*Stan Yan

Local author/illustrator Stan Yan visited our 5th-8th grade students on Friday, March 13 to celebrate his latest book, The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang. Stan shared his journey from accountant to caricature artist to graphic novelist with our students. He talked about overcoming fear and rejection to do the work he does, and he also spoke about representation. With his first picture book, There's a Zombie in the Basement, Stan originally designed the main character as a white boy with red hair. Then he started wondering why he hadn’t made that character—who was based on his son—look like himself and his son. He said that at first, “It didn’t cross my mind. I feared I didn’t have permission. And then, I feared I was part of the problem.” He decided that, as a Chinese American, representation and seeing the Chinese American experience in his art and writing was important. He redesigned that character to be more representative and used that strategy to create the character of Eugenia Wang and her family as well. Stan led our students through a live drawing demonstration, where students called out the character, setting, and job. Then, Stan drew Kirby as an accountant in a sunny field and showed students how to use color and shading to make their drawings scarier. Stan Yan (https://www.stanyan.me/) is a local author/illustrator and caricature artist and his books—including his newest, The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang, can be found wherever books are sold.