Linda Sue Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Linda Sue Park
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Linda Sue Park at the 2014 Texas Book Festival.
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| Born | March 25, 1960 Urbana, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Stanford University (BA) University of London (MA) |
| Genre | Young adult fiction, poetry |
| Notable awards | Newbery Medal 2002 |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul |
박명진
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| Revised Romanization | Bak Myeongjin |
| McCune–Reischauer | Pak Myŏng-chin |
Linda Sue Park (born March 25, 1960) is an amazing Korean-American author. She wrote her first novel, Seesaw Girl, in 1999. Since then, she has written many books for young readers, including six children's novels and five picture books. Linda Sue Park became very famous when she won the important 2002 Newbery Medal for her novel A Single Shard. She also wrote Storm Warning, which is the ninth book in The 39 Clues series.
Contents
About Linda Sue Park
Linda Sue Park was born on March 25, 1960, in Urbana, Illinois. She grew up near Chicago. Her parents moved to the United States from Korea in the 1950s to study. Linda Sue Park started writing poems and stories when she was only four years old! She published her first poem when she was nine in Trailblazer magazine. Throughout elementary and high school, she kept publishing poems in magazines for kids and teens. Her first book, Seesaw Girl, came out in 1999.
Park went to Stanford University, where she was part of the gymnastics team. She earned a degree in English there. She also got advanced degrees in literature from Trinity College in Ireland and the University of London.
Before she became a full-time writer, Park had many different jobs. She worked in public relations for a big oil company. She also wrote about food for British magazines and newspapers. Plus, she taught English to college students who were learning it as a second language. Today, Park lives with her family in Rochester, New York.
What Linda Sue Park Writes About
Linda Sue Park is best known for her historical fiction books. This means her stories are set in the past. Most of her books focus on Korean history and Korean culture. Her first three novels, like Seesaw Girl and The Kite Fighters, take place in ancient or medieval Korea.
Her fourth novel, When My Name Was Keoko, is about a more recent time. It tells the story of the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War II. Not all her books are historical, though. Project Mulberry happens in modern times outside Chicago. In Archer’s Quest, a historical person travels to the present day. Park also shares her love for baseball in her book Keeping Score. Her book A Long Walk to Water tells the true story of Salva Dut's childhood in Sudan. It also features a girl named Nya who spends her day getting water for her family.
Park does a lot of research about her Korean heritage for her books. You can see this in the historical details she includes. She often adds notes and bibliographies at the end of her books. Her stories often feature special parts of Korean culture. These include embroidery (in Seesaw Girl), kite fighting (in The Kite Fighters), and celadon pottery (in A Single Shard). She also writes about silkworms (in Project Mulberry), Korean food (in Bee-Bim Bop), and archery (in Archer’s Quest). She still writes poetry too!
Her Books
Novels
- Seesaw Girl (1999)
- The Kite Fighters (2000)
- This book was chosen by the Junior Library Guild.
- A Single Shard (2001)
- Won the famous Newbery Medal in 2002.
- When My Name Was Keoko (2002)
- Project Mulberry (2005)
- Archer's Quest (2006)
- Click: One novel ten authors, chapter one (2007)
- Keeping Score (2008)
- Storm Warning (2010), part of The 39 Clues series
- A Long Walk to Water (2010)
- The Chronicles of Harris Burdick (The Harp, 2011), she contributed to this book.
- Trust No One (2012), part of The 39 Clues series
- Forest of Wonders (2016), first book in the Wing and Claw trilogy
- Cavern of Secrets (2017), second book in the Wing and Claw trilogy
- Beast of Stone (2018), third book in the Wing and Claw trilogy
- Prairie Lotus (2020)
Picture books
- Mung-Mung: A Foldout Book of Animal Sounds (2004)
- The Firekeeper's Son (2004)
- Yum! Yuck! A Foldout Book of People Sounds From Around the World (2005), written with Julia Durango
- Bee-bim Bop (2005)
- What Does Bunny See? A Book of Colors and Flowers (2005)
- Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo Poems (2007)
- The Third Gift (2011)
- Xander's Panda Party (2013)
- Yaks Yak: Animal Word Pairs (2016)
Poetry
Linda Sue Park has also published many poems in different magazines and reviews. Some of her poems include "On Meeting a Poet," "Handstand," and "Seven Sins."
See also
In Spanish: Linda Sue Park para niños
