So, if you ever read any of my books The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat. You’ll, those are very, very much based on my childhood. In those books there is one, the main character, Pacey, is the only Asian girl in her school until another Asian girl moves into town and we become very best friends. And that’s what really happened to me. I was the only Asian girl in my class until another Asian girl moved into town and we became very best friends.
In the book her name is Melody. But in real life her name is Elvina Ling and we both grew up, and we still remain best friends. After years and years and years. I grew up and became a children’s book author and illustrator, and she grew up and became a children’s book editor and she’s actually the editor for my books The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat.
I’m very proud of those books and I think one of the reasons why I think they are as good as they are is because of her influence in the same thing especially because of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. This book is so unusual and is so close to my heart. It’s so unusual because there are full color illustrations in it. There’s about 10 full color illustrations in it. As well as the color chapter, the color chapter headers.
As I said it’s very unusual to have color illustrations in the book. But Elvina knew how much this book meant to me and she, I asked her “Do you think there’s anyway we could get color illustrations for the book?” And she’s like “I’ll try.” And she tried really, really. And she succeeded and it was the best thing. And I think this book, really the color illustration, really help make it the special book that I think it is.
