Mượn Thị Văn's Blog

Happy book birthday to You Make the World!

You Make the World is now officially in the world! Phùng Nguyên Quang and Huỳnh Kim Liên's gorgeous art makes this story come alive and I hope you'll feel empowered and loved after reading it. Many special thanks to the entire team at Scholastic and Liza Royce Associates for making this book possible!

 

Wishes wins German Children’s Literature Award

Wünsche (Wishes) has just been announced the winning picture book of the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2024 (German Children’s Literature Award)! Truly honored to be receiving this prestigious award, and my first international book award to boot! A special thank you to Horami, our publisher who brought Wünsche to readers in Germany and beyond.

 

 

 

Triple news-burger deluxe!

It took eight years but If You Want to Be a Butterfly is now out in the wild, soaring on its gorgeous, hard-earned wings! Many thanks to Andrea Armstrong, Kids Can Press, and Liza Royce Agency for helping this book complete its life cycle! 

 

More good news: Kirkus Reviews just announced that The Shape of You has been selected as one of the Best Books of 2023! So wonderful to see all the love that The Shape of You has been getting (it's also been picked as a Top 10 Pick elsewhere but we can't share that news just yet!).

 

Lastly, the singer and actress Geri Halliwell-Horner recently read I Love You Because I Love You on BBC CBeebies Bedtime Stories—what an honor! I never imagined our paths would cross when I was listening to "Wannabe" in high school. (:

Just in time for Valentine's Day...

Some love letters are written on tiny scraps of paper, and some love letters are written in big beautiful books. I hope this is one you would have written, and one that you can share. It wasn't the easiest story to illustrate but Jessica Love made it look effortless, transforming a simple love letter into a luminous story I hope everyone can connect with, and in which everyone can see reflections of themselves and those they care about. Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Every Day!

 

BookPage names WISHES the #1 best picture book of 2021

BookPage names Wishes the #1 best picture book of 2021, saying, "This powerful picture book illuminates the closely held wishes of refugees the world over. Its spare, lyrical text and cinematic illustrations are simply unforgettable." Wow!

 

 

 

Watch One Is a Lot on Vooks!

 One Is a Lot is now an animated book on Vooks—check it out!

 

Wishes has arrived!

Everyone has an origin story and Wishes is mine.

I began writing this story more than four years ago and now it is a book. I am incredibly fortunate to have Victo Ngai, Celia Lee, and so many others as partners on this bookmaking journey.

Wishes is my most personal story yet, and it is the story that compelled me to write books. I hope you’ll read it. I hope you’ll remember it. And I hope you’ll share it and talk about it. Together, we can make a difference.

Just one more week...

Just one more week until Wishes arrives in bookstores everywhere. It's a Junior Library Guild pick and it's  received multiple starred reviews — I hope you'll read this book and share it!

Greater Good picks Clever Little Witch as a favorite book

 

Clever Little Witch has been picked by Greater Good Magazine as one of eight "exceptional children’s picture books about and by the Asian American community. The books on this list do not portray Asian Americans as exotic, foreign, or 'other.'" So happy to be on this list, as that was one of the reasons why I wrote this story. Kudos to Hyewon Yum for having two books on the list!

If you were night, what would you do?

If your family was anything like mine this summer, you too were counting down the seconds till you could place new holds on library books again. 

I'm glad to say that my latest book, If You Were Night, is now available for holds (and for purchase). Featuring gorgeous paper cut illustrations by Kelly Pousette, this is my first story to be written entirely in questions. Why? How is that possible? Is it any good? I guess you need to read it to find out??? 

Kelly's dioramas definitely steal the show, though, so if you have time, check out this cool piece on her art process. Happy reading!