Halifax, Nova Scotia author, Jack Wong, talks to Erin Steel on the making of his award-winning book, “The Words We Share” (Annick Press, 2023)
This live interview appears here as a fresh installment of the AW Live podcast series.
Highlights from the Podcast:
“On the surface, it’s about immigration, it’s about language, it’s about translating, but, for me, the story really is about the love between a parent and a child.”
“Even as a young kid, being a kid with parents, it isn’t always a one-way street. It isn’t always about how they’re helping you. There are instances where children have agency to help grown-ups in turn.”
“As children’s authors, sometimes you don’t use those same tools that you hear about for novelists or people who write full-length fiction – like a story map or an outline or a character development and backstory map – and this book I did end up doing a character backstory for Angie and her dad.”
“Even in a picture book, you can have something multi-layered, that’s about two things that operate on two different levels.”
About the Author
Jack Wong (黃雋喬) was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. Jack’s debut picture book, When You Can Swim (Scholastic), received the 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in Picture Books and the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books. His second picture book, The Words We Share (Annick Press), is currently a nominee for the Ontario Library Association’s Blue Spruce Award.
His other forthcoming titles include All That Grows (Groundwood, 2024), and an untitled picture book biography on acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma (with author James Howe, Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025). (Photo Credit: Nicola Davison)