Yangsook Choi is the author of the beloved classic, THE NAME JAR. She grew up in Korea and started drawing at age four. She loved telling her grandma scary stories at night. Since moving to New York to pursue her art, she has written and illustrated many books for young readers. Her books have been acclaimed as a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, an American Library Association Notable Book, and with an International Literacy Association's Children's Book Award. She has also received 200+ rejection letters until she lost count.
Her past jobs include waiting tables at a Korean BBQ restaurant, flying as a flight attendant, and drawing tiny pictures on fake nails.
When she is not creating, she loves to doodle with kids in her community and around the world. The children in local shelters, the mountain children in the Himalayas, the Bedouin children in the Arabian desert, the children in a Cambodian orphanage, and the refugee children from North Korea she doodled with are among her greatest teachers.
