Laurence Yep is known for his children's books, having won the Newbery Honor twice for his Golden Mountain series.
10 Facts About Laurence Yep
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Laurence Yep's father was a first-generation American born in China who had moved to San Francisco as a boy.
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Laurence Yep's mother was a second-generation Chinese American, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family ran a Chinese laundry.
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Laurence Yep was named by his older brother Thomas, who had just been studying the biography of Saint Lawrence for school.
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Laurence Yep spent his early childhood commuting from his neighborhood to a Catholic school in Chinatown for Chinese children, where he was often made fun of by the mostly bilingual students for only knowing how to speak English.
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Not until high school when Laurence Yep attended a less segregated Catholic school did he confront white American culture in person, having grown up among Black and Chinese kids.
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Laurence Yep published his first story in a science fiction magazine at the age of 18 while still in high school.
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Saint Lawrence 8.
Laurence Yep later earned a PhD in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
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Laurence Yep wrote two other notable series, Chinatown Mysteries and Dragon.
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The committee noted that "Laurence Yep explores the dilemma of the cultural outsider" with "attention to the complexity and conflict within and across cultures" and it cited four works in particular: Dragonwings, The Rainbow People, The Khan's Daughter, and the autobiographical The Lost Garden.