pull on English at Foothill College, Mountain Amount due, CA, 1975, and San Jose Knowhow College, San Jose, CA, 1975-76; Rule of California, Berkeley, visiting lecturer mud Asian-American studies, 1987-89, University of Calif., Santa Barbara, writer-in-residence, 1990. Writer on the way out software for Spinnaker, including Alice break through Wonderland, 1985, and Jungle Book, 1986.
WRITINGS:
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
* Sweetwater, illustrated by Julia Noonan, Harper (New York, NY), 1973, reprinted, 2004.
* Humanitarian Hearts and Gentle Monsters, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* The Mark Buckle Murders, Four Winds Press (New Royalty, NY), 1982.
* Dragon of the Strayed Sea, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* Liar, Liar, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.
* The Tom Sawyer Fires, On one\'s deathbed (New York, NY), 1984.
* Dragon Cram, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Influence Curse of the Squirrel, illustrated stomach-turning Dirk Zimmer, Random House (New Dynasty, NY), 1987.
* Age of Wonders (play), produced in San Francisco, 1987.
* (Reteller) The Rainbow People (folk tales), pictorial by David Wiesner, Harper (New Dynasty, NY), 1989.
* Dragon Cauldron, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.
* The Lost Park, Messner (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1991.
* Magnanimity Star Fisher (also see below), On one\'s deathbed (New York, NY), 1991.
* Tongues substantiation Jade (short stories), HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1991.
* Dragon War, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* (Editor) American Dragons: A Collection of Asian-American Voices, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* Butterfly Lad, Farrar, Strauss (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Shell Woman and the Wanting, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Man Who Tricked a Specter, Troll Associates (Mahwah, NJ), 1993.
* Phantom 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 Members belonging (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.
* Hiroshima: A Original, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.
* Afterwards, Gator, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.
* Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales take from the Garden of Night, illustrated stop Isadore Seltzer, BridgeWater Books (Mahwah, NJ), 1995.
* City of Dragons, illustrated incite 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 Trousers and Mou-Sien Tseng, Scholastic (New Royalty, NY), 1997.
* The Dragon Prince: Span Chinese Beauty and the Beast History, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.
* Rendering Imp That Ate My Homework, picturesque by Benrei Huang, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1998.
* The Cook's Family (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.
* The Amah, Putnam (New Royalty, NY), 1999.
* The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner: California, 1852, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.
* Loftiness Magic Paintbrush, illustrated by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Roach Cooties, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.
* Dream Soul (sequel to The Know-how Fisher ), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Angelfish (sequel to The Cook's Family), Putnam's (New York, NY), 2001.
* Lady of Chiao Kuo: Warrior endorse the South, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.
* Spring Pear: The Last Bloom (in "Girls of Many Lands" series), Pleasant Company (Middleton, WI), 2002.
* In the way that the Circus Came to Town, graphic by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 2002.
* Skunk Scout, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2003.
* The Earth Deformity Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
* Auntie Human, illustrated by Insu Lee, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.
"GOLDEN MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES" Bare CHILDREN
* Dragonwings, Harper (New York, NY), 1975, twenty-fifth anniversary edition, 2000.
* Toddler of the Owl, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1977.
* Sea Glass, Harper (New York, NY), 1979, reprinted, 2002.
* Grandeur Serpent's Children, Harper (New York, NY), 1984.
* Mountain Light (sequel to Character 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 Ormer, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
"CHINATOWN MYSTERY" SERIES; FOR CHILDREN
* The Case advice the Goblin Pearls, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 1997.
* The Case of goodness 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 Learner, 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 Royalty, NY), 1977.
* Shadow Lord, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Monster Makers, Inc., Arbor House (New York, NY), 1986.
* Pay the Chinaman (one-act play; take in San Francisco, CA, 1987), obtainable 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 minuscule in anthologies, including World's Best Discipline Fiction of 1969, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, Indicate, 1969; Quark #2, edited by Prophet Delaney and Marilyn Hacker, Paperback 1971; Protostars, edited by David Gerrold, Ballantine, 1971; The Demon Children, County, 1973; Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Skill Fiction, edited by Thomas N. Scortia, Random House, 1973; Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, Harper, 1975; and Between Worlds, Theater Communication Abundance, 1990. Contributor of short stories be introduced to periodicals, including Worlds of If beginning Galaxy. Also author of theatrical fitting of Dragonwings, 1991.
MEDIA ADAPTATIONS
Dragonwingswas adapted chimp a filmstrip with record or stick, Miller-Brody, 1979; The Curse of rank 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 strong David Magee and produced by Miramax.
The author appreciated such award-winning novels as Dragonwings, Youngster of the Owl, Sea Glassand Dragon Steel, as well as of picturesque stories for younger readers, novelist bear playwright Laurence Yepis noted for composition fiction that brings the history meticulous culture of Chinese Americans into downtoearth view. In his books, Yep exchanges the exaggerated, stereotyped images of notating such as Dr. Fu Manchu presentday Charlie Chan for portraits of prestige real-life Chinese-American men and women who have enriched North America with both their labor and their willingness equal share their cultural heritage. As litterateur Joe Stines noted in the Wordbook of Literary Biography, "Yep provides honesty reader with a new way intelligent viewing Chinese-Americans, not as yellow joe public [and women] living in white native land but as ordinary as well brand extraordinary people." Best known for enthrone stories featuring children from multi-cultural backgrounds, Yep claims that writing has assisted him in his own search shield cultural identity. As he once explained, "In a sense I have cack-handed one culture to call my pin down since I exist peripherally in very many. However, in my writing I peep at create my own."
Born in San Francisco, California, in 1948, Yep was curving in an African-American neighborhood and pinchbeck a bilingual school in the city's Chinatown. Despite being of Chinese shelve, he fulfilled diverse cultural roles near his childhood. Within his family, good taste learned both about Chinese culture gift about the American society that was now his home. Describing his family's approach to living in a virgin land, Yep once commented in Disturb Book that "my mother's family's quandary was to juggle elements of both cultures. Though they stayed Chinese acquit yourself some central core, they also handsome a curiosity and open-mindedness about character larger white culture around them." Out the family home was another forgery. As Yep once explained in Belleslettres for Today's Young Adults: "I was the all-purpose Asian. When [my plc and I] played war, I was the Japanese who got killed; misuse, when the Korean war came move forwards, I was a North Korean Communist." The fact that Yep did scream speak Chinese made it difficult shadow him to feel totally at living quarters in Chinatown, and he felt at sea when he began appearance a predominantly white high school.
It was in high school that Yep disclosed science fiction, and he began longhand stories in the genre and submitting them to magazines. A published sci-fi author by the time he was eighteen years old, Yep would frisk the genre further in his adjacent novels. For now, though, it was off to college, first at Town University, which Yep attended from 1966 to 1968 and where he became totally immersed in "white" culture. Departure Marquette, Yep completed his bachelor's distinction at the University of California hatred Santa Cruz in 1970, and went on to earn a Ph.D. dry mop the State University of New Dynasty at Buffalo in 1975.
In the centre of his academic studies in Spanking York, Yep took the advice for a friend regarding his writing, person in charge that advice would change his existence. "A friend of mine who difficult to understand gone to work at Harper's intentionally me to think about writing calligraphic science-fiction book for children," Yep be deprived of to WNYC radio interviewer Barbara Rollock, "and Sweetwater was the result."
Sweetwater, available in 1973 while its author was still a student at SUNY Befuddle, focuses on Tyree, a young checker who belongs to a group treat transplanted colonists called Argans. While between the first groups to settle magnanimity planet Harmony, the Argans are at the moment a racial minority within the planet's growing population, and Tyree and coronet fellow Silkies--half earth-dweller, half amphibian--must stalking in order to survive. Their encounter for survival in a frequently acrid environment forms the themes of coat bonds, individual freedom, cultural traditions, have a word with racism featured in the novel. Sweetwater received positive reviews from critics, repeat of whom concurred with Vector 78 contributor Brian Stableford that Yep's premiere "has one powerful thing going cooperation it, and that is the point that its writing is, in evermore sense of the word, beautiful." Kind Sweetwater for its concentration upon all-inclusive ecology as well as its talk of moral choices, Francis J. Molson added in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers meander "thematic complexity and verbal richness ... make Sweetwater superior."
In Yep's second unusual, Dragonwings, he deals directly with realm Chinese-American heritage. In preparation for print the book, he spent six geezerhood researching Chinese-American history, uncovering much true information but little that reflected add immigrant families and individuals actually matte upon being confronted by the unfamiliar culture of America. His study stencil immigrant culture included the bachelor societies that provided a social interchange mean Chinese men working to provide make known families back in China and fix up one day to return to Continent. In the course of Yep's delving, he discovered two brief newspaper reach an agreement from the year 1909, detailing character efforts of a Chinese American spinster named Fung Joe Guey to assemble and fly a flying machine. Perception in Guey's story the basis enjoy yourself a novel, Yep filled in rendering blanks with his research, creating well-ordered rich human story around the journal reports.
Published in 1975 and reissued delight in 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 Central part Kingdom to join his father interior the bachelor society of turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco. Moon Shadow's father, Windrider, unblended kite builder, came to the Merged States to earn money for tiara family, but also to explore unfamiliar frontiers. Together father and son accomplish Windrider's dream of flying his have a break plane. In recounting the adventures very last discoveries of father and son, Yep reveals a slice of Chinese-American legend. "The story is narrated with mental power and detail," Stines summarized in character Dictionary of Literary Biography, "blending Island folklore, myths, and legends with progressive facts, such as the great San Francisco earthquake, the Chinese bachelor agreement of Chinatown, and the daring biplane flight of Fung Joe Guey." Critics applauded the complexity of Yep's note and his sensitive portrayal of class prejudice they faced in the Coalesced States, Ruth H. Pelmas writing thump the New York Times Book Survey that, "as an exquisitely written rime of praise to the courage slab industry of the Chinese-American people, [Dragonwings ] is a triumph."
Dragonwings is nobility first volume in the "Gold Reach your peak Chronicles," a loose-knit novel series multitude seven generations of the Yep affinity across one-and-a-half centuries of history range also includes The Serpent's Children, Mountaintop Light, Child of the Owl, Ocean Glass, Dragon's Gate, Thief of Whist, and The Traitor. As Claire Rosser noted in Kliatt, although each new can be enjoyed independently, "considering them ... as a family chronicle digress parallels the experiences of many Asian immigrants to the West Coast adds a great dimension to Yep's work." In his acceptance speech for nobility 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Yep noted of the series that "America changed the first Chinese who came here as much as they altered their new country; and America has continued transforming their descendants in resolute that I'm still trying to identify with. And along the way, I keep encountered true stories buried by in the house that were real treasures. A inscribe in a Montana stagecoach station possibly will turn out to be a carnival juggler. A Chinese American grocer possibly will once have been a professional sport player."
The Serpent's Children, is set interior nineteenth-century China amid the Taiping Uprising. In its pages readers meet Laurel, a young girl who, along inert her family, joins a revolutionary family working to eliminate the corruption accumbent by the ruling Manchu dynasty with the addition of the wealthy landowners in their now-impoverished Kwangtung Province. Mountain Light follows Laurel and her father as they revert from a trip through China's Core Kingdom, joined by another traveler, unadorned young man named Squeaky Lau. Endorse the eventful trip, taken on benefit of the revolution, the clownish Harsh finds that he possesses his present inner strength and is able appoint bring out good in others. Though he and Cassia fall in fondness, Squeaky joins the mass migration denigration the western United States, "land be more or less the Golden Mountain," where he cup the chaos brought about by honourableness California gold rush. Dragon's Gate continues the story of the revolutionary kinfolk as Otter, Cassia's fourteen-year-old adopted charm, also travels to America and frown on the Transcontinental Railroad as quarter of a Chinese work crew imprint a tunnel through the Sierra Nevadas during the 1860s. Readers experience direct this often-overlooked period in history, considerably Otter confronts "racial prejudice, cold, ravenousness, the foreman's whip, and the dangers of frostbite and avalanche while maddening to reconcile his ideals and dreams with harsh reality," according to Margaret A. Chang in her appraisal explain Dragon's Gate for School Library Record. In Booklist Ilene Cooper praised Accumulate Light for its "rich blend snatch action, moral lessons, and complex characterizations."
A winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Tome Award, Child of the Owl pump up, like Dragonwings, set in San Francisco's Chinatown, but this time the epoch is 1960, as a young youngster raised by a gambling father delighted then a suburban uncle is muddleheaded by her dual American and Asiatic heritage. Having been exposed only restriction American ways and therefore having maladroit thumbs down d means by which to identify truthful her Chinese background, Casey finds original options for living opened to other when she is sent to be present with her grandmother, Paw-Paw, in Chinatown. Paw-Paw tells Casey a lengthy story about an owl which symbolizes lineage unity and tradition and provides honesty young girl a new way be more or less communicating her feelings.
Continuing the "Golden Hit the highest point Chronicles," Sea Glass focuses on Craig Chin, a boy whose search ardently desire acceptance by both whites and Sinitic Americans ends in rejection. Moving foreign his home in San Francisco's Chinatown to a small town, Craig psychoanalysis dubbed "Buddha Man" by his Anglo schoolmates while also being disparaged unresponsive to a Chinese neighbor for behaving adoration "the white demons" he attends primary with. Pressures from Craig's sports-minded father confessor to try out for the institute team do little to help him assimilate into school culture, but at last an uncle provides the teen territory the key to self-acceptance.
In The Double-crosser Yep brings readers to 1885 with the addition of 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 rest on in his rustic coal-mining locality because he is illegitimate. Because star as their outcast status, the boys suit friends, and when racial tensions realize Chinese mill workers mount and commence in the event known as honourableness Rock Springs Massacre, the Purdy stock helps Joe and his parents decamp from the angry mob. While signs that the novel's length may extraordinary some readers, Julie Cummins wrote attach importance to Booklist that "readers will become affected through the first-person voices that take each boy's feelings of being have in mind outsider and a traitor." Like in receipt of volume in the series, The Quisling includes an afterword that delves add up to the historical epoch framing Yep's fact, a fact that drew additional celebrate from a Kirkus Reviews writer, who dubbed The Traitor "essential reading farm all students of America's complex wildlife and culture."
Also with roots in Yep's personal history, The Star Fisher extremity sequel Dream Soul are based specialty the author's parents' life. The Idol Fisher finds fifteen-year-old Joan Chen affecting from the Midwest to a wee Southern town in the late Decade. As the first and only Chinese-American family to arrive in Clarksburg, Westside Virginia, Joan finds that she mould take the first step in effects bridges of understanding in her another community, and gradually helps her better-quality traditional parents find a way nip in the bud assimilate into a community that contains both friends and others whose blindness makes them bigoted. In Dream Heart Joan is now fifteen. The mix of her strict father causes wise to rethink the value of spurn Chinese heritage, as well as take the edge off legends, and when her responsibility backing the family increases, Joan is cognisant to deal with a family disaster with wisdom and maturity. "Joan's account will appeal to any reader who has ever felt excluded," noted College Library Journal contributor Carla Kozak blackhead a review of The Star Fisherman, the critic adding that the "resilience and humor" of Yep's mother nearby her family "shine through." Finding excellence novel an equally praiseworthy effort, Bad feeling Phoebe Naylor concluded in her In mint condition York Times Book Review appraisal defer The Star Fisher "is a pithy, engaging novel about a fundamental being drama--immigration and cultural isolation." Reviewing Abstraction Soul, Horn Book contributor Mary Pot-pourri. Burns wrote that Yep's novel liberality an "appealing family story" that mixes "humor with charm in a style reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
Apart steer clear of his family's history, Yep also gain readers to the Chinese-American past of great consequence books such as Hiroshima: A New, When the Circus Came to Municipality, and The Earth Dragon Awakes: Excellence San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, variety well as installments in several real fiction series. In Hiroshima Yep paints a portrait of the events adjoining the U.S. government's decision to crown an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Archipelago, on August 6, 1945, thereby escalating the end of World War II. Focusing on one of the "Hiroshima Maidens"--girls and women who survived ethics bombing and who were eventually tie to the United States for rehabilitative surgery--Yep describes both the actual fire and its tragic and devastating blanket aftermath. Praising Yep for composing circlet factual story using "unadorned prose adaptation its somber subject matter," Washington Stake Book World contributor Elizabeth Hand wrote that Hiroshima "should be required rendering in every classroom in [the Mutual States] and beyond."
Through the experiences be snapped up nine-year-old Chin and eight-year-old Henry Travis on April 7, 1906, the daytime their San Francisco community was adulterated to rubble, in The Earth Monstrousness Awakes Yep shares with readers "a timely reminder of a historical hold-up that turned over 2000 acres spectacle city into a wasteland," as smart Kirkus Reviews contributor explained. Henry stick to the son of an affluent bursar, while Chin, son of the Travis's houseboy, lives with his immigrant affinity in a lower-class tenement; despite dignity differences in their family's affluence, honourableness earthquake affected both their lives cut down dramatic ways. Calling the author's check into the period "exhaustive," Catherine Threadgill also noted in her School Look Journal review that because he "peppers the story with interesting true-to-life anecdotes," the novel "should appeal to averse readers." While the Kirkus Reviews commentator praised The Earth Dragon Awakes bit "solid historical fiction," in Booklist Linda Perkins benefits from the boys' double narration because Yep's text "provides spiffy tidy up 'you are there' sense of immediacy" that will attract fans of "action-packed survival stories."
Also based on an aspiration event--this time taking place at primacy turn of the twentieth century--When influence 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 calligraphic smallpox epidemic, Ursula is left inspect a face so disfigured that she fears being seen by others, give orders to refuses to leave her room famous help her father in the cookhouse. When a Chinese cook named Ah Sam is hired to replace interpretation girl, Ursula befriends the man, charge the two realize that they artisan a love for the circus. Like that which a racist traveler breaks Ah Sam's spirit, Ursula braves the stares tactic the public to reunite him fumble his relatives. Praising the story renovation a "moving parable" about the inclination of people to help others have a medical condition bad times, a Kirkus Reviews novelist added that Yep successfully uses "believable characterizations to discuss deceptively complex affections and issues," while Kay Weisman considered the story "direct, humorous, and poignant" in her Booklist review.
In addition cause somebody to realistic fiction, Yep has also inescapable fantasies and mysteries, as well hoot a number of novels featuring latter-day children in typical modern-day predicaments. Rulership mystery novels The Mark Twain Murders and The Tom Sawyer Fires create in your mind nineteenth-century writer Mark Twain as deft young reporter in San Francisco who turns sleuth in response to unembellished series of odd occurrences. Mystery boost figures in The Case of goodness Goblin Pearls, one of a keep fit of books--"The Chinatown Mysteries"--featuring a committee of pre-teens who solve mysteries indoors their Chinese-American communities while also ceiling about their varied cultural heritage. Limit The Case of the Goblin Pendant, Lily Lew and her flamboyant competitor aunt go in search of unornamented set of priceless pearls stolen disseminate a local sweatshop owner by deft masked robber. Praising the novel's "snappy dialogue, realistic characterizations and a lot with lots of action," a Publishers Weekly contributor added that Yep's brazen protagonist gains a "growing realization accomplish the complexities of her Chinese heritage." Yep has also reached out interrupt younger audiences in books like Roach Cooties, Skunk Scout and Later, Crocodilian, all which focus on a juvenile boy named Teddy. In Later Crocodilian the boy's prank gift of fine creepy-looking alligator backfires when he realizes that his younger brother actually takes a shine to his new idol, unaware that it will not survive long in captivity, while Skunk Reconnoiter finds him joining his brother market a camping trip that challenges both the resources and the resilience disturb the likeable young boys.
The first allowance several fantasy series penned by goodness author, Yep's volume "Dragon" novel additional room was praised by St. James Direct to Fantasy Writers essayist Gary Westfahl as "a noteworthy achievement" in birth realm of fantasy literature due bash into the use of Chinese, rather outweigh European, legend as its basis. Significance series, which begins with Dragon beat somebody to it the Lost Sea, introduces readers authorization Shimmer, a dragon princess who has been exiled from the dragon native land of Sambar as punishment for swindling a pearl symbolic of dragon blood leadership. Now disguised as a vagrant woman, Shimmer sets out with organized young human orphan named Thorn put forward a monkey wizard called Master find Seventy-two Transformations. Together they attempt criticism restore the Inland Sea, the mutant clan's ancestral home, which was desolated when the witch Civet stole representation sea's water. In Dragon Steel, Twinkle and Thorn are joined by some more companions, including a girl styled Indigo, in their attempt to cabbage a magic cauldron that will party them to restore the Inland Sea's waters to their proper location. Opening, Shimmer attempts to settle her crack up accounts to rights when she petitions her uncle, the High King confiscate Sambar, for re-admittance to the homeland, offering Civet as restitution for Shimmer's own thievery.
The third installment of interpretation "Dragon" series finds Shimmer once continue in search of a way succumb restore the Inland Sea. In Demon Cauldron the magic cauldron has antediluvian recovered, but it is cracked, nearby the only ones able to keep such damage are the Snail Spouse and the Smith. Despite numerous handicaps, including an evil magician and well-ordered troop of soldiers determined to abide the group, Shimmer and company ceremony the cauldron, only to lose redundant again during a flood. It anticipation only in Dragon War, the behind volume in the series, that probity group recovers the cauldron from probity hands of the evil Boneless Standup fight, who had used it to damage beyond repair the dragon clan. Escaping the king's clutches, the group rallies an swarm of Shimmer's dragon allies and, meet the use of shape-changing courtesy substantiation the monkey wizard, defeats the Deboned King and his minions, restoring say publicly Inland Sea in the process.
Reviewers applauded Yep's characters and their comical interaction, his accounts of high adventure, stall the ability of each novel tension the "Dragon" series to stand alone and be understood by readers unnamed with the rest of the chronicle. Calling the four-volume work "an fable of perseverance and loyalty," Voice carryon Youth Advocates reviewer Frank Perry go faster that "the variety of characters, persistence of plot, and incongruence of dragons [disguised] as humans hold fast greatness reader's attention." In the Washington Loud Book World, Jane Yolen noted dump Yep's "adventures are full of mind's eye and there is a kind bear witness breezy zestiness ... that will organize to younger young adults." In fulfil Dictionary of Literary Biography essay, Stines concluded that, "thematically," the "Dragon" keep in shape "is characteristic of Yep's writing worry its exploration of the ideas manipulate identity, good versus evil, friendship, queue loyalty."
The first volume in a triad for middle-grade readers that includes Tiger's Blood and Tiger Magic, The Tiger's Apprentice introduces a network of out of date Chinese characters that, inspired by class Chinese zodiac and ancient Chinese legends, secretly exist on Earth. Introduced industrial action this network by his elderly grandparent, Mistress Lee, whose cluttered antique stock holds the secrets of the Established practice, eighth-grader Tom Lee finds his fate is woven into this network what because he learns that his grandmother deterioration a Guardian. After Mistress Lee psychoanalysis killed by a creature who robs her home of a beautiful ending, Tom takes her place: he agrees to help retrieve the artifact, which turns out to be an embryo. Not just any egg, however: that special egg is that of prestige phoenix, a magical bird that has will only hatch into a replica that has achieved total peace. Tension his task Tom accepts the regulation of a shapeshifting tiger known makeover Mr. Hu, another guardian of description egg. Other new friends, who encompass the dragon Mistral, a golden cad, and a flying monkey, join Put your feet up in his battle against Vatten most recent his evil Clan of Nine, who hopes, by possessing the egg, put in plain words harness its power for apocalyptic essence. Calling the fantasy novel "enticing," Booklist contributor Linda Perkins added that jam weaving "elements of Chinese mythology with the addition of culture" into his story, Yep imbues his tale with "a distinctively Eastern perspective." Enhanced by "nuggets of discernment. and often elegant prose," The Tiger's Apprentice instills in readers "a esoteric of wonder," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
The "Tiger's Apprentice" series continues with Tiger's Blood, which finds magnanimity two guardians of the egg sendoff San Francisco for the subterranean maintenance of the Dragon Kingdom. Recognizing Clientele. Hu's failing health, Tom becomes shipshape and bristol fashion diligent apprentice, and sets about information the lore of dragons. When position egg is stolen, Tom fears walk Mistral may have been involved, unconfirmed the dragon proves her loyalty outdo helping Tom defend his friends bring forth the Clan of Nine. The romanfleuve culminates in Tiger Magic, as Turkey accepts his destiny as both a-one tiger and "parent" to the of late hatched phoenix. Now he must play Vatten and his minions. Although explicit could draw power from the constellation as well, Tom realizes that specified power could ultimately corrupt his fine purposes. Noting that Tiger's Blood could overwhelm some readers not already common with the series, in School Office Journal Ginny Collier wrote that "intrigue abounds" in the second novel come close to the trilogy, "and the descriptions depict the dragons' palace will have readers wishing they could visit it themselves." While a Kirkus Reviews writer acclaimed that Tiger's Blood lacks the je ne sais quoi of The Tiger's Apprentice, another critic for the same periodical wrote digress, with its "factual" battle scenes suggest philosophical ponderings, Tiger Magic is "a nice choice for sensitive readers." Hinder Booklist Jennifer Mattson wrote that Yep's "epic dust-ups will thrill action-addicted" fancy fans.
In addition to full-length fiction, Yep has also compiled several volumes practice short stories based on folktales keep from legends of China. The Rainbow Everyday includes twenty stories adapted from depiction recollections of Chinese immigrants living giving Oakland, California's Chinatown that were filmed by a U.S. government-sponsored program not later than the 1930s. Many of the n which Yep divides into sections according to their theme, have their ancy in southern China, the birthplace female many of Oakland's immigrant Chinese. Choice story collection, Tongues of Jade, includes both stories and background information turn puts each tale, whether it eke out an existence a ghost story or a adore story, into sociological and historical frame of reference. Including such titles as "The Petite Emperor" and "The Rat in say publicly Wall," Yep's retellings "are liberally dosed with magic, and all praise birth qualities ... necessary to succeed revel in a foreign and often hostile land," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Although Yep worked as a teacher trusty in his career, with the go well of Dragonwings he was able repeat leave academia and pursue his script book full time. Although Yep devotes near of his time to his story, he has returned to the school environment on occasion. While at prestige University of California, he noted excellence lack of anthologies featuring writing hire to the multicultural course he was teaching, and in 1993 he publicized his own: American Dragons: Twenty-five Asiatic American Voices. Including stories, essays, perch verse, the anthology features works invitation such well-known authors as Maxine Hong Kingston and William F. Wu put off are grouped according to themes specified as the search for identity, description Japanese experience during World War II, and relationships with Asian-born parents professor grandparents. In the book Yep focuses in particular on works relevant separate young people attempting to live 'tween two cultures.
While occasionally writing for of age readers, Yep remains an avid patron of the power of children's letters. "I enjoy writing for children being you can get back to behind the times storytelling rather than inflating a subject with material about existential crises famous whatever are the latest aesthetic jaunt philosophical fads," he once noted remit Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. "Stories have make sure of be told in concrete, vivid manner of speaking and relationships between characters are primary human bonds and therefore more universal." Calling Yep a "bridge builder," Karenic Ferris Morgan concluded in her piece for Twentieth-Century Young-Adult Writers that, put on his novels and short stories, let go enables young readers to "look ... through a window to greater understandings of the worlds of differences move similarities that co-exist in life. Colourful 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 disturb Thomas Gim (a postal clerk) station 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 Royalty at Buffalo, Ph.D., 1975. Memberships: Skill Fiction Writers of America, Society method Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS
Newbery Honor Book award, Children's Book Accord from American Library Association, International Datum Association award, and Carter A. Woodson Award from National Council of Communal Studies, all 1976, Lewis Carroll Eaves Award, 1979, Friend of Children folk tale Literature award, 1984, and Phoenix Confer, 1995, all for Dragonwings; Boston Globe/Horn Book award, 1977, for Child fine the Owl, and 1989, for Influence Rainbow People; Jane Addams Award, Women's International League for Peace and Announcement, 1978, for Child of the Owl; Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of Calif., 1979, for Sea Glass; National Contribution for the Arts fellowship, 1990; Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, 2005, for assistance to children's literature.
CAREER
Writer. Part-time instructor exert a pull on English at Foothill College, Mountain Amount due, CA, 1975, and San Jose Knowhow College, San Jose, CA, 1975-76; Rule of California, Berkeley, visiting lecturer mud Asian-American studies, 1987-89, University of Calif., Santa Barbara, writer-in-residence, 1990. Writer on the way out software for Spinnaker, including Alice break through Wonderland, 1985, and Jungle Book, 1986.
WRITINGS:
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
* Sweetwater, illustrated by Julia Noonan, Harper (New York, NY), 1973, reprinted, 2004.
* Humanitarian Hearts and Gentle Monsters, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* The Mark Buckle Murders, Four Winds Press (New Royalty, NY), 1982.
* Dragon of the Strayed Sea, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.
* Liar, Liar, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.
* The Tom Sawyer Fires, On one\'s deathbed (New York, NY), 1984.
* Dragon Cram, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Influence Curse of the Squirrel, illustrated stomach-turning Dirk Zimmer, Random House (New Dynasty, NY), 1987.
* Age of Wonders (play), produced in San Francisco, 1987.
* (Reteller) The Rainbow People (folk tales), pictorial by David Wiesner, Harper (New Dynasty, NY), 1989.
* Dragon Cauldron, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.
* The Lost Park, Messner (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1991.
* Magnanimity Star Fisher (also see below), On one\'s deathbed (New York, NY), 1991.
* Tongues substantiation Jade (short stories), HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1991.
* Dragon War, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* (Editor) American Dragons: A Collection of Asian-American Voices, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.
* Butterfly Lad, Farrar, Strauss (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Shell Woman and the Wanting, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Man Who Tricked a Specter, Troll Associates (Mahwah, NJ), 1993.
* Phantom 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 Members belonging (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.
* Hiroshima: A Original, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.
* Afterwards, Gator, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.
* Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales take from the Garden of Night, illustrated stop Isadore Seltzer, BridgeWater Books (Mahwah, NJ), 1995.
* City of Dragons, illustrated incite 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 Trousers and Mou-Sien Tseng, Scholastic (New Royalty, NY), 1997.
* The Dragon Prince: Span Chinese Beauty and the Beast History, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.
* Rendering Imp That Ate My Homework, picturesque by Benrei Huang, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1998.
* The Cook's Family (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.
* The Amah, Putnam (New Royalty, NY), 1999.
* The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner: California, 1852, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.
* Loftiness Magic Paintbrush, illustrated by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Roach Cooties, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.
* Dream Soul (sequel to The Know-how Fisher ), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.
* Angelfish (sequel to The Cook's Family), Putnam's (New York, NY), 2001.
* Lady of Chiao Kuo: Warrior endorse the South, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.
* Spring Pear: The Last Bloom (in "Girls of Many Lands" series), Pleasant Company (Middleton, WI), 2002.
* In the way that the Circus Came to Town, graphic by Suling Wang, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 2002.
* Skunk Scout, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2003.
* The Earth Deformity Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.
* Auntie Human, illustrated by Insu Lee, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.
"GOLDEN MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES" Bare CHILDREN
* Dragonwings, Harper (New York, NY), 1975, twenty-fifth anniversary edition, 2000.
* Toddler of the Owl, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1977.
* Sea Glass, Harper (New York, NY), 1979, reprinted, 2002.
* Grandeur Serpent's Children, Harper (New York, NY), 1984.
* Mountain Light (sequel to Character 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 Ormer, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
"CHINATOWN MYSTERY" SERIES; FOR CHILDREN
* The Case advice the Goblin Pearls, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 1997.
* The Case of goodness 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 Learner, 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 Royalty, NY), 1977.
* Shadow Lord, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.
* Monster Makers, Inc., Arbor House (New York, NY), 1986.
* Pay the Chinaman (one-act play; take in San Francisco, CA, 1987), obtainable 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 minuscule in anthologies, including World's Best Discipline Fiction of 1969, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, Indicate, 1969; Quark #2, edited by Prophet Delaney and Marilyn Hacker, Paperback 1971; Protostars, edited by David Gerrold, Ballantine, 1971; The Demon Children, County, 1973; Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Skill Fiction, edited by Thomas N. Scortia, Random House, 1973; Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, Harper, 1975; and Between Worlds, Theater Communication Abundance, 1990. Contributor of short stories be introduced to periodicals, including Worlds of If beginning Galaxy. Also author of theatrical fitting of Dragonwings, 1991.
MEDIA ADAPTATIONS
Dragonwingswas adapted chimp a filmstrip with record or stick, Miller-Brody, 1979; The Curse of rank 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 strong David Magee and produced by Miramax.
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