Author Linda Sue Park visits MS at TCIS.

Students in Middle School were very fortunate to listen to a presentation given by Ms Linda Sue Park.
Here are some notes I made about her presentation to give you an insight into the range of topics she spoke about to our MS students.

Linda Sue Park was born to Korean immigrants in America. As a child she did not learn Korean as her parents only spoke English to her so she would learn English as her first language. Her parents wanted her to be able to learn English; however, it was at the expense of her Korean.
In America in the 1970's, she was a Korean looking child with no other Koreans in her town. It was very hard being different. Multiculturalism was not readily accepted at that time. Even today she speaks very little Korean, even though she has tried to learn the language as an adult.


One of her novels "A Single Shard" won the Newberry medal in 2002.
 Ms Park shared with us that her stories are not born in a 'wow' moment, rather through interest and often through researching. In "A Single Shard" she wanted to share information about the awesome Korean pottery with the world... Thus the book was born.
"A Single Shard" was rewritten 8 times. Ms Park calls herself a re writer as she spends so much time reworking and drafting her work or rewriting. One story she rewrote 36 times.

Ms Park believes our use of electronics allows us to read and write much more than our parents. She also says written communication is more important now than ever. Rewriting an email is a form of drafting and as you do it more it will get easier.

Her motto is writing = rewriting. She believes that prospective employers are looking for young people who can write and express themselves eloquently through their writing... and this can be achieved through the process of drafting and rewriting work.


Ms Park is an author and not an illustrator. The publisher of the book arranges the illustrator. She gives feedback on the drafts of the illustrations. But she does not make suggestions about the design of the pictures. She only gives feedback to ensure the illustration fits correctly with the story. She showed us some examples of an illustration, which was redrafted after her suggestions, so that it would be more correctly aligned to the story.

Ms Park said, "When young people decide they like a book they are the best readers".
She believes they notice details that many adults do not. Thus she wants her work to be up to the standard for a young reader who may read her books many times if they like them.

Her latest book is titled "A Long Walk To Water".
It is set in Sudan and based on real events. One of the characters is an 11 year old boy trying to reach safety away from the war in 1985. One of the other characters is an 11 year old girl who has to walk to the pond for water for her family. It takes her 2 hours each way and she has to make 2 trips each day for water. In the dry season her family has to move and hand dig a well. One day strange men with a strange machine arrive. Do you know what they will do?

You can order this book through the HS library. If you buy her book some of the money goes to this project to drill fresh water wells in Africa. Through her contributions from her books, Ms Park now has a well named after her in Kenya. Ms Park also showed us some pictures with the main character from the book. He is now a grown man.