Author strives for representation in picture books

“My childhood memories are just full of the smells of the Taiwanese sausage, the people that are bustling around, the colors, the lights,” Cheng said. “The whole feeling is so immersive, and I had recently wanted to write children’s books that more reflected my heritage and my unique voice.”

In a 10-year process full of revisions and rejections, she worked closely with her editor and critique group, taking feedback and collaborating with friends to improve the story. Originally featuring a girl and her mother, the “Night Market Rescue” was put on hold after editors returned the script to Cheng for something more exciting.

Around the same time, Cheng wanted to adopt a dog. While researching options online, she discovered how street dogs in Taiwan rely on the night markets to survive, sparking the idea to write “Night Market Rescue” through the eyes of a street dog.

“The next time I visited Taiwan, I started taking photos from below as if a dog were looking at the night market,” Cheng said. “When I sold the manuscript, I was also able to share all those photos with the illustrator so she could get all the way down to that perspective when making the illustrations.”

In the past, Cheng was hired by other authors as an illustrator, which gave her the experience of knowing what an illustrator could fill in with art and what she didn’t have to include in the writing.

“That allowed me to use the words to add more dimension with sounds, tastes and textures — things that are harder for the illustrations to convey — because I see picture books as a marriage of words and pictures,” Cheng said. “It’s like a puzzle — I love it. You only have a certain number of words to get your story across, so I try to make it as concise as possible while still being approachable and evocative.”

Within the stories of each picture book, Cheng aims to thread in more cultural representation and life lessons or unique ways of looking at things. Many of her books touch upon her Taiwanese heritage, with some featuring Mandarin in the illustrations.

In the “Night Market Rescue,” she conveys the two different meanings of the word “rescue” when GoGo rescues the lost girl and, in turn, gets saved as well. Incorporating elements of family, food and pets, Cheng also wants to make her books approachable.

“Because it’s approachable, I’m hoping that it gives more exposure of my heritage to people who might not know anything about Taiwan, and maybe sparked an interest in them wanting to learn more,” Cheng said.

Cheng will be hosting a launch party at The Reading Bug in San Carlos on Sunday, May 21. In addition to a read-aloud, Cheng prepared a boba bar, Taiwanese snacks, a book signing and activities for kids to design their own night market stand.

For more information about Cheng and her work visit https://charlotte.art.

Grace Wu is a senior at Carlmont High School in Belmont. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.