I love to write books about children who are either new to the United States or about children in other countries. Oy in The Gold-Threaded Dress and The Quail Club is a Thai immigrant. In The Jade Dragon Ginny's parents are Chinese immigrants. Noi of Silk Umbrellas lives in rural northern Thailand. In When Heaven Fell, Binh lives in Vietnam as does Tin of Tin's Bamboo Boat. The protagonist of Mama Had to Work on Christmas, Gloria, lives in on the border of San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. The girl, Mina, of Moon Runner is American but her ancestry is Chinese. Gregory of Bird Springs is Native American which is the opposite of being an immigrant or child living in another country. But Gregory is nevertheless a person outside of mainstream American culture.
My upcoming projects include books set in Costa Rica and Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe.
I write about these children from other places partly because I was born in Mexico City and partly because I have a Thai husband and our two daughters are half Thai.
