SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 Award-winning author Salina Yoon said reading didn\u2019t always come easy to her.<\/p>\n
Her parents came to the United States from Korea in 1976.<\/p>\n
“They came here to the US with only $400 in their pocket. My parents wanted to come here, settle, and prepare for having the kids come, and so I came two years later,” Yoon said.<\/p>\n
Starting school in a new country was not easy.<\/p>\n
“I started kindergarten. I didn’t speak a word of English, and so school was really uncomfortable for me,\u201d Yoon said.<\/p>\n
As a little girl who felt out of place, books made her feel connected.<\/p>\n
“Because it wasn’t something that I had to do with anyone. The scenes and the pictures, and that’s what drew me in,” Yoon said.<\/p>\n
Art came first, writing second. Her earliest works were concept books that relied more on illustration than text.<\/p>\n
“I always loved art as a child, and that is where I found my greatest joy. The writing part of it came a little bit later,” Yoon said.<\/p>\n
Yoon said she has written nearly 190 books, although she stopped counting after about 180.<\/p>\n
More than 25 years into her career, Yoon continues to write and draw, reaching thousands of children around the world. She also visits schools to speak directly with young readers.<\/p>\n
“Books can spark curiosity and their imagination. It teaches them new things. It allows them to discover new things,” Yoon said.<\/p>\n
Her message to kids is rooted in her own story.<\/p>\n
“If you have a passion for something, keep pursuing it, and you have no idea where life will take you,” Yoon said.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 Award-winning author Salina Yoon said reading didn\u2019t always come easy to her. Her parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-458595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}