Janet S. Wong


Janet S. Wong is an American poet and author of children's books. She has written over 30 books, primarily poetry, picture books, and middle grade fiction. At the age of seven, she had an active imagination. She used this later in her life to write poetry and books. She is the co-creator, along with Sylvia Vardell, of The Poetry Friday Anthology series and the Poetry Friday Power Book series, published by Pomelo Books. Her most recent book is HOP TO IT: Poems to Get You Moving, an anthology of 100 poems by 90 poets that focuses on the topics of movement, the pandemic, and social justice. She is the winner of the 2021 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, a lifetime achievement honor considered the most prestigious award that a children's poet can receive.

Personal life

Wong was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Koreatown, as the child of a Chinese immigrant father and a Korean immigrant mother. Her parents met while her father was serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. She grew up not speaking Chinese or Korean, something she regrets and discusses when addressing a multilingual audience. When she was seven, her family moved to San Anselmo, California. This move from an urban area to a semi-rural/suburban area, where children would catch lizards after school, was featured in her book Minn and Jake.
Wong is married and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Career

During her junior year at UCLA, Wong went to France to study art history at the Université de Bordeaux. When she returned from France, she co-founded the UCLA Immigrant Children's Art Project, an initiative to encourage refugees to express themselves through art.
Wong graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in history in 1983, and later attended Yale Law School while occasionally working as a substitute teacher. She graduated from Yale Law School with a J.D. in 1987.
Prior to becoming an author, Wong practiced corporate and labor law as Director of Labor Relations at Universal Studios Hollywood.
While browsing in a book store, looking for a gift for her baby cousin, she fell in love with picture books and decided she wanted to try writing them herself. The first thing she wrote, however, was a middle grade novel that she never sent to any publishers. She then wrote a picture book manuscript every week. After receiving many rejection letters, she realized that she needed to work on her craft. In 1991, she decided to attend a writing class in poetry taught by Myra Cohn Livingston through UCLA Extension. She spent eighteen months honing her craft and attending writing classes before she was able to publish her first book, Good Luck Gold and Other Poems.

Works

Picture books

in print

  • Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club, illustrated by Stacey Schuett
  • Apple Pie 4th of July, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
  • This Next New Year, illustrated by Yangsook Choi ; also in a Chinese-English bilingual edition and a Korean-English bilingual edition
  • You Have to Write, illustrated by Teresa Flavin
  • Homegrown House, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

    Additional Picture books

  • The Trip Back Home, illustrated by Bo Jia
  • Buzz, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
  • Grump, illustrated by John Wallace
  • Hide & Seek, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
  • The Dumpster Diver, illustrated by David Roberts

    Additional Children's Books

  • Minn and Jake, illustrated by Geneviève Côté
  • Before It Wriggles Away
  • Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer, illustrated by Geneviève Côté
  • Me and Rolly Maloo, illustrated by Elizabeth Buttler

    Poetry Collections

  • Good Luck Gold and Other Poems
  • A Suitcase of Seaweed and Other Poems
  • Behind the Wheel: Poems About Driving
  • The Rainbow Hand: Poems about Mothers and Children, illustrated by Jennifer Hewitson
  • Night Garden: Poems From The World Of Dreams, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
  • Knock on Wood: Poems About Superstitions, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
  • Twist: Yoga Poems, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
  • Once Upon A Tiger: New Beginnings for Endangered Animals, illustrated by Sladjana Vasic
  • Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year
  • ''A Suitcase of Seaweed & MORE''

    Anthologies Created with Sylvia Vardell

  • Dear One: A Tribute to Lee Bennett Hopkins
  • The Poetry Tag Time Series, co-authored with Sylvia Vardell
  • The Poetry Friday Anthology Series:
  • * The Poetry Friday Anthology
  • * The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School
  • * The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science
  • * The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science for KIDS
  • * The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations: Holiday Poems for the Whole Year in English and Spanish
  • The Poetry Friday Power Book Series
  • * YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book
  • * HERE WE GO: A Poetry Friday Power Book
  • * PET CRAZY: A Poetry Friday Power Book
  • GREAT Morning! Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud
  • ''HOP TO IT: Poems to Get You Moving''

    (Included in) Anthologies Edited by Others

  • Amazing Faces by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet
  • A World Full of Poems by Sylvia Vardell
  • I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage by Lee Bennett Hopkins
  • National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry by J. Patrick Lewis
  • Poems to Learn by Heart by Caroline Kennedy

    Awards

Won