The picture book biography Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, illustrated by Dom Lee, was Korean-American writer Paula Yoo‘s first book. Her book contract came as a result of her manuscript winning the 2003 Lee & Low “New Voices Award“, an award which, since 2000, has been encouraging narratives that children of color can relate to and identify with.

Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds is the story of the prejudices and challenges faced by Sammy Lee on his journey to become the first Asian-American (and the first Korean-American) to win an Olympic Gold Medal, in 1948. The book received a string of well-deserved accolades, and Paula has since written Good Enough (HarperTeens, 2008), a young adult novel about a first-generation Korean-American teen that tries to both fit in and stand out, and the upcoming new picture book biography, illustrated by Lin Wang, Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story (Lee & Low), about the first Chinese-American movie star to break into Hollywood and to crusade for more meaningful roles for Asian-American actors.

For more on Paula Yoo’s books, check her website and blog. And see here for details on Lee & Low’s “New Voices Award”, which is accepting submissions until Sep 31, 2009. And speaking of awards, on Jun 1 PaperTigers current focus on Korea will give way to new features focusing on the theme of “Book Awards.” Keep your eyes peeled!

(Click on event name for more information)

Get Caught Reading Month~ USA

National Share-a-Story Month~ United Kingdom

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month~ USA

Asian Heritage Month~ Canada

Paju Bookcity Book Festival for Children~ Paju, Korea

Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature to be Announced~ USA

USBBY – Bridge to Understanding Award Winner to be Announced ~ USA

Discovering Ethnic Minorities – Storytelling Workshops for Children~ Hong Kong

5th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature~ ongoing until May 3, New York, NY, USA

35th Buenos Aires International Book Fair~ ongoing until May 11, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mitali Perkins’ 2009 Fire Escape Short Fiction and Poetry Contest~ entries accepted until Jun 1, USA and Canada

Books Illustrated Traveling Exhibition: An Australian Menagerie -Australian picture books~ongoing until mid Jun, China

Seoul Arts Center Exhibit: Voyage to the World of Illustration~ ongoing until Jun 23, Seoul, Korea

Exhibition of Prize-Winning Works of 16th Noma Concours (2008) “Palette of Dream Colours IV”~ ongoing until Jul 5, Tokyo, Japan

The Child and the Book Conference: This Land is Our Land~ May 1 – 3, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

BOOKFEST – The Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival~ May 2, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

IRA’s 54th Annual Convention: Reading, Writing and Conversations~ May 3 – 7, Minneapolis, MN, USA

ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers~ May 4 – 6, Toronto, ON, Canada

WordPower~ May 4 – 8, Fort McMurray, AB, Canada

Tehran International Book Fair~ May 6 – 16, Tehran, Iran

Mapfre Hay Festival~ May 7 – 10, Alhambra, Spain

Once Upon a Time: Children’s Book Illustrators, Then and Now~ May 8 – Jun 14, Oakland, CA, USA

Mt. San Antonio College’s Children’s Literature Day~ May 9, Walnut, CA, USA

Children’s Book Week~ May 11 – 17, USA

New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival~ May 11 – 20, New Zealand

Forest of Reading, Festival of Trees~ May 13 – 14, Toronto, ON, Canada

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival~ May 13 – 17, Auckland, New Zealand

Surabaya Book Fair~ May 13 – 17, Surabaya, Indonesia

Seoul International Book Fair~ May 13 – 17, Seoul, Korea

The 5th China International Cultural Industries Fair~ May 15 – 18, Shenzhen, China

African American Book Festival~ May 15 – 16, Mt. Vernon, NY, USA

Mother’s Day Readings With Authors Mitali Perkins, Christina Seid, Pooja Makhijani, and Others~ May 16, New York, NY, USA

Children’s Books Ireland Conference: Challenge and Change in Children’s Books~ May 16 – 17, Dublin, Ireland

National Black Book Festival~ May 16 – 17, Houston, TX, USA

Sydney Writers’ Festival~ May 18 – 24, Sydney, Australia

The Foundation for Children’s Books New England Voices Series with Authors/Illustrators Grace Lin and Giles Laroche~ May 19, Boston, MA, USA

Bisto Children’s Book of the Year Awards Presentations~ May 20, Dublin, Ireland

The Guardian Hay Festival~ May 21 – 31, Hay-on-Wye, United Kingdom

WriteAway Conference: Something Old, Something New -approaches to classic literature, culture and heritage in education~ May 22, London, United Kingdom

Storytelling Association (Singapore) Presents Silver and Gold: Precious Stories to Inspire Young and Old~ May 23, Singapore

World Village Festival~ May 23 – 24, Helsinki, Finland

Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences and Annual Book Fair~ May 23 – 31, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Week~ May 24 – Jun 3, Sweden

Library and Information Week~ May 25 – 31, Australia

National Simultaneous Storytime~ May 28, Australia

International Latino Book Awards Presentations~ May 28, New York, NY, USA

Reading Matters Youth Literature Conference~ May 28 – 30, Melbourne, Australia

BookExpo America~ May 28 – 31, New York, NY, USA

Thessaloniki Book Fair~ May 28 – 31, Thessaloniki, Greece

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: The Wizards of Pop -Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart~ May 28 – Sep 19, Abilene, TX, USA

Canadian Library Association National Conference and Trade Show~ May 29 – Jun 1, Montreal , QC, Canada

World Book Fair~ May 29 – Jun 7, Singapore

We’ve recently posted our celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month to the PaperTigers website (click now or click later, but do hop on over and enjoy the new features) and, as usual, we had more material then we could fit into the update. So here are some additional thoughts for you to mull over:

I found interesting words by authors Linda Sue Park and Laurence Yep pointing to an intersection, so to speak, between fantasy/science fiction and multicultural literature. And the idea that the themes and scenarios explored in some science fiction books might resonate with immigrant and biracial children is an intriguing one…

In a video interview to Reading rockets, Laurence Yep speaks of “adapting to different realities” in a time when books reflecting his own experiences didn’t exist:

I lived in an Afro-American neighborhood and went to school in Chinatown. So the books that I really found true to my own life were fantasy and science-fiction, because in those books you have children from an ordinary world or ordinary place taken to another world, where they have to learn strange, new customs and a strange, new language. Those books talked about adapting, and that was something I did every time I got on and off the bus.

And Linda Sue Park says, in her answer to a question from Cynthia Leitich Smith about the lack of non-white protagonists in fantasy and science fiction:

Fantasy and science fiction generally posit the protagonist as an “other,” amid races and species that are not of this world. Some writers whose lives are lived as part of the majority might feel that they have to leave the real world, as it were, in order to place their characters in environs of alienation. But writers of color don’t need to do that–we’ve got plenty of alienation right here (…). As we continue to get more comfortable in the mainstream of both life and literature, I think we’ll start to see more characters of color in other genres. These things take time.

From a time when fantasy and science fiction about “alien worlds” were closer to home for a young Chinese American boy than the rest of the available stories, to a time when all genres, including fantasy and science fiction, feature characters of color… Now that’s something to think about and root for.