Dear Reader,
I grew up spoiled by my grandmother. When I told her I only liked the sugary part of Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins, she would peel off the outer layer for me and eat the dry inner sphere herself. I was the one who ordered Arby’s combos for her and helped her pocket ketchup packets to bring home. She read Chinese classics to me every night until I fell asleep. I was her translator, and she was my storyteller.
Because we were inseparable, it was the hardest thing I ever had to go through to watch her struggle with Alzheimer’s. Though she was once full of stories of the pencil company my family used to run back in Taiwan, she soon lost her words, her memories of the very people she lived with. I was the last person she remembered.
I did not start writing The Phoenix Pencil Company until long after she passed away. I was inspired by reading stories about families that fled China during the Cultural Revolution, which made me wonder about my grandparents’ history, one I never got to learn. I began to imagine a family of pencil makers living in 1940s Shanghai.
Though the pencil is a simple object, it is also a fundamental storytelling tool. I gave the family the magic to bring back what pencils once wrote—essentially restoring a memory thought long-gone. It is a power that can be lovely but also dangerous, just as stories themselves can be, especially during a time of war and corruption.
As I wrote, I struggled with how to portray this period of history, and if fantasy elements even had a place in such a dark time. But a friend encouraged me, wisely pointing out that as immigrants, we already don’t know much of our family’s histories. Why shouldn’t we add magic?
The Phoenix Pencil Company is a book featuring difficult times. Not just caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, but also the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during WWII, the Chinese Civil War, martial law in Taiwan, family separation. But it is not a dark book. I was determined not to write another simply sad story about Alzheimer’s or war. At its heart, the book is primarily about hope and family and, most importantly, the magic of the stories we pass on. I hope you enjoy.
– Allison King
