Because he was raised in a black ghetto and attended a grammar school in San Francisco's Chinatown, Laurence Yep has firsthand knowledge of cultural alienation and racial conflict. A third generation Chinese-American, Yep is a short story writer, a novelist, and an author of books for young people whose fictional characters are forever struggling to adapt, to thwart the effects of prejudice and injustice by seeking a personal identity. His works for young people have been consistently praised for their depth and lucidity and for his strong, realistic characterizations. Yep has written one adult novel, Seademons (1977), three excellent young adult novels about Chinese-Americans, several moderately interesting juvenile mysteries, as well as science fiction and fantasy, though many critics agree that his success as a writer is due more to his imaginative, well-paced writing style than to his subject matter.

Yep grew up in San Francisco, where he was...