The Legend of Auntie Po
SPI Adds National Book Award Finalist Shing Yin Khor to its Collection.
Part historical fiction & part fable, Shing Yin Khor’s The Legend of Auntie Po is about mythology, family, and race. Grades 7-10.
About the Book:
In a late-19th-century Sierra Nevada logging camp, a Chinese American girl spins tall tales and dreams of a better future.
Mei helps her father in the kitchen, feeding the dozens of hungry men who work at their logging camp. At night, she entertains listeners with her made-up stories about Auntie Po, an elderly Chinese woman taller than the pine trees who has a blue water buffalo. In these stories, clearly inspired by Paul Bunyan, Auntie Po is a guardian figure, protecting the logging crew from threats, including giant mosquitos and unscrupulous companies. But in the real world, anti-Chinese sentiments have turned into acts of violence. When the logging company caves under a boycott, the White camp boss dismisses all the Chinese workers, leaving frustrated Mei angry at her own helplessness. Nuanced portrayals of characters’ relationships keep the themes of discrimination and allyship in focus; the tenuous friendship between Mei’s father and the camp boss, in particular, highlights the difference between offering verbal support and taking meaningful action. The clean, expressive linework and muted watercolors portray both the dangerous realities of logging and quiet, emotional moments with equal effectiveness. In a sweet, naturally inserted subplot, Mei, who wears trousers rather than dresses, says she is not interested in boys and is clearly enamored of her closest female friend.
A timely and ultimately hopeful tale.
A National Book Award Finalist
An Eisner Award Winner for Best Publication for Teens
A California Book Award Finalist
A 2022 ALSC Notable Children’s Book
Why Introduce Kids to Authors? From Reading Rockets: An author becomes a "writing mentor" for readers as they read and study their work and respond to it through a variety of writing. This "mentoring" and students' writing responses can help kids build confidence in their writing and can even inspire them to become authors themselves.In their SPI talk, Shing Yin will discuss the writing process, cartooning, memoir writing, autobio comics, and reimagining mythological characters.
About the Author:
Shing Yin is a cartoonist and installation artist exploring the Americana mythos and new human rituals. A Malaysian-Chinese immigrant, and an American citizen since 2011, they are also the author of The American Dream?, a graphic novel about traveling Route 66.
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