Karen Chan is a neighbor from our close suburb of Silver Lake. A special woman that, in early 2020, decided to set aside her corporate law career and give room to her very own passion: writing a children’s book.
An Inspiring Tale
She used her own experience to inspire the story: her parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan, and the book, called “What’s that?”, tells the tale of a little boy who brings a lunch prepared by his Chinese grandmother to school. He arrives at school and notices that his lunch does not look the same way as his friends. So the story is about him finding commonality with another child, who also brought a different-looking lunch.
The author declares that “it’s the bonds that we share as people through food and the commonality that we have through food. It’s a book about celebrating who we are and the food that makes up who we are.”
That is not all. Chan, who has been in Silver Lake since 2016, also started a publishing company Gloo Books. Mother of two boys three years and six months old, Karen affirms she is interested in telling stories that have a purpose. Voting rights, climate change, or pretty much everything she thinks that kids can and should start learning about when they are younger.
