Angela Ahn was born in Seoul, Korea, but lived most of her life in Vancouver. She was a high school English and social studies teacher, and English as a second language instructor in Hong Kong. She earned a masters degree in library and information studies at the University of British Columbia and worked in a variety of libraries before shifting her attention to homemaking and now writing. Ahn lives in Vancouver.
Fiction (Juvenile, Chapter book)
Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm
Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada, 2023.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Stephen loves pirates. What he doesn’t love is his name: Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll. He believes when his Korean mother and Irish father gave him this name, that it was just one cruel setup for being teased. Giving things the proper name is important, which is why Stephen thinks that it’s time to update the definition of “pirate.” They’ve got a bad rep, and maybe they deserve some of it, but Stephen still likes a few pirate traditions, like bandannas and eyepatches — he’s just not that into stealing things from people. He has the perfect new word: piventurate. A sailor who passionately seeks adventure. That’s what he wants to be.
When he gets suspended from school for doing proper piventurate-in-training things (using sticks to practice sword fighting), his mother doesn’t let him sit around doing nothing, instead she takes him to a museum. At the museum everything changes. Stephen finds himself in a strange new place, face-to-face with a real pirate. A pirate ghost.
Fiction (Juvenile, Chapter book)
Krista Kim-Bap
Toronto: Second Story Press, 2018.
PZ7.1 .A36 K75 2018
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Krista and Jason have been best friends since preschool. It never mattered that he was a boy with reddish-brown hair and she was the “Korean girl” at school. Now in fifth grade, everyone in their class is preparing their Heritage Month projects. Jason has always loved Krista’s Korean family, and particularly her mom’s cooking, but Krista is conflicted about being her school’s “Korean Ambassador”. She’s also worried about asking her intimidating grandma to teach the class how to make their traditional kimbap. Combine that with her new friends pulling her away from Jason, and Krista has a lot to deal with this year!
Awards and Honours
2019-20 Hackmatack Children’s Book Award — English fiction (Shortlist)
Fiction (Juvenile, Chapter book)
Peter Lee’s Notes from the Field
Toronto: Tundra Books, 2021.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Eleven year-old Peter Lee has one goal in life: to become a paleontologist. Okay, maybe two: to get his genius kid-sister, L.B., to leave him alone. But his summer falls apart when his real-life dinosaur expedition turns out to be a bust, and he watches his dreams go up in a cloud of asthma-inducing dust. Even worse, his grandmother, Hammy, is sick, and no one will talk to Peter or L.B. about it. Perhaps his days as a scientist aren’t quite behind him yet. Armed with notebooks and pens, Peter puts his observation and experimental skills to the test to see what he can do for Hammy. If only he can get his sister to be quiet for once – he needs time to sketch out a plan.
Awards and Honours
2021 Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature (Text), English language (Finalist)
2022 Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize (BC and Yukon Book Prizes)(Finalist)
Fiction (Juvenile, Chapter book)
Swimming into Trouble
Illustrated by Julie Kim.
Toronto: Tundra Books, 2024.
Series: Julia on the Go! #1
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
As a member of the Vipers Swim Team, Julia Nam’s always in the pool. Mountainview Community Center is like her second home, not only because swimming at the aquatic center is her favorite thing in the world, but also because her parents run the center’s sushi café. Julia would much rather be in the pool than sitting behind the counter of Sushi on the Go! watching other people swim. She’s the youngest swimmer on the team, but definitely not the slowest. Julia can’t wait for Personal Best Day – the most important day for all of the swimmers. If their times are good enough, they can enter a big regional swim meet. But then the worst thing happens. A sharp pain in Julia’s ear reveals an infection and she’s forbidden to swim for ten days. How can she get timed during Personal Best Day when she’s not allowed in the water? Julia is desperate to get back in the pool, even if it means having to go behind her parents’ backs in order to do so. But Julia’s solution lands her in a sticky situation, and it’s going to require the entire community center to come together to help her out of it!
Fiction (Juvenile)
Team Park
Toronto: Tundra Books, 2024.
forthcoming Sept. 2024
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Links
Publisher Penguin Random House Canada
Publisher Second Story Press
Publisher Tundra Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
Angela Ahn’s personal website