About
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - MY STORY
Hi! My name is Katrina Liu and I’m proud to call myself an American-born-Chinese/Taiwanese mom of 2 and children’s book author from San Francisco, CA.
I grew up in the 80s/90s and went to a predominantly white elementary school. I pushed away everything about my culture because of how badly I wanted to fit in with the other kids. I purposely stopped speaking Chinese at home and hated eating Chinese food. I never truly appreciated my heritage until I became an adult.
As a child, you’d find me do creative things, whether it was designing friendship bracelets, making short films, writing poems, or drawing storybooks. As I got older, I began teaching myself graphic design and website design. My first job out of college was with a small publishing company as a print and web designer. I eventually moved away from the print industry and into tech. Went on to get my MBA, ended up in Silicon Valley working in product management.
After a decade in my professional career, I became a mom. As I watched my first daughter, Mina, grow, I witnessed the pure joy she has when drawing with a crayon or creating her own world with play-doh. It made me realize how much I missed the arts. After late hours in the office, I’d rush home with excitement to read bedtime stories to her. We’d cuddle, admire the colorful illustrations and giggle as I made funny voices as I read.
As Mina was about to embark on her next milestone of going to school, l hoped and wished that she would have a better experience than I did. That she could feel confident in herself and proud of her culture and heritage. I also wanted her to have the opportunity to be bilingual ---something that I always regretted pushing away during my childhood. I knew it would be a challenge living in the US in a prominently English-speaking environment.
That’s how I came up with the idea to write my own bilingual children’s books in both Chinese and English for non-native speaking families like ours. There was nothing more fulfilling than creating something that was meaningful to me and my children.
Fluency in a language is most easily gained if a child is exposed within the first few years of life. I created these books for non-native speakers and like-minded parents interested in fostering the development of dual-language with their children.
My mission is to add more Asian faces into the world of children’s books and to leave a legacy for my daughters by creating books where they can see themselves reflected in them.
As an independent author, this passion project is self-funded. If you support my mission to add more Asian representation to children’s books and dual language learning, I hope you will share my books with your community, friends, and family.
I'm also a self-publishing book coach. If you're interested in publishing your own children's book, check out my book coaching services.
To learn more, Chalk Academy has interviewed me about my process and project. You can read the interview here.
Thank you! 
MEET THE ILLUSTRATORS
Afa is a passionate illustrator who lives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Growing up with admiration for Disney and anime, she has many aspirations in art. With her shy nature, drawing becomes a hobby and fun medium for telling stories. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in art and design, then spent almost 2 years in the webcomic world before falling in love with children's book illustrations. Spending most of her time in her favorite place, her own room, she wants to spread happiness and good values through her artwork.
Anastasiya Klempach is a digital illustrator. She really loves dogs. Anastasiya owns two funny whippets and one fat cat.
Bella Ansori Putri is a passionate illustrator who currently lives in Indonesia with her husband and little girl. She has taken part in several competitions since kindergarten and has won several of them. She loves Disney art, so all of her art was inspired by it. After graduating from a vocational school and majoring in animation, she took on the challenge to try something new such as animation, cover book design, logo design, and children's book illustrations. Since then, she still loves trying new experiences. You can find her on Instagram: @bellansori.
Rosalia Destarisa, also known as Desta, is a freelance children’s book illustrator currently living in Indonesia. She graduated in 2016 from Universitas Sebelas Maret with a degree in Visual Communication Design. She works in a small city called Solo. Desta enjoys playing video games and taking her cat, Hero, out for walks. You can check out her artwork on Instagram: @pink.licorice, and her blog: pinklicorices.tumblr.com
Heru Setiawan is a talented illustrator from Indonesia and a passionate introvert. He loves creating stories through drawings. His delightfully unrefined with softly painted brushes and cozy calm colors which distinguishes his unique artwork style. After graduating with a degree in visual communication design from ITS Surabaya, Heru spends most of his time resting and making illustrations for children's books, animations, with a small team of friends. He can be found on Instagram under the name of @_hrstwn, on his Behance page be.net/hrstwn, and of course in his small house in Gresik.
Eve Farb currently works as both an illustrator and a psychologist in Izhevsk, Russia. She has a passion for drawing, design and Russian fairy tales, and has illustrated multiple books published in Russia, where she is from and lives with her husband and her cat.
Dhidit Prayoga a 21-year-old artist from Pekanbaru, Indonesia. He has been drawing since elementary school and loves watching cartoon series like Doraemon. Graduated from a vocational school majoring in animation, now he is studying at Padang State University and at the same time working as a children's story illustrator.
Anselm is a digital illustrator from Lima, Peru. He has a bachelor's degree in graphic design from Pontificia Universidad Católica Del Perú, Peru. He enjoys reading books and playing videogames. He primarily illustrates children's books and is passionate about coming up with fresh ideas for his drawings.