Wendy Wan-Long Shang is the author of THE GREAT WALL OF LUCY WU and THE WAY HOME LOOKS NOW. She is also the author of THIS IS JUST A TEST and NOT YOUR-ALL AMERICAN GIRL (cowritten by me). And she is also a complete and total slacker when it comes to keeping up her website, which expired right before THIS IS JUST A TEST came out. That’s when I put up this page, so people could learn about her and her writing and her fantastic books. She got back online after that, but I left this page up, sort of as a joke. But it turns out that the official Wendy page lapsed again, because the author has been busy writing thing like: OVER THE MOON, a novelization, and a brand new picture book called THE RICE IN THE POT GOES ROUND AND ROUND. Her official bio, via her agent at Adams Literary, reads as follows:
Wendy Wan-Long Shang is a middle-grade author who focuses on the many experiences of Chinese-Americans with humor, heart and a sense of history. Her most recent book, This is Just a Test, was co-written with her friend, Madelyn Rosenberg, and examines Chinese/Jewish identity, Cold War fears and friendship in the 1980s. Her debut novel, The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, was described by Booklist as “captur[ing] the seemingly unbearable unfairness of being a tween balanced between two cultures. Lucy’s struggles and frustrations are realistic, and her experiences take her from stubborn resistance to pride in her Chinese heritage.” The Great Wall of Lucy Wu received several awards, including the Asian-Pacific American Librarians Association’s Children’s Literature Award for 2012 and a place on nine state reading lists. The Way Home Looks Now portrays the struggle of Peter Lee and his family to recover from loss through baseball and the understanding that expressions of grief and love come in many forms.
Wendy has worked on behalf of children as a library volunteer, juvenile justice attorney, a tutor at an elementary school and a juvenile facility, and a Court-Appointed Special Advocate, but her most joyful roles have been as a mother and children’s book author.
Wendy also works as special projects coordinator for the Pretrial Justice Institute. Her sometimes co-author is also blaming that for letting her website lapse and disappear.
Wendy lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC with her husband and three children.
If I were a bad friend, I would fill this page with pictures of Wendy with her eyes closed. But she has the same photos of me, so instead I’ll just leave this note to tell you that her writing is amazing, her books are full of heart and depth, and you should follow her on twitter at @wendyshang, which still exists. Her new-and-improved website will be up at www.wendyshang.com when she renews it. And meanwhile, if you want to leave a message for her here, I will make sure she gets it.
Bella — so sorry, I haven’t checked for notes on this blog in ages and I am guessing you are way past needing this information. But Wendy’s website is functioning again: http://wendyshang.com/
Hi, I am doing a project on The Way Home Looks Now, and I can’t seem to find any information on Wendy except for the fact that she lives outside of D.C. and has three children. If you could help me find out where she grew up, her age, and some of her favorite books that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
Bella Murton