Sea Glass

laurence yep

When Craig Chin's family moves from San Francisco to small-town Concepcion, California, he thinks he'll never fit in. And his father won't stop pushing him to succeed in sports -- a hopeless goal. But his life begins to change when odd old Uncle Quail shows him a secret sea garden. This new entry in the Golden Mountain Chronicles features the same stunning design as the previous books in the series, including Newbery Honor Books Dragonwings and Dragon's Gate. Award-winning author Laurence Yep has written a highly readable historical novel that hints at the complex experience of the children and grandchildren of the Chinese immigrant generation.

Genres historical fictionchildrensmiddle gradejuvenileasian literature

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1979

Series

Golden Mountain Chronicles

Literary awards

california book award,

This edition

Format: 256 pages, Paperback
Published: June 18, 2002 by HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780064410038
ASIN: 006441003X
Language: English

About the author

laurence yep

Born June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep. Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood. After troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. He was in his own words his neighborhood's "all-purpose Asian" and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. They later married and now live in San Francisco.

Although not living in Chinatown, Yep commuted to a parochial bilingual school there. Other students at the school, according to Yep, labeled him a "dumbbell Chinese" because he spoke only English. During high school he faced the white American culture for the first time. However, it was while attending high school that he started writing for a science fiction magazine, being paid one cent a word for his efforts. After two years at Marquette University, Yep transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. He continued on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. Today as well as writing, he has taught writing and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara.