GENRE: **LGBTQ+, Diverse, Character Driven
WORDS: 255
Query:
Dear PBParty Judges, Agents, and Editors,
A young boy struggles to find a yukata that feels right for him as all his ancestors come back home from the afterlife on the first day of Obon. All the men in the family seem to connect with their ancestors as they wear their respective summer kimonos…except him.
Love In A Yukata is a lyrical 255 word picture book for ages 4-8 that follows a young boy’s self-discovery through finding a yukata that connects him with the rest of his Japanese American family. This unique story about gender and cultural identity is told through the first-person POV lens of Obon, the Japanese equivalent of Day-of-the-Dead. A lyrical story for young readers that combines the self-exploration of one’s identity in Calvin (2021) by JR and Vanessa Ford, as well as Mary Wears What She Wants (2019) by Keith Negley, along with the unapologetic cultural acceptance found in Suki’s Kimono (2003) by Chieri Uegaki.
This story is pulled from my own experiences growing up as a little boy in a small town. I am proud to say that today I am a Queer and Transgender, Japanese-Taiwanese American woman working in Southern California as a librarian. Currently, I am Assistant Editor for SCBWI-Los Angeles, a 2025-2027 member of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Literature Awards Committee, a 2026-2027 fellow for the “Storyteller Fellowship at Boyds Mills,” and a Children’s Book Writing and Illustration MFA graduate student at Hollins University.
As an author-illustrator, I am currently working on dummy sketches for Love In A Yukata, as well as dummy roughs for a separate story.
Additional manuscripts, dummies, and portfolio pieces are available upon request.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
Excerpt:
The summer evening glows brightly as my family’s ancestors journey back home for my first Obon. Father proudly hands me his old yukata to wear as I help Mother light the candles on the butsudan, but something doesn’t feel right.
[Child holds an unlit candle]
Father says that the voices of our men, deep and stern, echo throughout his fabric during the three days of Obon…
…but I hear nothing.
What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:
I never had the chance to come out to my paternal grandparents as a transgender woman, and though my entire family has been supportive, I still wonder what they would have said. Since I didn’t have the language for what I felt until I became an adult, it made sense for me to have the young boy discover that she wants to wear a yukata designed for girls without having to rely on the correct words. My hope is that this book reaches those who need to hear it most and encourages everyone to find love in whatever they wear.
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