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Virtual Event
OCA Reads:
A Virtual Conversation with Author Mia Wenjen
Thursday, May 22, 2025
8 PM ET / 5 PM PT
Join us for a virtual conversation with author Mia Wenjen as we discuss her new book "We Sing From The Heart: How The Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court," ([link removed]) a picture book biography about musician Simon Tam's fight for free speech that ended with a landmark Supreme Court decision for ages 8 and up. We’ll be giving away a signed copy of the book to a lucky viewer!
RSVP ([link removed])
About the Book
As a young boy, both in school and working in his family’s Chinese restaurant, Simon Tam faced racist taunts and verbal bullying. Words were used as weapons. And from a young age, Simon understood how powerful they could be.
When Simon decided to trademark the name of his band, The Slants®, he was denied. But it wasn’t the fact that he was denied that angered him, it was the reason why—because they deemed the name was racist. Words mattered, and he was reclaiming what was used against him all those years before.
What followed was an up and down, eight-year landmark battle that would take him all the way to the Supreme Court—a fight that he fought to rout out structural anti-Asian racism in our government systems, and a fight for free speech that was worth fighting for.
Recognition for "We Sing from the Heart" includes:
* ALSC Notable Children’s Book
* Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
* California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
* Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
* Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Purchase your copy of "We Sing from the Heart" at Amazon ([link removed]) , Barnes & Noble ([link removed]) , Bookshop.org ([link removed]) , or Walmart ([link removed]) .
About the Author
Mia Wenjen is half Japanese and half Chinese American and married to a Korean American. This unusual ethnic combination made her seek out all kinds of Asian representation in children's books for her three kids. She started a blog, PragmaticMom.com ([link removed]) , to share her favorite books, and a nonprofit, Read Your World, to celebrate and give away diverse children’s books.
Her debut picture book, Sumo Joe (Lee and Low, 2019) was selected as a Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year. She wrote Asian Pacific American Heroes for Scholastic (2020) and Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes as a Kickstarter pandemic project which was eventually sold to Scholastic. Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World (Barefoot Books) received a starred review from School Library Journal, is a Junior Library Guild Gold selection, and made Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best list, among other honors.
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court (Red Comet Press) and Boxer Baby (Eifrig Publishing) released in 2024. We Sing From the Heart is a Junior Library Guild Gold selection. The Traveling Taco, Barbed Wire Between Us, Fortune Cookies for Everyone, and Postcards from Malcolm X: How Yuri Kochiyama Became a Civil Rights Activist (Red Comet Press) release in 2025 and 2026. Follow her @pragmaticmom on social media.
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