If you’ve been following us lately, you know how excited we are about our new Q&A books series. The chance to chat with authors like Sophie Blackall, LeUyen Pham, and the others coming up soon has been thrilling and delightful. And we’re so happy to pass on these fun conversations to you!
This week, we had the incredible opportunity to chat Caldecott Honoree and one my own kids’ favorite illustrators ever, LeUyen Pham. If you’re familiar with Freckleface Strawberry, Princess in Black, or The Together Tree then you’ve been enchanted by her work, too.
LeUyen has consistently appeared on our site over the years. Not just in our “best books of the year” posts, but also for meaningful work like helping our kids learn about social distancing back during Covid and for writing and illustrating books that are empowering our young daughters. She’s the best!
LeUyen’s newest book with author Laurel Snyder is Shrinking Violet. If you’ve ever felt like your fears make you smaller, then you’ll resonate with the message of this book.
Let’s pause for a second and give a shout out to incredible kids’ books that have messages that actually change moms’ (and dads’) lives too. Because this book isn’t just about a little girl who shrinks when she gets afraid. It’s about being a woman who claims her space in this world. One who, as LeUyen told us, “finds that the space in side her is much bigger than the physical space she takes up.” Violet is a girl who learns to be her full self, and that’s a lesson I’m still learning. And I hope my daughters are able to learn it faster than me. Shrinking Violet will help.
We highly recommend this for Christmas for every little girl in your life. In fact, give it out at baby showers and bat mitzvahs, birthday parties and baptisms. This is such a sweet and important story.
So we had a chance to ask Sophie a few questions, and we’re delighted to share her answers with you.
CMP: What book have you given as a gift more than once, and why?
LEUYEN: Oh my gosh, so many! How do I whittle it down to one? For kids, I always love being able to buy them their first copy of Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. And then as soon as they receive it, I have to read it to them. The drawings are primitive and not my style, but OH OH OH how I love to read aloud this story! Because when you get to the monkeys, it’s infectious, and the kids always end up aping the monkeys (pun intended). For adults, one of my favorite books of late is Circe by Madeline Miller. She writes so beautifully, and takes such pains to retell this story, it’s just beautiful.
CMP: We love Caps for Sale too! And after seeing The Odyssey, Circe looks fascinating. Our next question is: What place do you most want to visit (or return to)?
LEUYEN: Oooh, I travel a lot. And I’ve been to most places that I’ve wanted to go. Lately I’ve been thinking about the Galápagos Islands. Me, my husband, a couple sketch books and sun hats, and I’m good.
CMP: What’s something that has brought your family closer together lately?
LEUYEN: We do family movie and dinner night. When our oldest is home from college, we’ll assign Friday night as movie night. Then the kids make dinner — anything they want, but it has to include a salad for me. And then we take turns picking a movie to watch. It’s been interesting to discover how our kids’ tastes have changed over the years. But our one promise is that no matter what the movie is, even if it’s not our cup of tea, for the sake of the person who selected it, we all have to watch. I’ve had my mind changed on a couple of different films that way. Deadpool is one of them. And the kids have to watch the French movies my husband picks (he’s French of course) and they have to watch my classics too.
CMP: Family movie night is the best! What is something totally ordinary that has brought you a lot of joy lately?
LEUYEN: During covid, when we were quarantining as a family unit, we’d take time every day to take a long walk around neighborhood. We live in Los Feliz, California, and discovered that this area has so many hidden stairways and quiet hillside streets. It’s been a while since Covid, but I haven’t lost that joy of walking. I spend an hour at least every morning combing our neighborhood and nearby hikes, equipped with my AirPods and favorite audio book or podcast. It relaxes me into the day for sure.
CMP: Last question. What is one thing you own that, if you lost it, you’d immediately buy it again?
LEUYEN: My Teva walking shoes. They’re more like sandals, really, but they’re super comfortable to walk in. I turned fifty a couple years ago, and boy do my bones feel it. Comfy walking shoes are a must!
Thank you, LeUyen, for taking the time to talk to us! We hope our readers all check out Shrinking Violet for their kids this fall.
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