TITLE:  TIES THAT BIND, TIES THAT BREAK.

AUTHOR:   LENSEY NAMIOKA

YEAR OF PUBLICATION:   1999

NUMBER OF PAGES: 160

EDITORIAL HOUSE:   LAUREL LEAF. 

LENSEY NAMIOKA

Lensey Namioka is a Chinese-American writer who was born in China in 1929, and who usually writes about China and Chinese American families. She has also written books about Japan (her husband`s native country) such as Japan: A Traveler`s Literay Companion, published in 1979.

She left China at the age of nine due to the Japanese invasion and moved in Hawaii, but then she and her family decided to live in Cambridge, Massachussets. Her mother was an American-Chinese physician considered as one of the first women to practice western medicine in China who married with Yuenren Chao, Lensey`s father. He was a Chinese-American educator, poet, composer and an important linguist who contributed to the modern study of Chinese phonoly and grammar and who noted there were two Chinese syllables which were not used in any Chinese word, these syllables were written in English as Len-Sey. 

Lensey`s work has been awarded several times, among her awards it is found the California Young Reader Medal Award for Ties that Bind, Ties that Break and the Washington State Governor`s Writers Award, for Island of Ogres and Ties that Bind, Ties that Break. In addition, this book was named one of the American Library Association`s ten best books for young people.