Linda Sue Park is a writer of over two dozen books for the readers of young age. These books include picture books, short stories, and verse. Among her titles are the 2002 Newbery Medal champ A Single Shard, and the New York Times-blockbuster A Long Walk to Water.
Linda Sue grew up outside Chicago and has lived in California, Ireland, France, England, and Brooklyn. She presently lives in western New York. In her life, she was a food feature writer and an instructor of English as a Second Language. Notwithstanding books and perusing, she adores baseball, weaving, motion pictures, cooking, eating, and her family.
Linda Sue is respected to serve on the boards of advisory of We Need Diverse Books, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. This list also includes the Rabbit hole national kids’ writing exhibition hall venture. She has likewise filled in as a specialist for a few scholarly honors, including the National Book Award, the PEN Naylor partnership, the Kirkus Prize, and the SCBWI Golden Kite Awards.
Linda Sue cherishes conversing with individuals about books, perusing, and composing, at schools, meetings, book celebrations, composing withdraws, and different occasions. She appreciates joining her profession as a creator with her enthusiasm for movement. She has visited in excess of two dozen nations and forty-eight states.
A Short Biography of Linda Sue Park
Linda Park was born in Urbana, Illinois. His date of birth is 25th March 1960. Her parents were Eung Won Es and Susie Kim. Her father was a computer analyst while her mother was a teacher. Her parents belonged to Korea and they had come to America in the 1950s. Her family soon adapted to the new way of life in America and therefore Linda Park has not first-hand complete knowledge about the Korean way of life.
She was in school when she started writing stories and poems. She was nine years old when she succeeded in publishing her first poem in ‘Trailblazer’ magazine. This poem was Haiku. She received one dollar for the published poem.
She graduated from Stanford in 1981. Afterward, she started working in the Amoco Oil Company as a public relations writer. Although Park was not interested in this job, it gave her the first professional exposure. She met Ben Dobbin. He was from Ireland. He was a journalist. In 1983, Ben wanted to go back to Ireland so was accompanied by Park. They started living in Dublin.
In Dublin, Park started studying at Trinity College. She chose Literature as her major. The couple got married in 1984. After the marriage, they came to London. In 1988, Park completed her master`s degree from Birkbeck College, London. This was the time when she gave birth to Anna and Sean. After completing her degree, she started working as an English teacher at college. She also served for an advertising company as a copywriter and then she worked for a restaurant as a review writer.
Due to the job of Ben, the family had to return to America in 1990. She started teaching English and many of her poems were published in magazines. During this time, she became interested in digging out her roots. She researched about Korean culture and writings. She started writing Korean based short stories. She published her first children’s book in 1997.
Linda Sue Park’s Writing Style
Confident
The writing style of Park is very confident. She is not reluctant to expound on an idea rather she deliberately and confidently talks about whatever she has in mind. Her education and her exposure to American ways of life have made her bold in her writing. Besides this, she has worked for various organizations which provided her the necessary confidence for her writing.
Hopeful
Park`s writing does not give her pessimistic dimensions and aspects rather she has the ability to optimistically write and discuss various ideas. She is confident in making an optimistic narrative. Her novel ‘A Long Walk to Water’ is the greatest example of this kind of writing.
Salva, the protagonist of the novel moves through various difficulties. He is to endure the loss of family and uncle. On his journey to Ethiopia, he has to meet the death of Marial and other hardships but she remains hopeful of the bright and progressive future and this is the beauty of Park`s writing.
Direct
Another quality of Park`s writing is that her writing is direct. She has a brief sketch of whatever she wants to write about. She then expounds on the sketch directly. She is never carried away by the digression and her concentration from the main plot remains focused. Her writing is very simple and direct which makes the readers interested in her writing because they get the desired meaning in an easy way.
Point of view
The major portion of Park`s writing has a third-person narrator. She brings a narrator in her works that communicate with the readers. She sits back comfortably and makes the narrator and the readers have their conversation through her written text.
For example, ‘A Single Shard’ is written from a third-person point of view. Tree-ear is the narrator of the book and is the main character as well.
Themes in Linda Sue Park’s Writings
Park is most popular for her historical fiction. Except for three picture books and two books, the majority of Park’s books focus on Korean history and Korean culture. Her initial three books are set in old or medieval Korea. However, her novel, ‘When My Name Was Keoko,’ is about the later history of the Japanese control of Korea during World War II.
‘Project Mulberry’ happens in a contemporary setting outside Chicago. Park’s book, ‘Archer’s Quest,’ brings an authentic figure along with current occasions. Park shares her energy for baseball in her book ‘Keeping Score.’ Park’s book, ‘A Long Walk to Water,’ includes family companion Salva Dut and his youth experience experiencing childhood in Sudan just as another character, Nya who spends her whole day assembling and moving water to her family.
Park explored her Korean legacy for her books, exhibited by chronicled subtleties inside the story alongside areas for writer’s notes and lists of sources.