Video Transcript for Celebrate Our Differences through Inclusive Children's Literature

[Ashley] All right. I see you all pouring in and joining us. So we're going to go ahead and get started. And thank you for waiting so patiently. So good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ashley Hunter. I work in the Unified Procurement Services Team. We appreciate you joining us to celebrate our differences through inclusive children's literature today.

Before we get started, I would like to cover a few event logistics. First, this event is being recorded and posted to our public-facing site for future reference. In addition, captions and a transcript are being provided by a certified real-time captioner.

If you have any technical issues during the event, please direct message Kristina England through Zoom. As with all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility events, this is a time to learn and share. You may have a lot of questions based on today's content and there may be topics that are completely new to you. We encourage you to ask any and all questions so that we can grow together. Questions can be posted under the Q&A feature today. I would now like to welcome President Marty Meehan, who will introduce one of our speakers today, David Lowy.

[Marty] Thank you, Ashley. I appreciate that. And it's great. Hello to everyone-- it's great to see so many people taking the time to be here today. I'm excited to see so many from the President's Office, and I know it's because you all care about Chanda and her work here and what this book represents.

Many of you know that we've made great strides over the years towards the goal of being more inclusive, but I think events like this are really important because I love hearing the stories of people that work here, have worked here, and they're really important-- critically important. And it allows us to learn through the lived experiences of other folks.

So I've known Chanda for a long period of time, and being from Lowell, the story in this book is really, really important. Chanda, I didn't get a chance to tell you, I was at the New Year's celebration at Lowell on Saturday, which was awesome. Saw a lot of old friends I hadn't seen in a while. But I want to thank the folks in the President's Office who are involved with DEIA. The whole team has played, I think, a really significant role in increasing and generating awareness.

I want to thank John Dunlap who oversees that team for his help over the years in organizing events like this. So I'm excited to be here and to hear about this, and I think we all want to do everything we can to promote this great piece of work by Chanda.

With that, next, I don't want to talk about Chanda too much because I think David Lowy is going to be handling the introductions, I don't want to impede on his area, but we have a new General Counsel in David Lowy. I don't know that everyone's gotten an opportunity to meet him, but he's an extraordinary person, a great lawyer.

He-- I think he's the first General Counsel we've had that actually graduated from one of our campuses-- he's a UMass Amherst grad, came to us from the Supreme Judicial Court. Has a great background, and he's an even better person. So David, I'll pass it off to you.

[David] Thank you so much, President Meehan. Chanda Ouk Wolf's astounding children's book, A Dozen Delicious Donuts, transported me back to my immigrant grandmother's pantry where desserts from our tradition always awaited our arrival. After a cursory hug of my grandparents, oh, I wish I had lingered there a moment longer. I would dart full throttle into the pantry and seize rugelach, chaf babka, hamantaschen, and Passover macaroons, which I will be eating tonight.

Chanda's sweet and loving book celebrates the importance of maintaining thriving ethnic subcultures as an integral part of the American mosaic. America has often been referred to as a melting pot, an amalgam of racial, religious, and ethnic immigrants that form somehow a seamless quilt.

I disagree. The strength, exceptionalism, and vibrancy of America comes from maintaining and fostering our ethnic subcultures, not from quashing them. All four of my grandparents and my father were immigrants. Indeed, the opportunity to emigrate to America is what gave me life.

Chanda's family, like mine, came here as a result of genocide. When my dad and his immediate family escaped the Holocaust from Eastern Europe, all four of my father's grandparents and most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins died in concentration camps. Approximately 2 million people died in the Cambodian genocide. There was not one cause for the emergence of the Khmer Rouge regime or one cause of the genocide.

The proud history of the Khmer Empire and Khmer Kingdom flourished until foreign powers ended its reign. Cambodian soil did not first become other nations' battlefield during the Vietnam War. For centuries, Cambodia was caught in between the quest for land and power by present-day Thailand and Vietnam. China also sought to exert hegemony over Cambodia, an influence that lasted centuries.

During the colonial period, Spain sought to bring Christianity, and with it, control over Cambodia, followed by the Dutch East India Company, and then the French. During World War I, France used Cambodian resources to fight the war, and France controlled the levers of power within the kingdom.

During World War II, Cambodia toggled back and forth between French and Japanese dominance until the French returned to Cambodia after the Second World War. Vietnam and Cambodia became Cold War battlefields as the United States incrementally entered a proxy war to protect Southeast Asia and particularly South Vietnam from Communist dominance.

This ever-present foreign influence in Cambodia led in part to the attraction of communists, which often folded into nationalism and ultimately resulted in the emergence of the Khmer Rouge and ultimately the genocide.

The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong used Eastern Cambodia as a staging ground for their war against South Vietnam and the Viet Cong against the United States. Cambodia, led by King Sihanouk, permitted North Vietnamese and Viet Cong to operate on Cambodian territory. The North Vietnamese built bases across the Cambodian border to stage attacks and then retreat back over the border.

Cambodia provided the North Vietnamese with a shorter supply line, and King Sihanouk allowed Cambodian ports to be used to bring war supplies in from Communist China.

America responded, particularly after the Tet Offensive, by bombing Cambodia in order to destroy the supply lines and staging bases. American bombing aided the recruitment of the Cambodians to join the Khmer Rouge. Indeed, the Khmer's first insurgent base was in Eastern Cambodia in the area of the bombing.

Anger toward American bombing, fueled by nationalism, provided fertile ground for the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot, who had studied communism while in France, came to power in 1975. His Marxist and xenophobic regime sought to create a classless, subsidient, agrarian society.

The Khmer Rouge forced millions of people out of the cities in order to create rural collectivist communities. They sought to stamp out individualism, and they seized property. Commercial fishing was [INAUDIBLE]. Buddhist monks were murdered along with Christian and Muslim clergy. Borders were closed along with hospitals, factories, banks, and schools. Those not following the regime's orders were murdered. Hundreds of thousands died on forced relocations from famine and forced labor.

Business people, professionals, intellectuals, educators, and dissidents were victims of the Killing Field, along with anybody dissenting from the party line. Eventually, Vietnam would put an end to the Khmer Rouge regime due in part because of Vietnam's concern of the influence of China in the region. Again, Cambodia being impacted by foreign powers.

There was not one cause of my Khmer regime, but one lesson to be learned from this tragedy is the recognition that there are always unintended consequences of war. As George Santayana observed, "Only the dead have seen the end of war.

I close with a subtle, but important point to be taken from Chanda's beautiful family story. When children grow up knowing that something palpable about their family's life remains unspoken, it can be disconcerting and ultimately leave deep wounds, the source of which is never completely understood.

Chanda's story reaches across the generations and manifests the critical importance of parents discussing difficult issues with their children, issues that often hide in plain sight. The Cambodian genocide happened, and the implications of this human tragedy remain and will never fade.

But Chanda's book, like Anne Frank's profound diary, is ultimately a tale of hope. Anne Frank wrote that she did not think only of the misery, but also of the beauty that still remains. Chanda has spoken these same words in a language that will touch the soul of countless children and help to heal our fractured and troubled world.

[Chanda] Thank you so much, David. I just want to say quickly, just as if the stars had aligned, David Lowy comes into my office one day and we start talking about a book that he had just read. And he amazed me with his knowledge of Southeast Asia and the wars that occurred with US involvement. Thank you so much, David, for your time.

Thank you.

And I also want to thank President Meehan. About two and a half years ago, we embarked on somewhat of a journey together. He knew that I had a story to tell, and it was timely in some ways because The Globe had just published an article on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, 16 years later and three convictions. I was deeply disappointed as I felt that no one really was held accountable for the slaughter of close to 2 million people and the crimes against humanity. It felt like a hollow exercise.

But as you know, Marty and I both grew up in Lowell, and there is something called grit that we both possess. And here we are again magnifying the importance of remembering the Cambodian people who perished under the Khmer Rouge regime. So thank you, Marty, for being here again and ensuring that we remain at the forefront of people's minds and for your continued support in being a champion for the Cambodian people.

And I want to thank everyone who is here today. It is an incredibly humbling experience to know that we're here today because we care about inclusivity, accessibility, diversity, and equity.

And now I would like to begin my discussion regarding my new children's book, expected to be released in September of 2024. Pre-orders on Amazon will be made available soon, but that information will follow after today's event.

So here is a summary of the book. The book is about a young girl who enters a baking contest. She decides to use a very special recipe that was shared with her by her grandmother who had survived and escaped the Killing Fields in Cambodia. It was a most cherished family recipe, but the recipe calls for some very interesting ingredients. Coconut milk, sweet rice flour, and it's called Noum Kong. Though delicious, it draws a not-so-favorable first impression.

Now why did I write this book? Growing up, I absolutely loved books and the public library was like a place I could read and dream about other experiences and places in the world. But I never quite found a character that resembled me or my upbringing, and so I wrote her into existence.

Now why is this important? Because a children's book acts as a mirror and a window. That window gives readers a look into someone else's life, while mirrors allow a reader to see themselves in the pages of a book.

Now I saw plenty of mirrors, but no windows. And to succeed as mirrors and windows, books must tell a wide range of stories, and they must include a diversity of people and worlds. And I have committed myself to increasing access to inclusive books for young people of all races and backgrounds.

And now I would like to share some information on unconscious bias. I'm sorry. I'm going to start with why diverse children's books are so important.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- There is a dawning awareness among parents all across the country about the need for diversity in children's books. And a study that came out not long ago shows that only 30% of books published last year for children and teens featured a primary character who was Black, Indigenous, or otherwise a person of color.

Compare that to the way America actually looks. In the last Census, 50% are classified as non-white. 50% of the children in America are classified as non-white. Now children's books have always been described as both a mirror and a window. A mirror because kids need to feel seen in those books, and a window into worlds unlike their own. That's important, too.

We met up with author and educator Renee Watson at a wonderful bookstore in Queens called Book Culture, and she explained why the windows part is just as important as the mirrors.

- We have this girl who lives in Portland, Oregon like me. So I connected-- I knew those streets that she was playing on and the library she was visiting.

- You might say Renee Watson was a lucky young reader growing up in the same city as one of literature's most famous characters, Beverly Cleary's Ramona.

- She was this girl who wasn't perfect. She made a mistake. She was a little insecure, so I definitely could relate to her that way.

- But Watson also felt a hunger for something more, something Ramona could never offer.

- You can love something and don't even know what you're missing. I didn't know that I needed to read a book where there's a Black protagonist character.

- While kids have more opportunities now to find books about Black characters and other characters of color, that change has been slow and not so steady.

- The fact that we're seeing the numbers of books go up now is a very good sign, but we've seen that happen before.

- KT Horning is director of the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin. The group has tracked diversity in children's literature since 1985.

- The publishing industry is still very white. And it caters mostly to white parents and teachers and librarians and ultimately children.

- A recent survey of US publishers shows that more than 3 out of 4 people who work in the book industry are white, and that disparity finds its way into the pages of children's books. There have been big gains in representation before, but after a peak in 1997, the number of new children's books with Black characters actually flatlined and then fell to a low in 2013, before quadrupling in recent years along with big increases for books about all people of color.

- I'm sure that there are people out there-- I know some of them. They're tired of all the counting and all the sensitivity and all the paying attention, and it's-- in their view, it's just a kid's book. What's the big deal?

- I think children's books are really important part of a good foundation for living in the real world. Books have an impact. It's a great luxury to be able to say this doesn't matter.

- A good book is a friend to a child. It is opening up their world, of course. But it's also, I think, planting seeds in them that you want to nurture and grow over that child's life.

- Renee Watson has not only witnessed the surge in diverse books, she helped create it as a bestselling author. Her latest book, Ways to Grow Love, is part of a series about another little girl from Portland. Ramona Quimbee, meet Ryan Hart.

- I'm really proud to be a part of a legacy where young people can read and find themselves and find other people and feel comforted and learn.

- Watson says she wrote the books with Black readers in mind, but not only Black readers.

- We want our young people to be critical thinkers. We want them to be able to put themselves in someone else's shoes. If we have a generation of white students who are either never reading books where they see people of color or are only reading books where they see us through struggle and pain, even the person with the best intentions, who is an ally, they're still going to approach people of color with this eye of pity instead of like, oh, I love that thing, too, and I connect with you, and your family is like my family.

- And to develop that empathy, Watson says parents and teachers need to offer children a wide variety of books and not assume they'll only want to read about kids like them.

- I think the assumptions of adults do not necessarily match the realities for their children.

- Yeah, for sure. I also remember being in a signing line, I'm signing books, and I can hear a conversation happening between a white mother and her white daughter. And the daughter wants to purchase the book. She just heard me read from it. Her mother says, "Well, just-- I mean, I don't know. Look at that cover. I don't think you're going to be able to relate to that."

- Wow. The child says to her mom, "Well, I can't relate to hobbits either." And the next thing I knew, I'm signing that little girl's book.

[END PLAYBACK]

- God, I love kids.

- So true!

- They'll tell you the truth.

- I love that anecdote. And speaking about telling the truth, so on the idea that children's books are a foundation for the real world, I actually used the University of Wisconsin method and counted the characters in Teddy's books. These are books that are basically new. He's only two. People sent us a ton of books. Take a look at the results.

So we have about 50 books in circulation in my household. The big stack on the right is books that are about inanimate objects, talking bears, non-people. The books in the middle have white characters on the page are about white characters. The little teeny pile on the left, just three books of the 50, are arguably about characters of color.

- Did you buy the three or--

- Yeah, it's my question.

- Gifts.

- Gifts?

- Yeah. And so-- I mean, that shows you how you can be presenting to your kid a picture of the world that is not at all like what he will experience when he goes to kindergarten in Brooklyn.

- It's an important lesson. You know, I also grew up reading those Beverly Cleary books, Judy Blume-- and we were talking about Where the Wild Things Are, my favorite book as a child. And I like what Renee said. You don't know what you don't know. You don't know if you're missing out because you've never been presented to-- with it. Or you've never been given the book in school. Or it's not been a book that teachers or educators are putting in front of you to read, you're being introduced to other books that are what you're talking about, books that definitely have diverse characters.

- --think about.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

[END PLAYBACK]

[Chanda] So next slide, and then we'll go back to-- perfect. Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed that segment. But I wanted to go back and correct myself. I meant I saw plenty of windows, but no mirrors. And in this slide, you'll notice that there's something called unconscious bias.

And so these are things that we don't always realize about ourselves. And whether or not we say things that are intentional or unintentional, but that may come off as a bias that is just unconscious.

So you heard in the video, the woman mentions hobbits. Here's another great example of unconscious bias. So this British Indian author was once talking to a bookseller about his new middle grade series. It's called the Ash Mystery series. And he's telling the story. And the bookseller stops him and says, "Yeah, but I don't see the point of stocking your book because we don't have any Indians in our neighborhood," to which he replied, "I bet you don't have any hobbits either."

Again, this is a reminder of, I think, unconscious bias and whether or not it was good or bad intention, it's unclear, and that is sometimes something that we don't always recognize. Slide.

And then I want to go into talking about banned books. So banned books have just been exploding in the last few years. School book bans and restrictions in the US rose 33% in the last school year according to a new report from the free speech group PEN America, continuing what it calls "A worrisome effort aimed at the suppression of stories and ideas." Florida had more bans than any other state.

Now take a look at what banned books should you read. And you can see, some of the books, you're wondering, why is it banned? And you can see here, Beloved, The Hate U Give, Bad Kitty, This Book is Gay. Next slide. And I'm going to give you a sense of seeing a map of restrictions here.

So censorship by the numbers. Censors targeted a record 2,571 unique titles in 2022, a 38% increase from the 1,858 unique titles targeted for censorship in 2021. Of those titles, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community or by and about Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. So that's giving you a sense of the challenges with book bans.

And I have a video from the wonderful volunteers here who will share with you their favorite children's book and why it continues to resonate with them and why children's book continue to be so important even into adulthood.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- Hello. I'm Ashley Hunter, the Senior Training and Communication Specialist within UPST. While many of you may know me in my current role, you may not be aware that my background and degree are actually in elementary education with a focus on grades kindergarten and first.

As an early educator, numerous books have left an impact on me, but none quite like Chrysanthemum. This story follows a young mouse who adores her unique name until she faces teasing from her classmates, causing her to lose confidence in it. With guidance from her music teacher, Mrs. Twinkle, who shares her own experience with the long, flowery-inspired name, Chrysanthemum learns to embrace her uniqueness once again.

Chrysanthemum addresses the struggles of fitting in and embracing one's uniqueness, sparking meaningful conversations about kindness, bullying, and the importance of embracing diversity. As an educator, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of this story and others like it in instilling confidence and empathy in young minds.

- My name is Mike Greer, and I'm a senior project manager on the Innovation Team in the President's Office. My favorite children's book is The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse by Thornton W. Burgess. The book follows a field mouse living on a farm with various friends and enemies, like Reddy Fox or Old Mr. Toad and Jimmy Skunk.

I love this book for a few reasons. First, when my dad read it, he would put on different voices for all the characters, and my brother and I just loved it. But secondly, because the adventures that Danny went on were realistic, and during the day, if I saw a mouse or a chipmunk scurrying around, my mind would go back to something from the book and my imagination could take over and pretend that that mouse that I saw was going on the same adventure.

This is also the first book that I have any memory of trying to read on my own. It holds a special place in my childhood memory, but also for my daughter and as I read it with her and do my best impersonations of my dad's voice.

- Hi. My name is Ryon Waterman, and I am the IT Service Coordinator here at the UMass President's Office in Boston. I was asked I would like to share some books that had an impact on me when I was growing up, the first being There is a Monster at the End of This Book by John Stone.

This book is about Grover, a character from Sesame Street, who was told there is a monster at the end of this book, the book that we the readers are going through. Grover would set up obstacles and barriers on every page begging us as the readers to stop getting closer to the end of the book fearing meeting this monster and what it might do to us.

My mother would bring this book to life, changing her voice to Grover's, asking us to stop turning pages, adding weight to the boarded and bricked pages as we got closer and closer to the end of the book. The twist at the end of the book was that Grover was the monster at the end of the book, and with a hint of embarrassment and laughter, he claimed he knew all along and that we were so silly to do so.

The second book that really stood out to me was actually a banned book in parts of North America called The Great Butter Battle by Dr. Seuss. This was a story of two towns next to each other who butter their toast butter side-up or butter side-down. They each thought they had the right way and the other side was wrong for doing so in their way. And this feud became an arms race between the two towns, escalating into imaginative weapons more powerful than the last, ultimately ending on a standoff, no sad or happy ending, just what would happen next.

Looking back at both of these books, the common theme and lessons from these books are being at times, we create or escalate more anxiety for ourselves before the actual event can pan out. And that we should be brave and face these scenarios rather than wrestle with what-if and find out if we can be surprised, relieved, or maybe even a little embarrassed that we did this to ourselves.

Special thank you to Robin and Ron Waterman for reading these books with such charisma, to teach me these lessons, and make memories that I'll never forget. Thank you.

- Hi, everyone. This is Kristina England. I'm a Digital Experience and Accessibility Specialist in UITS. Disability inclusion is a huge part of my life, both personally and professionally. One of my current favorite children's books is We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, and Eduardo Trejos.

Many children's books do not depict disability, and when they do, they often depict it as something that must be overcome. We Move Together focuses on disability culture and disability joy and shares a wide variety of lived experiences in the disability community. The book creators also ensured that the book was available in accessible formats, including a video presenting the book in sign language, a video with audio descriptions for the blind and low-vision community, and a downloadable text-based version for the deaf-blind community.

This thoughtful delivery of the book promotes a common theme throughout the book-- access is love. I'll finish by reading the epigraph of the book by Aurora Levens Morales and Patti Berne.

"All bodies are unique and essential. All bodies are whole. All bodies have strengths and needs that must be met. We are powerful not despite the complexities of our bodies, but because of them. We move together with no body left behind. This is disability justice."

- Hello, everyone. I'm Preethi Lodha, and I'm a Data Analytics and Insights Manager, and I'm excited to share my favorite book from my childhood. Growing up, we used to read a lot of Panchatantra. So what is Panchatantra about is it's five books in a single collection. It is more about animal fables and magic tales all put together.

It is a combination of 87 short stories. And the whole idea behind this book was it was fun, simple to read, and easy to digest for a young mind. This book was apparently written originally in Sanskrit and has been translated into multiple languages across the world.

Why this book remains in my psyche over the years is because it had such a lasting impact on my childhood. It was a simple way to teach virtues such as kindness, having empathy towards others, and why unity could be a good moral to have. So at the end of each story, you would get a moral. And yeah. It is a simple read, and it is apparently freely available on Internet Archive. So if you are ever interested, go read the translation and have fun.

- [Maria McKinney] Our family's favorite children's book by far is On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman. This book is special to our family not because it was familiar to my husband and I. We did not grow up reading this book. On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman was a total end-cap purchase at the Barnes and Noble in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square. Our son was a few months old, the Phillies had just won the World Series, and we were walking about, as you do with an infant.

Anyways, I saw this gloriously bright book. So I pick it up and I'm leafing through. The imagery was just stunning. Then I read the first few pages and thought, oh, what a great book to read on Jack's first birthday. So I picked up the book in anticipation of his first birthday. The plan became that we would read that book on every birthday, which we did. That became our tradition. And when Victoria joined our family, we read the story to her.

Our tradition started to slow down right around age eight, nine-- definitely by nine. You're reading the book with tears streaming down your face, remembering how when they were three and four, they actively engaged with every page. By the time they're 10, they're putting the book down and they're letting you know, I'm good, all set. I know. It was special for you the night I was born.

What a great children's book this is for you to become familiar with. If you're not familiar with it, I strongly encourage you to become familiar with Nancy Tillman's On the Night You Were Born. It has become my standard gift to new parents.

- Hello, everyone. My name is Débora Ferreira. I'm with the Office of General Counsel in the President's Office. I'm really excited to talk to you about a children's book that actually wasn't one that I read when I was little, but it was one that I read for my kids when they were very small.

As you all know, I'm from West Africa, Cape Verde Islands, and of course, when I was growing up, there were a lot of stories that my mom shared with myself and my brothers. There's one called Chi-bing and Loeb about outfoxing a wolf, but don't have the book for it. So what I thought was that I would just share the favorite book that I read to my kids.

And for me, one of the things that I really thought about was that when I was growing up, there wasn't a lot of children's books that really showcased role models that looked like me. I was an avid reader growing up and I loved fairy tales, but none of the characters looked like me, which always kind of made me sad about it. But for my boys, I was happy that there were more books with different characters and characters that looked like them.

So the book that I chose that I used to read to them a lot was called Sundiata. And it was based on this young boy that was born in the Mali area. And he was frail and was discounted even though he was supposed to be the ruler. And was discounted because he was frail and sickly.

And there was, in the Mali tradition, there were different wives. And so the first wife had a child who was stronger, and so he took over the throne. And then it just talks about how Sundiata had to grow up and be exiled, and then he became stronger and then came back and became the ruler, eventually. But he ruled based on love and kindness and compassion. And he was called the Lion King.

And so a lot of people say that actually, this story, one, was based on truth from different regions and of African countries in Africa. And also, it was what The Lion King, which I know a lot of you guys have seen the movie that Disney put out, was based on-- was actually based on Sundiata.

So I know that my boys really enjoyed this book, and hopefully some of you will pick it up and share it with your kids. Thank you. And congratulations, Chanda!

- Hello, everyone. My name is Paul McGovern and I work in the Executive Office. A children's book that's had an impact on me is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This book discusses how a caterpillar throughout one week tries all different sorts of foods and eats more and more with each day. On Saturday, the caterpillar eats too much, and on Sunday, having still been full from the day before, he eats green leaves and can feel better before going into a cocoon and eventually coming out as a butterfly.

The lesson I took from the Hungry Caterpillar is that life is constantly moving and changing. We are always evolving and growing. And sometimes, like the caterpillar, we push ourselves a little too hard without seeing the negative consequences of doing so.

It is important to take the steps necessary to grow while also recognizing that there are obstacles and learning curves along the way. None of us, including the hungry caterpillar, are perfect, but it is vital that we do all that we can to become the best versions of ourselves without eating too much. Thank you. And congratulations, Chanda, I look forward to reading your book.

[END PLAYBACK]

[Chanda] Ashley, take it away.

[Ashley] Thank you, Chanda. And thank you to all of the volunteers that shared your favorite story or your family's favorite children's books. I definitely took note of some things that I want to make sure I read in the future, so thank you for sharing that. And to the larger audience, I hope you all enjoyed learning more. Not only what the children's books that had an impact on us, but the importance of reading those stories that do have different perspectives, cultures, and struggles and triumphs different from yourself.

We're going to pause right here for any questions that you have. Feel free to put those into the Q&A section so that we're able to get those answered for you. Not everybody at once, but if you do have questions, definitely let us know.

All right. Well, if you don't have questions, that's OK. You can still continue to put them in. We're going to just share a few more details, and I'll pass it back to Chanda in just a second to wrap up our session and event for this afternoon.

Chanda, I know there are questions for you. A lot of congratulations to you in the Q&A. But a question that was directed towards you is, what has been your favorite part of writing your children's book?

[Chanda] Thank you, Ashley. I'd say the favorite, I guess, part is the experience, really. I didn't picture myself being a children's book author. And I think jumping hoops to try to get this book published has taught me many things about the publication industry. What it means to stick to your dreams. What it means to keep, I think, exploring. How you're going to get to where you think you're going to be with this book.

And so I enjoyed all aspects of that, and I'm still continuing to learn. And I think my favorite part will likely be when the book is published in September of 2024.

[Ashley] That's awesome. It's right around the corner. It'll be here before it you know it.

[Chanda] Thank you.

[Ashley] Another question that came in for you is, when did you first decide you wanted to write this book? Or did you always know that you wanted to write it?

[Chanda] Thank you for that question. Going back to what I mentioned earlier, a lot of this is a part of me and who I am, though I never quite found a character that looked like me or really resembled my experience and my upbringing. And so as I've gotten older, I've only started to realize how much I missed growing up and not seeing myself in these pages.

And so this book came to me years ago, and again, it takes a publisher who believes in you as much as you believe in yourself and your product and your story and making sure that this comes to life.

[Ashley] Thank you. And speaking of publishers, how was it finding a publisher that was interested in publishing a book like this, especially something that is more focused on your background and the Cambodian-specific background?

[Chanda] So this publisher happened to publish a memoir of a Cambodian freedom fighter. And so I knew they had some background in my culture. And I listened to the audio, and it just resonated so much with me. And when I spoke to the publisher and the team, they just were so committed to my vision, to my story, and in many ways, have inspired me to want more for this book. I thought it was just publisher-book author relationship, but I think we've I think found a good relationship throughout this process.

[Ashley] And so if anyone on this call was interested in publishing something based on their own background, their own culture, what kind of tips would you recommend to give them in finding a publisher?

[Chanda] I would say don't give up. It's taken me years to get here. And I'm not going to say how many years because it may feel long. But anything worth waiting for, I think that feeling of victory is going to be so much better. It's just one of those feelings. When you achieve your dream in some sense, it's really hard to put into words because this book is not just for me, it's for many people. And I'm just so excited that I can be a part of sharing this experience.

{Ashley] Thank you, Chanda. And did your children happen to play a part in any pieces of this book? Did you share it with them? What are their thoughts on the book?

[Chanda] So I have two young kids, a seven-year-old and a four-year-old. And when I had them, I-- so yes, definitely. I couldn't find any books that I could read to them that they could really relate to regarding Cambodian Americans in the United States. And I felt awful that that wasn't available to them, especially when I think about inclusivity. And my son started first grade this year, but last year, he started to ask more questions about what it meant to be Cambodian in America.

And not in those exact words, but curiosity, it's like what David Lowy mentioned. It starts to settle in, and you have to start answering harder questions, and you have to start digging deeper within yourself to help your child understand I'd say my past, my family's past. And so it's been a journey for myself, but also for my family.

[Ashley] Thank you. Apparently your daughter loves Target. Are you looking forward to seeing your book in Target and beyond that one day?

[Chanda] Oh, goodness. I mean, God willing. Yes, it would be obviously a privilege and an honor for it to be at a location like Target, but I would say more importantly, let's get it into the libraries, the public libraries and the local bookstores that I think help certain communities better understand Cambodians in America.

And I'm going to mention this because it's really important. Massachusetts has the second-largest Cambodian American population in the US, the first being Long Beach, California. And there's not a single book for kids that are modern in the sense where it's a Cambodian-American child growing up in America. And I mentioned this early on, it's deeply disturbing to not have a children's book available to a community that's so deserves it.

[Ashley] Wow. I didn't know we had the biggest-- one of the biggest populations and no books there to-- for children to see. So just a few more questions for you, Chanda. Let me just go back up. So the book is based on not-- based on the donuts, but can you tell us a little bit more about these Cambodian donuts?

[Chanda] So I'm going to point you to a few resources here. So Long Beach, California has the biggest Cambodian population in the United States. And if you're out in California, I would pay attention. Thousands of Cambodian-owned donut shops. And there's a documentary that just came out a few years ago. I believe it's on-- probably find it on Netflix, but it's called The Donut King.

And The Donut King is Ted Ngoy who comes from-- who's a refugee and survives the Killing Fields, and he gets started in the donut business by going to Windsheild Donuts and training as just learning how to make donuts as a baker. And he realized that it resembled what was, I think, a connection to Cambodia, which was Noum Kong, which is essentially-- literally in Khmer, it means kind of like "round cake."

And so he was able to save up some money, bought his own donut shop, and then became this multi-millionaire. And started to help Cambodians coming from Cambodia by allowing them to work in his shops. And so this built somewhat of a Cambodian-American donut empire in California.

But we also realized that part of this process is what David Lowy mentioned earlier, is that keeping our ties to Cambodia and our ethnic background. And so I'm so proud to say that everything about the book itself, from the cover to the insides of the book, is a representation of Cambodian culture.

The cover itself is a box. And it's a pink box because that pink box was cheaper than a white box for the Cambodian-owned donut shops, and that's what was used throughout all of these years to box that dozen of donuts. So I'm just thrilled that I'm able to share some of these facts with everyone here.

[Ashley] Thank you, Chanda. All right. Appreciate everyone for putting in your questions. And again, congratulations, we can't wait to read and be a part of your journey. Just to wrap things up-- and I'm going to pass it back to you, Chanda, just a bit. After the event today, you will receive a survey where you will not only get to share your feedback, but we also want to hear from you and we want you to share your favorite children's book that had an impact on you.

So there will be a form for you to fill out. Tell us why it's your favorite children's book or a book that you read to your family or your children. And we hope to gather those responses and put them all on the DEIA page for everyone to see at a later date and we will let you know. But Chanda, wanted to pass it back to you.

[Chanda] Thank you. I have this one last slide here. Let me just-- yeah. Let me just-- just this one sec. Yeah. So recently, Congresswoman Lori Trahan and Congressman Robert Garcia introduced legislation to designate April 17, 2025 as Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day to recognize the 50th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge went, which went on to murder nearly 2 million Cambodians.

I just want to say there is a brighter future for us, and I look forward to sharing more about this day in the coming, I'd say, months, but I just want folks to understand that this is deeply important, and now Washington gets to see it. Thank you.

[Ashley] Thank you all, and look out for that email that you'll get later-- either today or tomorrow or another day, but thank you all for attending and we hope you have a great rest of the day. Again, congratulations, we're very proud of you and can't wait to read.

[Chanda] Thank you so much.

[Marty] Awesome job, Chanda.

[Chanda] Thank you.