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=Meet the Author=

Laurence Yep
Laurence Yep was born in 1948 in San Francisco, California. He grew up feeling somewhat separate from others, because he lived in an African American neighborhood but went to school in Chinatown, in another part of the city. In those years he read science fiction and fantasy books, because, he says, in those books "children leave the everyday world and go to a strange place where they have to learn a new language and new customs. Science fiction and fantasy were about adapting, and that was something I did every day when I got on and off the bus." In high school, an English teacher told Yep's class that everyone would have to get their writing published by a national magazine in order to earn an A for the class. "The teacher later withdrew that threat," Yep recalls, "but the writing bug bit me." Yep sold his first story to a science fiction magazine when he was 18. He was paid a penny per word.

Laurence Yep says ideas for writing don't have to be grand or unusual. "Children sometimes think you have to have special experiences to write, but good writing brings out what's special in ordinary things…. Writing only requires taking one step to the side and looking at something from a slightly different angle." ===Other Books Written by Laurence Yep=== > (illustrated by David Wiesner) > (illustrated by Wayne McLaughlin) > (illustrated by Robert Van Nutt) > (illustrated by Eric Velasquez) > (illustrated by Isadore Seltzer)
 * Dragonwings
 * Child of the Owl
 * Sea Glass
 * Dragon of the Lost Sea
 * Liar, Liar
 * Monster Makers, Inc.
 * The Rainbow People
 * The Star Fisher
 * The Lost Garden
 * Dragon's Gate
 * The Junior Thunder Lord
 * Later, Gator
 * Thief of Hearts
 * Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales from the Garden of Night
 * Ribbons