--OK, Dad.

--OK, Dad.

    My mom lives alone (独自) and works at a hotel. One day, on her way home from work, she saw a 1 It was very small and had white and black hair. At first, she just walked by quickly – it was a really windy afternoon. But the cat 2 my mom a long way. It seemed very hungry and 3  . At last it walked into my mom's heart and life.

    A week later, I went to visit my mom. She told me excitedly 4 her little cat. I saw it for the first time. The cat wasn't afraid of 5 at all. When I called its name, it looked at me with its big eyes and said "meow" to me, and then walked over slowly. It was so cute that I 6 it right away.

    This cat makes my mom laugh. She is always happy with the cat around. The cat will stay in the room 7 it feels cold or just doesn't want to be outside. My mom loves it and always tries to make it feel 8 The cat loves my mom, too. It must think of my mom as its mom. It is really attached to (依恋) her. It makes her 9 full of love and happiness. It makes me happy, too, because I love to 10 the smile in my mom's eyes.

    My mom lives alone (独自) and works at a hotel. One day, on her way home from work, she saw a 1 It was very small and had white and black hair. At first, she just walked by quickly – it was a really windy afternoon. But the cat 2 my mom a long way. It seemed very hungry and 3  . At last it walked into my mom's heart and life.

    A week later, I went to visit my mom. She told me excitedly 4 her little cat. I saw it for the first time. The cat wasn't afraid of 5 at all. When I called its name, it looked at me with its big eyes and said "meow" to me, and then walked over slowly. It was so cute that I 6 it right away.

    This cat makes my mom laugh. She is always happy with the cat around. The cat will stay in the room 7 it feels cold or just doesn't want to be outside. My mom loves it and always tries to make it feel 8 The cat loves my mom, too. It must think of my mom as its mom. It is really attached to (依恋) her. It makes her 9 full of love and happiness. It makes me happy, too, because I love to 10 the smile in my mom's eyes.

    My name is Jerry Zhang, and I am a father of two young daughters one is about four years old and the other is only about one. I come from China and now live in the USA.

One day, my older daughter, Madison, told me she didn't want to be Chinese. Those days she was crazy about the book characters Madeline and Eloise. She kept asking me why she was Chinese and they weren't, and how she could have blonde or red hair like them.

    This made me look for books with Asian (亚洲的) characters for Madison to read. However, I only found a few, and they were heavily cultural, and Madison didn't connect (把……联系在一起) herself with any if the characters in them. And she wasn't interested in them at all. Then she told me again that she didn't want to be Chinese, and it broke my heart.

    In most of the books for children in the USA, the characters look like Americans. Few of them have Asian faces, although there are over 17 million Asians and Asian Americans in this country. I think it's important for Asian children to see themselves in books as interesting and smart kids.

    So I created (创作) a book for Madison. Pepper Zhang in the book is an Asian girl. Her imagination (想象) takes her on a trip to creativity and art! I want my children to know-that being Chinese or being Asian is a great thing, too.