Author Jessamine Chan Uses Books as Conversation Starters: 'Books Can Be a Lifeline' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jessamine Chan.Photo:Beowulf Sheehan

Beowulf Sheehan

Amazon

“I actually have exchanged messages with some readers,” Chan said. “I feel really, really lucky to be part of the conversation.”Chan, a featured author at the Celebration of Reading event, shared in her remarks that she wrote the novel in her mid-thirties, when she and her husband were still deciding whether to have children. The author notes that reading, ultimately, serves as a way to consider new perspectives.

“I think books can be conversation starters in a really important way,” Chan says. “it’s so important to read in terms of understanding different perspectives, and I think that has become even more important now.”

Jessamine Chan.Beowulf Sheehan

“The more we can do to kind of break that cycle and get reading happening in the household, I think the more we’re more likely to disrupt that cycle,” the foundation’s president, Andrew Roberts, told PEOPLE.“Until we get everyone working together, we’re not going to get there,” Roberts added. “This is not a problem that a K-12 system can solve alone. It’s going to take everyone.”

Chan spoke about the importance of reading in her own life during the event, particularly as a first generation Chinese-American.“Reading was my only source of pleasure, my only escape. It was a reason to keep living,” Chan said.“I’m sharing my story to highlight the way books can be a lifeline for any child who feels alone or who feels like they don’t belong. Reading comforted and healed me. It was a way to feed my soul while I was engaged in a daily struggle with people who refused to see me in my full humanity.”

source: people.com