On Writing Memoir and NOT Autobiography: A Ruth Chan Q&A on Uprooted

When I was at the last American Library Association Annual Conference this past June I had a few goals in mind. One of them was to get my hands on a certain graphic novel that was getting all kinds of attention. Called Uprooted by Ruth Chan, the book falls squarely into the graphic memoir genre that’s been doing so well since the rise of Raina Telgemeier’s Smile. Ruth Chan has always been better known for her work on picture books like How Old Is Mr. Tortoise? or Have You Seen Gordon? Now she’s come out with a book that has garnered five (count ’em) five starred reviews with praise like, “Earnest, funny, and evocative,” from Kirkus and, “A truly uplifting read” from SLJ.

The plot as the publisher describes it is:

“Ruth Chan loves her hometown in Toronto, hanging out with her best friends for life, and snacking on ketchup flavored potato chips, which are the best. What Ruth doesn’t love is having to move to Hong Kong after her dad gets a new job there.

Her mom is excited to reunite with her family, but it’s not the same for Ruth. In Hong Kong, her classes are harder, her Cantonese isn’t good enough, and her parents are never around. Ruth feels lonely and completely uprooted.

But as Ruth’s dad tells stories about her family, about how they relied on their strength, courage, and each other to survive the most difficult times, Ruth realizes that she too can be strong. Gradually, she puts down roots, knowing that home will always be where her heart is.”

I never got a copy of the book at ALA but at least I had a chance to talk to Ruth now about the book and the process of making it:

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Betsy Bird: Ruth! I’m so pleased I get a chance to talk to you about this book. I would have said hi at ALA but your line was approximately 5 miles long, full of people clamoring to get their hands on this title. In any case, your book is fantastic. Now you explain this a bit in your Author’s Note at the end, but for the uninitiated, where did this book come from?

Ruth Chan: Hi Betsy! I saw you from a distance at some point at ALA and wished I had had time to run over to you to say hi too. Alas!

Anyway, thank you for the kind words about Uprooted! The book originally started as a love letter to my family and our history, including the story of my father’s birth while fleeing their home during the Sino-Japanese war. Very quickly, I began incorporating my own story as I realized how years of hearing my grandmother and aunt recount this story of survival had shaped my values. In the end, Uprooted tells of my move from Canada to Hong Kong when I was a teen while interweaving the story of my father’s birth. There’s a lot of 13-yr-old life happening in the book, from making friends to liking (many) boys, to trying to speak a language I was unfamiliar with. In both stories, there is a quest for belonging and finding out what a home means, while learning how to tackle hardship with courage, perseverance, and patience.

BB: You’ve done many a fine picture book in your day, but a graphic novel memoir feels like an entirely different beast. You undoubtedly had some idea of what you were getting yourself into, but surely there were surprises along the way. What was the process like for you overall?

Ruth: Oh boy. I thought I was prepared. I was not. I knew it would be a lot of work– emotionally and physically– but I hadn’t quite anticipated how hard it would be to craft a story that is memoir (and more than 32 pages in length!). Trying to tell a story as an adult looking back on myself as a child felt very strange. It was a mental exercise to write as “little Ruth’s” 13-yr-old voice and not that of “adult Ruth” reflecting on her past. I also wanted to include all the details, all the back stories, all the funny moments, all the relationships of that time because that’s how I remember it. But my wise agent, Rebecca Sherman, reminded me that I’m writing a memoir not an autobiography, and that I could always make another book about other stories I couldn’t fit in this book.

Another surprise– I didn’t think I’d be watching so many TV series and Netflix Christmas romance movies while working on the final art for this book. Final art is a great stage in the process because you’re just drawing over sketches and your brain can turn off. I think I watched 8-10 hours of TV a day. Eventually, I finally figured out I can listen to audio books too. Who knew!

BB: Living the dream! So to get back to what you were saying about your father and the Sino-Japanese war, the book does an excellent job of introducing a family history where the contemporary kid has to understand that the family that came before suffered, escaped, and survived in ways she never could. I was admiring how deftly you included that serious information alongside the lighter stuff. How did you find the right balance for this book?

Ruth: This was a little big of a struggle for me because it felt disrespectful to claim my 13-yr-old problems were akin to those that my family suffered during a war. But the two stories also naturally aligned in the form of Talk-to-Talks, the bedtime chats I’d have with my dad. Talk-to-Talks offered the space for both of us to share our stories, for me to learn from my family history, and to feel seen and heard. Having Talk-to-Talk scenes throughout the book helped me tell the story of my family while keeping the book funny and relevant to the reader.

BB: I’m always curious when folks do fictionalized memoirs, how much they keep the same from their life and how much they change. What were some of the key points in this book that you absolutely had to get on the page? And what did you feel okay changing along the way?

Ruth: The big scenes in the book (e.g. meeting Bonnie for the first time, or the climax of the book where I explode at my parents) still hold an emotional sharpness to this day so those are the scenes I knew had to be as accurate as I remembered them. Being such a slice-of-life book very much embedded in the time and geography, I also wanted to make sure the environments were accurate, whether that was the inside of the school or the Hong Kong skyline in 1993. Thank goodness I was an extremely sentimental teen and took photos of everything.

The things I changed along the way are things I felt weren’t the most crucial to the heart and soul of the book but would help move the story along, like changing a bit of the timeline or condensing a few moments into one.

BB: Were there any scenes or elements that you wanted to include but that eventually fell out of the book along the way?

Ruth: So many! But the one story I wish there was enough room to fit in was the epilogue to my dad’s birth story. When my dad was 13, he remembers his mother (my grandmother) bringing him to see one of the friends who had told her to throw my dad away upon his premature birth. My grandmother said, “You remember when you told me to give up on my child? Well look at him now!” My dad remembers standing as straight and as tall as he possibly could in front of this friend. It’s our family’s Pretty Woman “Big Mistake” moment.

BB: Hey, every family should have one. Last but not least, what’s next for you? What else can we expect? And is there a chance for any more comics in the future?

Ruth: I’m currently working on a second graphic memoir! When my mom read an early version of Uprooted and saw that a lot of it centered around my relationship with my dad, she jokingly asked, “When are you going to make a book about me?” Well, mom, your wish is my command. This second book will focus on the relationship between my mom, me, and her OCD, and what it means for a teen to be a ‘good daughter’. It’ll also take place in Hong Kong and I’m already questioning why I’m choosing to draw dozens of complicated building landscapes again. But being to hold Uprooted in my hands– I have to say, it’s all worth it in the end!

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Big thanks to Ruth for taking the time to talk to me today. Thanks too to Morgan Rath and the team at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for helping to put this together. Uprooted is on shelves now.

Filed under: Interviews