With Peach Heaven, Yangsook Choi has in the books her fourth children’s story that features both her words and pictures (to go with the seven that she just illustrated). Set in Puchon, South Korea, in 1976, Peach Heaven tells an autobiographical tale of a young girl’s love of peaches. The pages are filled with warm images that take you on a short cultural journey, making it a great book for adults to share with their kids.

Choi’s ability to fuse her Korean heritage with her storytelling produces colorful snapshots of Korean traditions. “My ideas come from my experiences,” said Choi, who grew up in Korea, moved to the United States at the age of 24 and attended Kendall College of Arts and Design in Michigan. Her career had been focused on the illustration side of children’s books, but after the prompting of editors, Choi found another niche.

“I totally fell in love with writing,” said Choi. “And the thing is, when I look at my first draft of my writing, it really stinks. But as I work on it, it gets better and better. I just love that improvement.”

A Chat with Yangsook Choi

Why do you write for children?

Communicating to children has been very natural to me. I think that I have that voice of a child. It’s not like I like to write children’s books, but it’s beyond liking or not liking. To me, it’s like breathing — it’s a part of who I am.

What inspired you to write Peach Heaven?

There was an event at Fordham University in New York, the second annual Holiday Literary Tea. When it was my turn to speak, I started telling a true story that happened to me. I guess my point was to tell the audience that you could write anything you know about. One of the publicists at the event told my editor about it, who then encouraged me to write about it. If they didn’t send a publicist to the event, Peach Heaven would not have made it as a book!

Is the story just for entertainment, or is there a moral?

I don’t usually like to think about a message or a moral to deliver. As long as I enjoy writing it, my mission is complete.

Do you always write about your Korean heritage?

My writing came later when my editors started encouraging me to write. I don’t really have a background in writing, but I do have a lot of ideas, and since I grew up in Korea, I guess they’re about my experiences. It just comes naturally.

Will you continue to write for children in the future?

Right now, probably, because this isn’t something that I make a decision with my rationale or reasoning; it’s been easy for me. Writing for adults, that’d be more challenging because I don’t think I enjoy reading books for adults that much to begin with. The complications and the things that go on in adults’ worlds are definitely less interesting to me. But right now, I’m writing middle school fiction, and that’s definitely for older children.