MOCAKIDS Author Meet & Greet with Livia Blackburne
July 19, 2025, 2:30 pm – 3:15 pm
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Livia Blackburne wrote her first novel while researching the neuroscience of reading at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since then, she’s switched to full-time writing, which also involves getting into people’s heads but without the help of a three tesla MRI scanner. Her books include the YA fantasies Midnight Thief, Rosemarked, and Feather and Flame, as well as the picture books Dreams to Ashes and I Dream of Popo, which received three starred reviews and was on numerous Best of Year lists. She is Chinese American and lives in southern California with her husband and daughter.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
Nainai’s Mountain
A Taiwanese American girl is nervous about visiting Taiwan— until her paternal grandmother, her Nainai, takes her on a mountain-climbing adventure and shows her its wonders.
Traveling from California to Taiwan for the first time, even with her parents and her Nainai around her, is a lot for a little girl to take in. The plane ride lasts forever, she can’t read any of the signs, and she’s worried there will be unfamiliar bugs. But then Nainai becomes her tour guide, and Taiwan transforms. As they huff and puff up Nainai’s favorite mountain, stomachs full of bao and juicy sausage, Nainai spins yarns about riding to the movies in pedicabs, eating frozen pineapple, and playing pinball to win snacks. Even the bugs turn out to be more cool than scary. At the top of the mountain is a surprise: all sorts of people playing and exercising–and they all remember Nainai. The little girl is filled with pride when they can tell just who she is: “your granddaughter!”
I Dream of Popo
From New York Times bestselling author Livia Blackburne and illustrator Julia Kuo, here is I Dream of Popo. This delicate, emotionally rich picture book celebrates a special connection that crosses time zones and oceans as Popo and her granddaughter hold each other in their hearts forever.
When a young girl and her family emigrate from Taiwan to America, she leaves behind her beloved popo, her grandmother. She misses her popo every day, but even if their visits are fleeting, their love is ever true and strong.
Dreams to Ashes: The 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre
In the mid-1800s, a wave of Chinese immigrants traveled to the West Coast of the United States. They were following rumors of Gold Mountain, a land rich with treasure for all who came. When gold proved elusive, they began to seek their fortunes in other ways―as doctors and launderers, as cooks and musicians. A number of Chinese immigrants settled in Los Angeles, California. It was a rough, occasionally lawless city, and newspapers routinely published anti-Chinese articles, fueling sparks of hatred. On the night of October 24, 1871, the city exploded in violence. In the ensuing massacre, eighteen Chinese men were killed, their dreams turned to ashes.
New York Times bestselling author Livia Blackburne and illustrator Nicole Xu illuminate a tragic episode in our nation’s past in the hope that future generations can move toward a brighter tomorrow.
MOCAKIDS Author Meet & Greets are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts under Governor Kathy Hochul’s Regional Economic Development Council Initiative.
