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, 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, 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.
