Y S Lee

Author of Young Adult, Historical and Mystery Novels

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You are here: Home / Archives for children’s literature

Holiday books

December 14, 2016 By Ying Leave a Comment

Hello, friends. Want to see what books my children are getting for Christmas this year? This first is for my five-year-old ("five-and-a-HALF" she would correct me, if she could but read!). I chose the Taschen edition of The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, edited by Noel Daniel, because the illustrations are so lovely and laden with history. Several months ago, I wrote about … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Things I Read Tagged With: children's literature, gifts, Things I Read

Circling back

April 13, 2016 By Ying 8 Comments

Last night, I realized that we forgot to introduce our 7yo to fairy tales and fables. No Hans Christian Andersen. No Brothers Grimm. No Aesop. No Monkey God, from the Chinese tradition. No Coyote, from indigenous traditions. No Disney versions, even. Exception: the summer he was 2, we took a roadtrip and he was so fussy and tearful that I spent the entire trip facing backwards (from the front … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Things I Read Tagged With: Brothers Grimm, children's literature, fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, Monkey God, Monkey King, myths, Things I Read, Wu Cheng En

Holocaust literature for younger children

March 16, 2016 By Ying 7 Comments

"Who was Hitler?" asked my seven-year-old, a couple of weeks ago. It was 7.30 on a weekend morning. It turns out he'd been inspecting the books on my desk. I ought to have seen this coming: I've amassed heaps of primary and secondary sources about the Second World War over the past three years. It just never dawned on me that he'd go browsing through the unglamorous adult books in the study … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Things I Read Tagged With: children's literature, Pacific War, picture books, Second World War, the Holocaust, Things I Read, WWII

A History of Violence

May 6, 2015 By Ying Leave a Comment

A couple of months ago at the launch party for Rivals in the City, I read aloud a scene that takes place in front of Newgate Prison. The year is 1860. A wooden scaffold has been built outside the prison gates, as it was before each public execution. The hangman, William Calcraft, is testing the gallows and trapdoor to ensure that they work. And the crowd is eagerly, boisterously, anticipating the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Things I Write Tagged With: children's literature, ethics, historical fiction, Rivals in the City, The History Girls, Things I Write, Victoriana, violence

Love You Forever

August 13, 2014 By Ying 6 Comments

Hello, friends. My mother has a huge collection of Robert Munsch picture books leftover from her teaching days. For the past couple of weeks, my children have been reading them. I'm ambivalent about Munsch's work. I've always loved The Paper Bag Princess but find a lot of the other books (Mortimer, Thomas' Snowsuit) far too shouty and obnoxious. I stand by those judgements. But there's one about … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Things I Read Tagged With: children's literature, I was wrong, parenting, Robert Munsch

You Are Stardust

June 25, 2014 By Ying 2 Comments

Hello, friends. Today, I want to share with you a book that I happened upon in my local indie bookseller, Novel Idea. It's a picture book called You Are Stardust, by Elin Kelsey with artwork by Soyeon Kim. It blew my mind. It starts with perfect, confident simplicity: "You are stardust. Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born." As it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Things I Read Tagged With: children's literature, diorama, Elin Kelsey, Soyeon Kim, stardust, wonder

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