>> thank you all for coming. please come up, say hello, get a book, have it signed. and if you could do us a favor, fold up your chair, place it up against the bookcase -- [inaudible] let's have another round of applause for melissa. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> this is booktv on c-span2, and we want to know what's on your summer reading list. send us your choices. @booktv is our twitter handle. you can also post it on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. or you can send an e-mail to booktv@c-span.org. what's on your summer reading

list? booktv wants to know. >> gene yang is a graphic novelist and new national ambassador for young people's literature. tell me what that position means. >> it's kind of an amazing thing. be the national ambassador for young people's literature, as a position, was started in 2008, and every term is two years. the whole point is to get both more kids reading and kids reading more. >> host: more kids reading. how do you do that? what's the end game? >> guest: well, i do a bunch of appearances. i speak at book festivals and at schools. and we're also doing a lot of online things. so i've started two blogs, one about my writing process, one about what i'm reading, and we're also doing a video podcast where i interview people about what books influence them. >> host: this position was created by the library of congress. >> guest: uh-huh. in conjunction with children's book council. >> host: okay. how did they reach out to you? >> guest: i got a call from my editor.

i don't even know how the selection process works. >> host: you were just doing your work as usual. >> guest: yes. i'm a fan of case i ca mill low, the previous ambassador, so i was aware of the position, so they told me this was going to happen x i freaked out a little bit. >> host: why did you freak out? >> guest: because it felt a little too big, you know what i mean? like, i don't think i've ever had a job that has that many syllables in the title. [laughter] >> host: now, it's a two-year term. what do you, what's your goal? >> guest: my goal is broadly to get more kids reading -- >> host: a huge goal. >> guest: yeah. typically every ambassador picks a platform that they want to focus on, and my platform is reading without walls. and what that means is i want kids to get outside of their comfort zone through books. specifically, i want them to, first, read books about people who don't look like them or live like them. second, i want them to read books about topics that they might not know anything about. and third, i want them to read in formats they might not be familiar with.

so when i was a kid, a lot of my snobby sci-fi friends would never read a graphic normal. now there's kids that only read graphic novels, and for those kids i want them to try a chapter book or a book in verse. >> host: you talked about diversity in books. there's an organization called we need diverse bookings. how -- what is the current publishing landscape in regards to diversity in characters, in authors, in publishing? >> guest: i think a lot of the push for diversity right now is really readers want books that reflect the world that they grew up in, you know? and wily in an incredibly -- we live in an incredibly diverse world. we want that reflected in our stories, right? i definitely think publishing in general taking steps in the right direction. but as organizations like we need diverse books point out, there's still a lot to do. >> host: you are the son of chinese immigrants. >> guest: i am. >> host: who did you identify

with growing up? >> guest: you know, it's kind of a strange thing. i do remember it. it was a really big deal when i was a kid when a chinese or chinese-american showed up on american television. i remember, like, my brother and i would call our parents over from the other room to look because it was so rare. and growing up i think i most identified with superheroes. and that was because a lot of superheroes wear masks. like for spider-man, for instance be, every inch of his body is covered. so really anybody could be under that suit. and i think that's why early on i gravitated towards superhero comic books. >> host: were you just a comic book creator? >> guest: i really loved lloyd alexander, i read beverly cleary, i loved all sorts of books, but comics definitely have a potential place in my heart. >> host: how did your parents set your reading habits? >> guest: my dad was not big on me reading comics, for sure.

we had to sneak them in the house. >> host: really? >> guest: yeah. libraries, there was no graphic novel section like there is today. a friend of mine and i would get our parents to drop us off, wait million they drove home, and we would sneak out of the library, walk 20 minutes to the comics store, sneak back into the library and check out these giant, you know, coffee table books to hide our comic books so we could take them home. my parents, especially my dad, were not into me reading comics. >> host: where'd you grow up? >> guest: i grew up in -- [inaudible] >> host: what was that like? >> guest: it was, i mean, when we first moved into the neighborhood that i spent most of my childhood in, we were just one of a handful of asian-american families. and nowadays that same community is, like, 80, 70 or 80 percent asian-american, so it went through this huge transformation. i think that transformation came with some tension, and i grew up within that tension. >> host: you talked about reading comics as a kid, going

to the library, your dad not wanting you to read comics. do you think there's been a change in understanding about we call them graphic novels now instead of comics. >> guest: yes. >> host: is there a purpose to that, to take away the patina from the comics? >> guest: here's my understanding of the history of the term graphic novel. in the 1970s, will eisner, one of the most influential cartoonists in america, had comic book about jewish kids growing up in a neighborhood in new york. no superpowers, just straight-up fiction. he shopped it around, he told people i have comic book about jewish kids. nobody wanted to publish it. he went back to these same publishers and said i have a graphic novel about these jewish kids, and he was able to get a publisher. it was a about separating comic books from the genre that had dominated it for decades in american culture from superheroes. i think it's largely worked, right? the general public now has a

category for comic books that deal with war, literary materials. >> host: want to get back to your mission with the library of congress. according to the u.s. department of education, 53% of children ages 3-5 are read to on a daily basis. children under the poverty line, less likely to be read aloud. how do you get parents onboard? >> guest: yeah. it's -- i get that. i'm a parent, i understand at the end of the day you're exhausted, you know? and especially if you're working multiple jobs, if you're having a hard time making ends meet. it's hard. but it doesn't have to be for that long. you don't have to read, you know, you don't have to read for an hour. you can just read for 20 minutes. and it really is a way of connecting with your kids. so i think making that a priority is absolutely a priority. >> host: what do you read to the yang children? [laughter] >> guest: well, right now we have four kids, our youngest are 6 and 3, and right now they're both obsessed with this book by

lisa brown could the airport book. disturb called the airport book. our third child has only been on an airplane once, and our youngest has never been on an airplane at all, so i think they're giving me hunts. it's a wonderful book. like from a perspective of topic, it's nothing really exciting happens, you know? there's no superpowered fights, it's just a family going through the airport, but she does it in such a charming way. she adds these details into her illustrations. my kids just love that book right now. >> host: you're 42? >> guest: i am 42. >> host: how different do your kids read now than you read? i'm talking about the way the digital revolution's changed publishing. >> guest: yeah. well, each of my older kids has a killing, but they do read print and kindle. i think reading is getting more diverse in every sense of the word. so they're reading books with characters from diverse backgrounds, in diverse formats, they're reading graphic normals and prose books and books that

each combine the two together, and they're reading in multiple delivery methods, both on paper and digitally. and i think that's just going to happen as we move on. reading as a discipline is just going to get more and more diverse. >> host: as your kids get older, do you see yourself becoming your dad and having issues with certain text? [laughter] >> guest: you know, i didn't let -- like, there's a really bloody complex in turn of the century china, and my oldest was 9 at the time. he really wanted to read it, and i wouldn't let him read it because i was worried about blood. after i got my proofs, he snuck them away and read them in his room, and afterwards he was like, dad, i don't know why you didn't let me read that, it wasn't that bad. i do think there's a parental responsibility to try to present material that your kids are ready for so that they can understand it fully, but at the same time that has to be balanced with kids' own understanding of what they're ready for.

>> host: you just talked about your second book, boxers and saints, a boxer rebellion. your first book, american-born chinese, was nominate for the national book award as was boxers and saints. that book, is that more biographical? it's about a young boy growing up with i believe chinese immigrant parents. >> guest: yep. yep. it's fiction, but i pulled really heavily from my own life in order to write that book. specifically from my middle school years. i think middle school was when i experienced the most insecurity in my ethnic heritage. and it was also the period of my life when i experienced the most explicit racism. so those two things kind of combined, and i went through a period of a lot of doubt in myself be, a lot of doubt in my family and in my culture. >> host: what kind of reaction did you get from that from chinese-american or asian-american kids?

>> guest: it's been absolutely amazing. you know, the response to that book really changed my life. it allowed me to become a full-time author. it seems like the kids who connect best with that book are the children of immigrants regardless of where their parents are from, you know? i talk to asian-american students whose families have been here for longer, you know, for several generations x a lot of them, especially if they grew up in a place that's pre dominantly asian-american, they have a hard time connecting to the themes of the book. and other kids whose parents are from other parts of the book, not necessarily asia, they connect with the book. it's all about negotiating between two different cultures, and for children of immigrants, that's a daily reality for us. >> host: do you write and illustrate all your books? >> guest: not all of them. no, so far i've only done -- [inaudible] for all other books i worked with an illustrator, so i only handled the writing. >> host: what's the process? >> guest: it takes forever.

[laughter] comics just eat your life. i will write a summary of every book, a short outline of all the thought points. then i'll write a script. i'll do thumbnail drawings, small sketches of what every page looks like. from that i'll do pencils and inc., and i -- and ink. >> host: when does your publisher see -- do they see the proposal first? >> guest: they do, yeah. they see -- i have a pretty awesome relationship with my editor, you know? we're not just, like, we don't just work together, we're also friends. >> host: who's that? >> guest: marc siegel. he is also a world class cartoonist, you know? he's a graphic novelist himself, and i think that's really rare. i think it's rare for a cartoonist to have an editor who's also a cartoonist. i really rely on him to do my books. >> host: who's your publish or? >> guest: ing first second books. >> host: what is that? >> guest: it's a part of mcmillan. they are the graphic novel

imprint of mcmillan children's. >> host: i want to talk about your mission here, and i want to talk about the harry potter generation. that book was first published in 997. 1997. and i want to ask do you think that was an entry to greater readership for that generation of other books, or do you think that was a one and done series for most kids? >> guest: it seemed like it was an entry. when you talked to harry potter fans and you asked them about other books they've read, there are other books. and i think it's wonderful. i think comics and graphic novels can be the same thing. they can be an entry into the general discipline or habit of reading. >> host: also according to the national education association ability 70% of middle school students read more than ten books a year. by the time they got to high school, 49%. >> guest: yeah. yeah. that's something -- i do think that nowadays with this upcoming generation of kids there is a

lot more competing for their attention. and it's not necessarily bad, you know? i'm definitely not one of those parents or teachers that think video games or screens are all bad. but i do think there has to be a balance in the different ways in which we take in information. libraries are are often host video game parties. yeah, yeah. you know, my brother is a medical doctor, so he is the good asian son. and he told me that statistically doctors who grow up playing video games make fewer mistakes in surgery than doctors who didn't. so that's very concrete evidence of how video games have good applications, you know? and i also hi there are links between -- think there are links between video gamesother forms of telling stories like books that are all sorts of books nowadays that are based on video game properties. and i think that is a great bridge from video games in the book. >> host: you obviously believe this, because your new book is called secret coders? >> guest: yes. >> host: what is this book ou