ESEA Heritage Month: Book Fairy Edition

This year, I had the amazing opportunity to be part of the incredibly meaningful ESEA Book Fairies project. As a proud ESEA Book Fairy, and thanks to Juniper By The Sea and Tales Without Borders, I joined other British-Asian creatives to help uplift and represent East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) narratives in literature. The ESEA Book Fairies initiative led by the incredible Angelina Wong-Jardin, founder of Fish Tales & Rhymes, and the wonderful Delicia Ong, co-founder of Bamboo Bilingual who invited me along to their project. Both U.K.-based entrepreneurs, passionate about bilingual storytelling and the representation that it yields, have helped to provide families with accessible, beautifully written children’s books in Chinese and English with the inclusion of Pinyin or Jyutping which are powerful aids for families to raise bilingual children while helping them share their cultural heritage.

Inspired by the global Book Fairies movement, where books are hidden in public places for readers to find and cherish, Wong-Jardin and Ong celebrate the importance of ESEA stories, cultures, and authors. Being invited to participate in this project was such an honour as I'm so passionate about the power of literature. Watching children and young people, growing up in the U.K., see themselves in the books that they read and the stories they'll remember tells them that their stories matter. Their lives matter. Their futures matter. We don't realise that when people see themselves reflected back at them, whether that's through a storybook character, through seeing their own culture or their language, it affirms their identity, subtly and subconsciously yet powerfully, telling them they belong.

It was so exciting to be a part of a project that included so many ESEA authors and creatives and it was able to platform ESEA authored works that people may not necessarily go out of their way to find in mainstream libraries or bookshops. Taking part in this project filled me with gratitude, optimism and hope. It made me think of how much I would have absolutely loved this project as a child and how much I hope that it continues to evolve and grow into something that isn't just part of ESEA heritage month but becomes deeply ingrained into how we push diversity and representation.

Here’s to more representation, more voices, and more collaboration. And here's to Angelina and Delica! Thank you so much for sharing this experience with me.

For those of you who missed out but want to have a little look at some of the books from the project, here's a little reading list!

• Spellcasters by Crystal Sung

• Finally Seen by Kelly Yang

• Arrow to the Moon by Emily X. R. Pan

• It's Good to Be a Girl by Jen Oshman and Zoe Oshman; Illustrated by Hsulynn Pang

• A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar

• Kiki Kallira Conquers a Curse by Sangu Mandanna

• Monkey King and the World of Myths: The Monster and the Maze by Maple Lam

• The Sad Book: Bear with Different Feelings by Quinn Teoh

• Throwback by Maurene Goo

• The Golden Mango Tree by Karen Li; Illustrated by Tochiko Ngai

• Hyo the Hellmaker by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh

• Tiger Warrior: Attack of the Dragon King by Maisie Chan