Patti Kim is the author of three books– the novel A Cab Called Reliable, the picture book Here I Am, and her latest novel I’m Ok. I’m Ok was published October 16, 2018 and is now available through Powell’s, your local bookstore, or your local library.
Jen Embree (JE): Please introduce yourself and briefly describe your literary work and career path to date.
Patti Kim (PK): Hi there! My name is Patti Kim. I’ve written three books in my career. The first was a novel, A Cab Called Reliable, which was published in 1997 by St. Martin’s Press. The second was a picture book called Here I Am, which was published in 2013 by Capstone. This current one about to be released by Atheneum is called I’m Ok and is my debut middle grade novel. It’s a coming-of-age story about Ok Lee, a Korean-American immigrant boy living at the poverty line. He’s recently lost his father to a construction accident and is trying to help his struggling mother while being bullied at school.
(JE): Your body of work has really focused on telling poignant and thoughtful stories from the perspective of a child. What particularly draws you to writing from that point of view?
(PK): A kid’s point of view tends to be less filtered, less refined, not-yet-processed, and raw. This unprocessed perspective offers immediacy, openness, and a curiosity that’s still innocent. There’s also an intense hunger for new experiences. That, combined with trying to figure out boundaries and develop self-awareness, makes for a rich and compelling point of view. Writing as the child feels almost like waking up to your five senses for the first time. It feels fresh.
Kids also have super sensitive radars for BS. They know authentic. They’re a tough audience. You can’t be boring. Writing for them keeps standards high because you have to entertain as well as teach without coming across as teaching because once they detect didacticism or preaching, they’ve closed the book.
It’s also a matter of material. I have two daughters who talk to me. They inform. They tell me things that excite the fiction writer in me. I’ve often borrowed irresistible lines of dialogue and scenes from them. Also, my own childhood provides my most indelible memories. They’re rich with undertones and emotion. The adult in me can now access those frames of meaning the child could not. I suppose I could write about my childhood for an adult audience, but why? I believe there’s greater potential for good to be sown and reaped in children’s literature.
(JE): I’m Ok is very light-hearted and humorous at times, but there are also more serious and somber themes that you delve into throughout Ok Lee’s story, such as his grief over the death of his father, and his bullying at the hands of classmates. What are you hoping readers of your book, particularly young diverse readers, will learn from Ok’s positive and negative experiences that you portray throughout the book?
(PK): Thank you for finding the book humorous. It makes me happy to know some punchlines actually landed. Thank you for finding the book somber as well. I was going for the gold standard of tears and the silver standard of laughter. The funny parts are supposed to help you take in the serious parts. I believe in the well-timed joke, punchline, and/or fart to initially enter the graces of a young reader to then eventually fortify them enough to hold and feel the sad stuff. The real beauty is in the sadness. If you want to get deep with young readers, levity is crucial.
I hope young diverse readers see themselves. I hope they make eye contact and nod in recognition. I want them to say, “I know these people. I know this feeling. This is me.” I hope they feel represented and realize the worth of their own stories, especially if their narrative contains the hurt, shame and humiliation of having been marginalized, of being an immigrant, of having parents who don’t speak English well, of having an accent, of being bullied and boxed into a stereotype, and not being seen as human. I hope that place of shame turns into a source of power.
It would be very gratifying to learn that a kid of color felt like they’d been found out, like someone acknowledged and validated their struggle of managing dual identities. I’d like my book to relieve some of those tensions, encourage a kind of “outing,” and help them see what an extraordinary point of pride it is to be an immigrant in America.
(JE): Even though the primary audience of I’m Ok is middle grade readers, there are several of adults out there (me included!) that very much enjoy reading children’s literature. What do you believe that adult readers, whether they are parents reading your book with their children or simply just avid children’s literature fans, can gain from reading about Ok’s story?
(PK): For parents, especially immigrant parents, it really helps to have common references with your kids. You can generate with them some of the deepest and revealing conversations because of a shared movie, song or book. It’s like you get to talk about people without hurting anyone’s feelings or invading anyone’s privacy because these people are fictional. See it as a way to develop a secret language, code, or joke with your kids. I’d love it if a parent told his/her kid, “Don’t pull an Ok on me.” Or if the kid said to the parent, “Stop. You sound like the d-CON.”
Even if I weren’t a parent, I’d read children’s literature. It’s a window into helping you understand your adult self. When you’re struggling to figure out who you are and why you do what you do and how you got this way, you usually return to memories of your childhood for deeper self-awareness. Reading children’s books can be therapeutic. It’s entertaining. It’s also wonderfully uplifting, which isn’t always the case for adult books. I’m not at all advocating happily-ever-after endings, but I do want to feel joy and hope. So, to answer your question, Ok’s story will gain you more self- and others-awareness, more joy, and more hope.
(JE): As librarians, we are always looking for more to read! Are there any authors that you think we should be reading, and why?
(PK): I had the opportunity to have an early read of Marie Maranda Cruz’ Everlasting Nora because both of our books were BEA Buzz picks. It’s heartbreaking, heartwarming and action-packed. It’s about a Filipina girl and her mother trying to make a home for themselves in a cemetery.
I’m currently reading Deb Caletti’s A Heart in a Body in the World. It’s an invigorating read–perfectly timed in the midst of the Me Too movement.
(JE): On the topic of libraries, you are being interviewed by a librarian for an audience of Asian American librarians. Do you have any thoughts on libraries and their places in communities, or what they should be doing in communities?
(PK): Libraries should be as essential as grocery stores. They really should have grocery store ubiquity and status, but the food would be free. They should be as frequently visited, as big, as varied in their offerings (I’m talking more than just one aisle or shelf for “international food”), and designed with as many bells and whistles as grocery stores. That’s my dream. What is more important than the nourishment of our minds and souls?
I honestly don’t know if I would’ve become a writer without libraries. My parents rarely spent money on purchasing books for me and my sister. All we got was a set of World Book Encyclopedias, the end all and be all of books. And when Scholastic book fairs came to school, I was allowed to order one book per year. And that flimsy copy of Clifford the Big Red Dog didn’t last long. I remember ordering Ramona the Pest, too. Devoured it. It was a book desert in my home. Without libraries, my access would’ve been severely limited.
Libraries are a haven; they’re also the great equalizer. Ok is an avid reader. He gets all his books from the library. He has to, coming from a struggling family. But none of the books he references contains characters who look like him. I wonder how he would’ve been if he had, let’s say, a Gene Luen Yang book at the ready.
(JE): I have seen you mention in several of your bios that you knew you wanted to be a writer when you were as young as four! What advice would you give to elementary, middle, and high schoolers, especially those from diverse backgrounds, that are now young aspiring writers like you once were?
(PK): I’m still aspiring.
I don’t know if what I was doing at the age of four could be considered actual writing. It’s more accurate to say that I loved the physical act of holding a writing utensil and scribbling. My mom called it nagseo which means doodling or scribbling in Korean. The word has a negative undertone. It connotes making a mess. I remember my mom getting upset with me when I nagseo all over her Korean/English dictionary. I had scribbled inside it over the words, as well as all over the edges and binder. She was taking an ESOL class at the time, which required her to bring the dictionary with her. She was embarrassed to have to pull that thing out in front of the teacher and other students. I remember feeling pretty sorry about it.
She did end up providing me with plenty of spiral notebooks to nagseo in. From a young age, I kept a daily journal. It was where I reported everything from observations to dreams to crushes to hurt feelings to knock knock jokes…anything and everything. I wasn’t aware that what I was doing at the time was practicing how to write. So, my advice to young aspiring writers:
- Keep a notebook. Nagseo. Write whatever and however the heck you want in this notebook. No rules.
- Observe. Pay attention. Notice people. Notice places. Notice weird and interesting details. Like how so-and-so resembles a crocodile when he smiles. Write your observations in your notebook. No one else gets to read your notebook. For your eyes only.
- Read. Read. Read. Books show you how to tell a story, how to emotionally hook and hold readers. You’ll see how some of that stuff you’ve been scribbling in your notebook, your joys, your rants, your boredom, your metaphors, the way you turn phrases, can actually cohere to serve the greater public purpose of spinning a story.
- Love and respect words.
- Be cocky. Sort of. Don’t be gross cocky, but know your worth. Have a healthy ego. This can be a huge challenge for kids of color, especially immigrant kids. We’ve been parked in the margins of society. We too often feel like visitors. Like we don’t belong here. Like our voice doesn’t matter. So we keep to ourselves. We keep quiet. This has to stop. We must realize how important we are. Our stories must be told. It’s our turn to “Show and Tell.” We need to subvert the system that put our lives in the margins. We need to grab the mic.
(JE): What is one thing you wish people would ask you in interviews but never do?
(PK): What do you want for your birthday?
Since you asked, I want the Airstream 22FB Travel Trailer.
(JE): Lastly, what is coming up next for you?
(PK): I’m working on a companion middle grade novel to I’m Ok. The protagonist is Ok Lee’s over-the-top-larger-than-life friend, Mickey McDonald. My editor and I felt like she deserved for her own book. She was so much fun to write, and her voice leaped off the pages for me. The book should be out in 2020.
You can follow Patti Kim on social media at:
- Facebook @pattikimwrites
- Twitter @pattikimwrites
- Instagram patti.kim
- Website www.pattikimwrites.com
Editing assistance provided by Molly Higgins.