Lensey Namioka facts for kids

Lensey Namioka (née Chao) (simplified Chinese: 赵来思; traditional Chinese: 趙來思; pinyin: Zhào Láisī or simplified Chinese: 赵莱痕思媚; traditional Chinese: 趙萊痕思媚; pinyin: Zhào Lénsèi; born June 14, 1929) is a Chinese-born American writer of books for young adults and children. She writes about China and Chinese American families, as well as Japan, her husband's native country.

Early life and education

Lensey Chao attended Radcliffe College and the University of California, Berkeley, where her father was a professor of Asian Studies, to study mathematics. Here she met and married Isaac Namioka, a fellow graduate student who was born in Japan. Namioka ended up earning a bachelor's and a master's degree in math.

Origin of her first name

Lensey Namioka is the only Chinese person known to have the first name "Lensey". Her name has an especially unusual property for a Chinese person born in China: there are no Chinese characters to represent it. When Lensey's father was cataloging all of the phonemes used in Chinese, he noted that there were two syllables that were possible in the Chinese language, but which were used in no Chinese words. These syllables could be written in Gwoyeu Romatzyh as "len" and "sey." His third daughter was born soon after, so he named her "Lensey."

Awards and recognition

Namioka has won many awards for her work. For instance, Ties that Bind, Ties that Break was named one of the American Library Association's 10 Best Books for Young People, and also won the California Young Reader Medal and the Washington State Governor's Writers Award.