When she was a child, author Stacey Lee wanted to read stories about more people like her. She’s a fourth-generation Chinese-American whose ancestors came to California during the heyday of the cowboys. Her new young adult novel, Under a Painted Sky, is about a Chinese girl and an African-American girl traveling the Oregon Trail together, disguised as boys. They’re trying to get to California during the gold rush.
STACEY LEE: I remember going up and down the library aisles looking for Chinese surnames and working backwards -- maybe THEY wrote an Asian-American book.
Lee came by the studio to talk with KALW’s Rachel Dornhelm about the book and the lack of diversity in children’s literature.
Click the audio player above to hear the interview.