Merging Memory With Imagination

Author Rin-rin Yu's debut middle-grade novel, Goodbye, French Fry, represents a combination of her true childhood experiences and the universal experience of growing into yourself.

- MICHAEL WOODSON

When you're writing a story that's somewhat based on your own experiences, it's as if the writing process has been happening your entire life. But the true challenge comes in learning what realities to let go of to let your characters shine in their own way—especially when your hope is to help your young readers see themselves on the page.

Author Rin-rin Yu's debut novel, Goodbye, French Fry, is the story of Ping-Ping, a Chinese American girl living in New York with her parents and her brother, Xy. Her father, an employee at the United Nations, has the chance for a promotion, which means the family might have to move to Kenya. Ping-Ping, already straddling two worlds (one where some don't think she's Chinese enough, the other not American enough), the idea of moving is complicated. As the possibility looms over the family, she continues to navigate the pleasures and pitfalls of childhood: unpracticed piano lessons and nerve-racking recitals, celebrating the Chinese New Year, taking taekwondo lessons with her best friend, accidentally hurting someone who intentionally hurts her, and starting to understand who she is and who she wants to be.

Yu spoke with WD about the experience of writing her debut novel, inserting her childhood memories into the story, and more.

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT LED YOU TO WRITE GOODBYE, FRENCH FRY.

I spent years trying to write a book based on my parents' childhoods, but then I realized it would involve a lot of historical research that I did not have time or patience to conduct. ... I decided to write what I actually and accurately knew about them, which was everything from my childhood onward. I was also acutely conscious that there were very few books with American-born Asian characters like me who just go about their suburban lives without much drama or fanfare.