Kat Zhang (born 1 April 1991) is an American award-winning author of

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

and middle grade literature. She has also written two picture books, ''Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao'' and ''Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon''. Her first trilogy, ''The Hybrid Chronicles'', was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

in the United States. According to

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

, the series is held in 2,545 libraries, and has been translated into Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Polish and Italian. The first volume, '' What's Left of Me'', was published in 2012; the second volume, ''Once We Were'', was published in 2013; and the third and final volume, ''Echoes of Us,'' was published in 2014.

Personal life

Zhang was born in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

to immigrants from China. Her father was from

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

, and her mother from

Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...

. Zhang graduated from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Writings

''Young Adult novels''

''Hybrid Chronicles'' ''trilogy''

*'' What's Left of Me'' (2012) *''Once We Were'' (2013) *''Echoes of Us'' (2014)

''Middle Grade novels''

*''The Emperor's Riddle'' (2017) *''The Memory of Forgotten Things'' (2018)

''Picture Books''

* ''Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao (2019)'' *''Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon (2020)''

''The Hybrid Chronicles''

''Hybrid Chronicles'' series is set in an alternate universe society in which every body possesses two '

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

s' or human identities at birth. One of these identities, termed the "recessive soul," is supposed to fade away with age. Those who retain both souls are labelled 'hybrids' and are ostracized from normal society. The series' protagonists are Addie and Eva, the dominant and recessive souls respectively, who inhabit the same body. The girls hide the presence of Eva, who has lost control of their shared body but never completely faded, for fear of what might happen if they were ever discovered. Over the course of the trilogy, the girls are at first institutionalized for their hybrid nature, then join a resistance force for hybrid rights. The Hybrid Chronicles Trilogy includes ''What's Left of Me'' (2012), ''Once We Were (''2013), and ''Echoes of Us'' (2014).

Middle grade novels

''The Emperor's Riddle'', Zhang's first Middle Grade novel, is set in

, China. It describes the adventures of a Chinese-American girl as she searches for an ancient,

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

treasure. The book details the legends involving the assassination of Chinese emperor

Zhu Yunwen The Jianwen Emperor (5 December 1377 – ?), personal name Zhu Yunwen (), was the second List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1398 to 1402. The Chinese era name, era name of his reign, Jianwen (era) ...

, the second emperor of the Ming dynasty, and touches on the events of the

Chinese cultural revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. Zhang's second middle grade novel, ''The Memory of Forgotten Things'', is a return to science fiction. The twelve-year-old protagonist, Sophia Wallace, has memories of her deceased mother that don't make sense, memories that take place after her mother's death. She believes that an upcoming

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

will allow her to cross over into a parallel world where her mother never died.

Reception

''The Hybrid Chronicles'' has received generally positive reception from several websites. The first in the trilogy, '' What's Left of Me'', was chosen as a 2012 BEA Buzz book and given a starred review on ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

''. It was positively reviewed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In 2017, ''The Emperor's Riddle'' won an honorable mention for the NCTA's Freeman Award. It also won a Parent's Choice Award. ''The Memory of Forgotten Things'' was selected as a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year. The first Amy Wu picture book, ''Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao'', received a starred review from ''Kirkus'', and was a Kirkus Best Picture Book of 2019. It was also chosen as a First and Best 2019 book by the

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Kat 1991 births Living people American writers of young adult literature American writers of Chinese descent 21st-century American novelists American science fiction writers Novelists from Texas Vanderbilt University alumni