By Ann-Maureen Owens
with photography by Bernard Clark
Mrs. Nobody, a picture book by Y. S. Lee that was released by Groundwood last month, is a delight. Inspired by the bossy imaginary friend who took up residence in the author’s home for two years when her children were very young, Ying found her easier to live with on the page — less dangerous, more fun. To get a break from Mrs. Nobody’s outlandish ideas for childhood pranks, Ying and her husband, Nick, announced that Mrs. Nobody had gone away to camp for two weeks, only to be informed soon after that naughty Mrs. Nobody had been sent home for bad behaviour. “I knew this was a story I would write someday,” Ying says, “but it only came to life when I wrote it from the child’s perspective — the joy and glee of being with Mrs. Nobody. From an adult’s viewpoint, Mrs. Nobody was quite stressful; from a child’s view, she was the best!”
Ying spent much of her own childhood enjoying the adventures of characters in books. In school, students who finished their work early were allowed to read quietly, and Ying was often so immersed in her book that she would not notice that the class had started the next lesson or had been released for recess. “I read everything I could get my hands on, but I drew the line at Dickens when, at age ten, I was handed a copy of A Tale of Two Cities by my father.”
She eventually completed a Ph.D. in Victorian Literature and Culture. Her first published work was an academic book . . .
