All you need is love, sang a certain famous quartet.  They’re right, of course.

1) The lovely folks at Fiction Writers Review chose my book in their “A Valentine: Books We Loved in 2009” feature.  The love is mutual!

2) At I Am Korean American, where Korean Americans from all over the country give themselves a little bit of personal love.  From the site’s About page:

Our goal is to compile a collection of profiles that showcase the diversity and many interesting personalities of the Korean American population. We hope that our collective efforts will provide a snapshot of the Korean American community at this point in our history.

Yesterday was my day, so check it out.

3) Significant Objects, which I partook in last year, is like the Energizer Bunny — it keeps going and going.  The first one was an experiment, but the subsequent ones have been for charity.  They raised $2244.11 for 826 National with SOv2.  Love it!  They wished they had a giant check, so I made one for them.

4) A typo — the APALA award I won wasn’t for 2009, it was 2010!  I still get confused about doing my 2009 taxes in 2010, so this is not surprising.  In any case, the APALA had the following to say about my book.

Youth Literature Winner
Woo, Sung. Everything Asian. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009.

Set in early-1980s suburban New Jersey, David Kim is a 12 year old who just moved from Korea to America with his older sister Susan and mother to reunite with his father who moved years earlier. The journey only begins once the family reunites and face many obstacles to bond and adjust living together in a new country. Without any memory of his father or knowing any English, David spends most of his free time helping out at East Meets West, his father’s gift shop in a strip mall where the family really gets to know each other and their mall neighbors. Everything Asian presents a well-rounded portrayal of the joys and troubles of the immigrant experience told mostly from the perspective of David, as well as the Kims and other mall merchants to get a full, inside-out understanding of the family and the community that surrounds them. Through David and Susan, this novel articulately details the experience of 1.5 generation Asian Americans, a perspective not commonly found in youth literature. From lighthearted comedy to very serious issues, Everything Asian covers a wide range of experiences and emotions that many Asian immigrants can relate to, but not always communicate. From choosing American names, taking English night classes and cooking turkey for Thanksgiving for the very first time, Everything Asian also portrays everything Asian Pacific American. (Jeffrey Sichaleune)

They were entirely too kind, but of course, I’ll take the love.  Read about the rest of the winners.