Janet S. Wong

Janet S. Wong is an American author of children's books and poet. She has written over 50 books, spanning from middle grade, young adult, picture books, poetry, and short stories. She's the co-author of the 28-book poetry anthology The Poetry Friday Anthology, together with Sylvia Vardell and Guadalupe Garcia McCall.

Janet S. Wong
Born (1962-09-30) September 30, 1962
Los Angeles, California, United States
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.A. in History, J.D. in Law
Alma materYale Law School, UCLA, Université de Bordeaux
Home townLos Angeles, San Anselmo
Genremiddle grade fiction, picture books, poetry, non-fiction, young adult fiction
Notable worksThe Poetry Friday Anthology
Notable awards2001 and 2001-2003 Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature
Years active1994-now
Children1
Website
www.janetwong.com//

Personal life

Wong was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Koreatown, as the child of a Chinese and a Korean immigrant.[1][2] Her parents met while her Chinese-immigrant father was serving in Korea in the U.S. Army.[2] She grew up speaking neither Chinese nor Korean, a for her painful experience, which she referenced in her first book, Good Luck and Other Poems.[2] Wong has a brother who died when he was a teenager.[2] When she was seven, her family moved to San Anselmo in Marin Country.[2] Wong says that she initially hated poetry starting from fourth grade on, due to the way it was taught to her in school.[2]

Wong is married and lives in Medina.[3]

Career

During her junior year at UCLA, Wong went to France to study art history at the Université de Bordeaux.[3] When she returned from France, she founded the UCLA Immigrant Children's Art Project, an intiiative to encourage refugees to pursue expressing themselves through art.[3]

Wong graduated from UCLA summa cum laude with a B.A: in History in 1983, and later attended Yale Law School while working as a substitute teacher.[4][2][5] She graduated from Yale with a J.D. in Law 1987.[5]

Prior to becoming an author, Wong practiced corporate and labor law as Director of Labor Relations at Universal Studios Hollywood until 1991.[6][3]

After browsing a book store while looking for a gift for her baby cousin, she fell in love with picture books and decided she wanted to try writing them herself.[1] The first thing she wrote was a middle grade novel that she never sent to any publishers.[2] She wrote a picture book every week, waiting six months for responses when she realized that she needed to work on her craft and decided to attend UCLA Extension in 1991, a writing class specializing on writing books for children.[2] Inspired by the speaker, renowned poetry author Myra Cohn Livingston, Wong studied with her to become a better writer, despite having no intentions of ever writing poetry herself at first.[2] She spent eighteen months in total honing her craft and attending writing classes before she was able to publish her first book, Good Luck Gold and Other Poems.[7][2]

Works

Children's books

  • You Have to Write, illustrated by Teresa Flavin (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2002)
  • Minn and Jake, illustrated by Geneviève Côté (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003)
  • Apple Pie 4th of July, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (HMH, 2006)
  • Before It Wriggles Away (Richard C. Owen Publishers, 2006)
  • Me and Rolly Maloo, illustrated by Elizabeth Buttler (Charlesbridge, 2010)
  • The Mom Quiz: Tween Edition, co-authored with Euna Kwon Brossman (TheMomQuiz.com, 2012)

Picture books

  • This Next New Year, illustrated by Yangsook Choi (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000)
  • The Trip Back Home, illustrated by Bo Jia (HMH, 2000)
  • Buzz, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (HMH, 2000)
  • Grump, illustrated by John Wallace (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2001)
  • Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club, illustrated by Stacey Schuett (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2004)
  • Hide Seek, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (HMH, 2005)
  • The Dumpster Diver, illustrated by David Roberts (Candlewick Press, 2007)
  • Homegrown House, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009)

Short stories

Poetry

  • Good Luck Gold and Other Poems (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1994)
  • A Suitcase of Seaweed and Other Poems (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1996)
  • Behind the Wheel: Poems About Driving (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1999)
  • The Rainbow Hand: Poems about Mothers and Children, illustrated by Jennifer Hewitson (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1999)
  • Night Garden: Poems From The World Of Dreams, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2000)
  • Knock on Wood: Poems About Superstitions, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2003)
  • Twist: Yoga Poems, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007)
  • Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer, illustrated by Geneviève Côté (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
  • Dear One: A Tribute to Lee Bennett Hopkins (National Council of Teachers of English, 2009)
  • Once Upon A Tiger: New Beginnings for Endangered Animals, illustrated by Sladjana Vasic (2011)
  • Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year (Poetry Suitacase, 2012)
  • The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science for Kids, with poetry by Sylvia Vardell (Pomelo Books, 2016)
  • You Just Wait: A Poetry Friday Power Book, with poetry by Sylvia Vardell (Pomelo Books, 2016)
  • I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage (Lee & Low Books, 2019)
  • Poetry Tag Time, co-authored with Sylvia Vardell
  1. PoetryTagTime (2011)
  2. P*TAG (2011)
  3. GIFT TAG (2011)
  • The Poetry Friday Anthology
    • The Poetry Friday Anthology, with poetry by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Pomelo Books, 2012
      • with Sylvia Vardell
        1. The Poetry Friday Anthology (TEKS K-5 version): Poems for the School Year with Connections to the TEKS (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        2. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Texas TEKS (all grades K-5)) (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        3. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core KINDERGARTEN) (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        4. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core ALL GRADES (K-5)) (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        5. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core FIRST GRADE) (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        6. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core SECOND GRADE) (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        7. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core THIRD GRADE) (Pomelo Books, 2012)
        8. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core FOURTH GRADE) (Pomelo Books, 2013)
        9. The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core FIFTH GRADE) (Pomelo Books, 2013)
        10. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School: Poems for the School Year with Connections to the Common Core (Pomelo Books, 2013)
        11. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School: Poems for the School Year with Connections to the TEKS (Middle School Edition, Grades 6-8) (Pomelo Books, 2013)
        12. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: Kindergarten Student Edition (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        13. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: First Grade Student Edition (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        14. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: Second Grade Student Edition (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        15. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: Third Grade Student Edition (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        16. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: Fourth Grade Student Edition (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        17. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: Fifth Grade Student Edition (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        18. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science (Teacher's Edition): Poems for the School Year Integrating Science, Reading, and Language Arts (Pomelo Books, 2014)
        19. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science (K-5 Teacher Edition): Poems for the School Year Integrating Science, Reading, and Language Arts (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        20. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (April E-Book Edition): Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        21. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations ( May E-Book Edition): Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        22. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (June E-Book Edition): Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        23. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (July E-Book Edition): Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        24. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (September E-Book Edition) Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        25. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (October E-Book Edition): Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        26. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (November E-Book Edition): Holiday Poems in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)
        27. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Children's Edition): Holiday Poems for the Whole Year in English and Spanish (Pomelo Books, 2015)

Awards

Won

References
  1. "Transcript from an interview with Janet Wong". Reading Rockets. 2013-08-12. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  2. "Teachingbooks.net Original In-depth Author Interview" (PDF). Teachingbooks.net. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  3. "Janet S. Wong Books, Author Biography, and Reading Level | Scholastic". www.scholastic.com. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  4. "2017-2018 AWARDS WINNERS » Asian Pacific American Librarians Association". Asian Pacific American Librarians Association. 2018-02-11. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  5. "Janet S. Wong". Charlesbridge. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  6. "janetwong.com | speaker". Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  7. "A video interview with Janet Wong". Reading Rockets. 2013-08-09. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  8. "Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature", Wikipedia, 2019-02-01, retrieved 2019-04-11
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