one little boy ran up to the child and asked, “what are you supposed to be?” Miu Lan didn’t know how to answer.

Written by: Kai Cheng Thom

Illustrated by: Wai-Yant Li and Kai Yun Ching

For ages: 3-8 years

Language: English

Topics Covered: Gender Identity, Non-binary Identity, Friendship, Self-Acceptance, Family

Summary: from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea is an incredible portrait of what it feels like to be a child in between. Gorgeously illustrated by Way-yant Li and Kai Yun Ching, it tells the story of Miu Lan. “Born when both the moon and the sun were in the sky”, Miu Lan “couldn’t decide what to be.” Supported and loved by their mother, Miu Lan is a “strange, magical child” with the ability to adopt various animal characteristics. This empowering home environment is contrasted with Miu Lan’s experience at school, where the other students are all “either boys or girls”. Challenging gendered expectations, Miu Lan must discover how to express themself fully without fear.

About the Author and the Illustrator:

Kai Cheng Thom (she/her) is a fiery writer, performer, spoken word artist and drag-dance sensation. Her first novel, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir was recently published by Metonymy Press. Kai Cheng has been widely published as an essayist and poet.  She is currently a Feature Writer at Everyday Feminism.  Her work also appears in xoJane, Arc Poetry Magazine, and Youngist.  She was a a featured columnist on race, sexuality, and gender at The McGill Daily for two years running. Her poetry has appeared in, Matrix Magazine, ditch, OutWrite: A Queer Review, and What If? Magazine, as well as the anthology Where the Nights are Twice as Long: Love Letters of Canadian Poets. She also holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work from McGill University, and is the co-founder of Monster Academy Montreal, a radical mental health initiative for youth.

Wai-Yant Li (they/their) is a ceramicist by trade, and they illustrated from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea along with Kai Fun Ching. Wai-Yant works in and runs a studio called 3 tables, a space composed of 3 ceramicists and 3 illustrators – each doing their own thing, but they are also definitely very much inspired by each other. Every Créations Li critter is designed and made entirely by them – from early sketchbook sketches, to its birth from a box of clay, to the roundabouts on the pottery wheel, to the final firings in the kiln.