by

about the book

Curious Juna and her Hispanic friend Hector share adventures in the park across the street from their Koreatown apartment building. She brings her special empty Kimchi jar and they find all sorts of things to put into it to study, even a caterpillar.

Then one day Hector suddenly moves away, and Juna wasn’t even able to say goodbye. She misses her friend greatly and is so sad.

Her older brother Minho feels her pain, and to help her, he purchases a little pet fish to put in her Kimchi jar. That night she dreams of donning fins and joining the fish in an undersea adventure, hunting for Hector. In the morning, she awakes to find the fish so big, its mouth almost curls around to its tail. She promptly moves the fish to the family’s aquarium.

Minho knows that Juna is still sad, so he finds a bean seed to put into the jar. That night, Juna dreams of tropical jungle adventures, still searching for her friend. In the morning, the seed has grown so big it must be transferred to another pot and moved to the patio.

Minho goes in search of something else for Juna’s jar and returns with a cricket. Together they fill the jar with twigs and leaves to make the little chirper a cozy habitat. Juna’s dreams are now filled with flights on the cricket’s back over the bustling city. But the very best is a peek into Hector’s new window and the discovery that he now has his own Kimchi jar filled with special rocks.

Can Juna now move on with her life? Maybe if she goes to the park, she’ll find a new friend.

about the author

Jane Bahk was raised in Toronto, Canada. She was always the only Korean in her classes.

In third grade, her teacher asked if Jane wanted to be a writer. She hadn’t even thought about the possibility, but in that moment, a door to a whole new world opened for her. Then, when she saw Connie Chung on television, Jane realized she wanted to be a journalist, too. She banged out her first novel on her dad’s old manual typewriter at the age of ten. She was pleased with “2gether, 4ever” but was too afraid to share the book with anyone. When she was eleven, she was amazed when one of her poems was actually published in a children’s magazine.

Jane attended Stanford, taught school, and wrote for newspapers and for television. She went on to produce TV shows and even won an Emmy. But she was still too self-conscious to share any of her creative writing with anyone.

Jane wrote Juna’s Jar inspired by a memory of playing with an empty kimchi jar during her own childhood. This manuscript was also tucked away for many years. Then, while packing up for a move, she rediscovered it. Since her daughter was leaving a good friend, June decided to rework the story and share it. Realizing her husband, who is also Korean, grew up in LA Koreatown, a place far different than Toronto, she decided to add all kinds of diverse kids who played well together.

Then she got up enough nerve to submit it to the Lee and Low’s New Voices Award contest—and won! She shouldn’t have waited so long to share her work. Juna’s Jar is Jane’s debut picture book and now she feels like a real author!

Jane and her family live in the San Francisco Bay area. She is always up for a good adventure, especially one that involves her kids and their kimchi jars!

Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Amazon
Author video interview: Bee Me Bookshelf

about the illustrator

Felicia Hoshino, a fourth generation Japanese American, was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up with few Japanese customs and none of the language. Dance was a big part of her life; she took ballet, tap, and buyo, a classical Japanese dance that she continues to study and perform today. As a kid, she was never any more artistic than other kids, but she was always making things like hand-sewn teddy bears and origami crane mobiles.

That interest in creativity continued, so when she enrolled at the City College of San Francisco, she took as many artistic classes as she could. Zeroing in on illustration, she continued her education at California College of the Arts, where she earned a BFA. Her work appears in many magazines and picture books. The detailed soft images are created using a combination of inks, water colors, acrylics, and collaged tissue paper.

While working on the picture book, A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, her research into Japanese internment camps during World War II made her aware of her grandparent’s and parent’s experiences. Since then she has been drawn towards the Japanese culture more and more and hopes to share her family’s history with her own children. Though she herself is quite Americanized, her husband Yoshi was born and raised in Japan. They hope to raise their son Sora and baby daughter Yume with the best of both worlds.

Felicia still lives in San Francisco. When she is not illustrating books or doing the mommy thing, she enjoys painting children s portraits and cooking with her husband.

Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator interview: Paper Tigers
Illustrator interview: Lee & Low Books

Also by Felicia Hoshino:
Little Sap and Monsieur Rodin by Michelle Lord. Lee & Low Books. 2006.

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