May 2021

First, tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get your start as an author?

I can pinpoint the exact moment I was inspired to become an author. My grade 11 language arts teacher, Mr. Nigro, gave our class an assignment. We had to imagine that we won the lottery and could spend all our winnings on anything, but he wanted us to describe how we’d use the money to renovate our bedrooms. I was a lazy teen, so I decided to use the money to build my bed on a giant elevator. That way, I could do all the things I wanted to do without ever leaving my room. The top level was where I slept. Below that were levels that housed a library, a movie theatre, a video game arcade, a kitchen, and an indoor swimming pool. Ironically, during the pandemic I realized I could have saved my winnings if the iPad existed when I was a kid.

Mr. Nigro handed back my assignment and told me that I had a great imagination and I should pursue writing as a career. Because of his encouragement, I wrote articles for the school newspaper, created a comic strip, and formed the school’s first Dungeons and Dragons club. Like many writers, I struggled in the beginning, and I have the stack of rejection letters in my filing cabinet to prove it. The first piece of writing that I was paid for was a joke for Readers Digest. I think they paid me $25 and two copies of the magazine. Still, this acceptance was enough to keep me going until producers and publishers started contacting me to give me work.

Sadly, Mr. Nigro passed away before I established myself as a playwright and author. When I gave a radio interview about one of my books a few years ago, I talked about how my teacher inspired me to become a writer. A day after the interview ran, Mr. Nigro’s father contacted me and told me that his son would have been proud to know that he had such an impact on one of his students. Teachers can make a huge difference in shaping the mindset of their students, and I’m grateful for what Mr. Nigro did for me.

As an author and a playwright, how does working on these different projects differ?

If you think about writing as a sport, playwrights run relay races while fiction authors run marathons. When I write plays, I carry the script so far then I pass it on to the actors, directors, designers, and stage crew to get to the finish line. When I write books, I have to be the director with my narration, the actors with the characters and their dialogue, and the set designer with my descriptions. An editor guides me through this process, but at the end of the day I’m responsible for everything on the page and I can’t blame an actor for saying the wrong line in the scene. It’s all on my shoulders, which can be amazing when things work and humiliating when they don’t.

What advice do you have for educators and parents trying to engage reluctant readers?

The popular belief is that a reluctant reader is a kid who just hasn’t found the right book yet. You need to find out their interests and try to match the book to them rather than force to read something that is good for them. Sometimes, a kid might need a comic book with illustrations to help them visualize the story. Other times, a student might prefer having the book read aloud so they can take in the story aurally. Whatever strategy you use, it will vary from one kid to another.

Reading sometimes seems like a poor cousin to all the activities a reluctant reader can do today from watching YouTube videos to playing video games to participating in sports. My personal strategy is to find an engaging and off-the-wall way to introduce the book to the student. For example, if you can get kids to act out a scene from the book, reading the story is a means to do something fun and active. If you’re a parent, remember that your kids still look up to you and that if you’re enjoying the act of reading, they just might try to imitate your habits.

Kung Fu Master is all about challenging stereotypes. What inspired you to tell Jon’s story?

When I was in school, I faced all types of mistaken beliefs about me because I was Chinese. Some kids wanted to cheat off me in math class because they thought I was a math whiz. Some kids refused to come over to my house for dinner because they thought my parents cooked cats. None of the stereotypes were true and many of them hurt me deeply, because I realized the kids were less interested in getting to know me as a person and more interested in turning me into some kind of freak.

When the kids started to think all Chinese people knew kung fu, I was relieved that it was the one stereotype that actually made kids scared of me. I pretended I did know so that the bullies would back off. Naturally, they found out the truth when someone called my bluff and asked me to show off my kung fu moves.

In the novel, I wanted to explore the negative consequences of racial stereotyping, but I knew that if I did it with a lecturing tone, people might tune out. Instead, I opted to come at the issue from a comedic angle in the hope that while people were laughing at the situation, they might see themselves in it and change how they perceive people who don’t necessarily look like them.

What projects are you working on now? Can you tell us about any upcoming books?

The pandemic gave me a lot of time to be creative. I have two books coming out with Orca over the next year. In the fall, watch for Kylie the Magnificent, the story of a girl who wants to break into the male-dominated world of stage magic. Then in 2022, Willpower hits the shelves. It’s an action fantasy story about a girl with the ability to move objects with her mind. I’m currently also working on two other books for Orca Book, and I think there are scheduled to come out in 2023. In the meantime, I’ve been making writing tip videos for my YouTube channel. If any teachers or creative kids want tips on improving their writing, they can check out my weekly videos at martychanauthor on YouTube.

Hi! My name is Thao. It helps if you take out the H when you say it, but remember to put it back in when you spell it. I am a mom to a cat and a kid. I bake cookies, make my own chilli sauce and create children’s books.

After graduating from art school I got a job as an art buyer in the field of educational publishing; commissioning illustrations for reading programs and math, science, and history books. For nearly two decades I had the privilege of working alongside many dedicated teachers and talented illustrators. Inspired by the art I was seeing and commissioning, I would go home and work on my own illustrations.

When the company I worked for went bankrupt, I decided to make a go of writing a children’s book. I mailed out 60 copies of a story I called Grrr… (my take on Little Red Riding Hood) along with samples of my portfolio to publishers I really admired and wanted to work with. Months went by. Then, finally I got an email from Owlkids Books expressing interest. I went in and we had a lovely talk. It all sounded promising. Weeks went by without a single word. No progress! Then, I got one of those “we need to talk” emails from Owlkids. A similar book was already published in New Zealand. Crushed but determined, I pitched them Skunk. “Picture this, a skunk tied to a balloon”. That was all I had. “A red balloon” I added hoping it would sound more fleshed out. They loved it! I had a week to figure out how to get the skunk back down to earth. Skunk On A String was published in 2016. 

You are a phenomenal paper artist. How did you develop this art style and what lead you to it?

When I was in college I was experimenting with different mediums. One of my favourites was sewing scraps of fabrics together to create illustrations. I love working with my hands so it felt like I was quilting and crafting instead of doing school work. There were so many different patterns, textures, and colours but it was getting expensive, especially for a student. It was hard to buy just a square – fabric is sold by the yard or half the yard. In my search for something similar, I stumbled across Japanese paper and, eventually, scrapbook paper.

Your stories Skunk on a String, Wallpaper and The Paper Boat are wordless picture books. Do you approach telling the story in a book without text the same way you would approach a book with text, like My Cat Looks Like My Dad?

Wordless picture books and books with text have different challenges. With a wordless picture book I have to make sure all the actions and expressions of a character are clear. The storyline must be readable visually, so there is no misunderstanding or confusion. That being said, there a proportion of a wordless picture book left up to the reader’s imagination. I really enjoy the interaction I have with the readers when it comes to creating a wordless picture book, I am often surprised and delighted by their interpretations.

With a wordless picture book, it always starts with an image, enough to make me curious and ask questions. With My Cat Looks Like My Dad, it was a line of text that got the story started. Once the manuscript was mapped out I had to come up with illustrations to accompany the text. Text allows me to add another layer of emotion, detail, and storytelling to the illustrations. I am not trained as a writer and it does not come naturally to me so I find writing really difficult and there is so much to learn about the art of writing. Adding words into the mix has broadened my skill set and has given me another creative avenue to express myself.

We are excited for THAO, your newest book, which is based on your own experience growing up. What inspired you to tell your story and what do you hope children who can relate take away from this book?

A while back I read an article on NPR about the physiological effects of mispronouncing a child’s name. How it affects a child’s confidence, grades and sense of worth in themselves and their culture. These micro aggressions that we so easily overlook have lasting effects on a child. I went down a rabbit hole researching other studies and reading stories about names. Stories of schools asking children to anglicize their name; in some cases they were not given a choice, and just told: either pick one or we will give you one. Most often their names are the only thing kids arrive in a new country with, the only ties a child has left to their culture and history. All these stories gave me a new insight and understanding to everything I experienced as a child (even to this day). I wanted to give words to my experiences and learn how to say my name with confidence. Perhaps then a child named Rajeshri, Kibwe, or Hyeon would not feel so alone and learn that what makes them different is what makes them shine.

What projects are you working on now? Can you tell us about any upcoming books?

I am currently working on a wordless picture book about cause and effect with Owlkids Books. I spend a lot of time at the playground with my little one, watching kids interact. Scuffles often break out as kids learn to socialize and understand one another. My daughter, Maddie is very curious and observant; she wants to know why and how these scuffles start. The Line in the Sand (working title) is my way of explaining to Maddie how things can snowball and get out of hand. That sometimes there is no good guy or bad guy, just different points of view.