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Raising Kind Humans
Welcome to Raising Kind Humans, the top parenting podcast for raising empathetic, compassionate, and community-minded kids. If you want to move beyond basic manners and teach deep, actionable kindness, this show is your practical guide to purposeful parenting and family service projects.
Hosted by Katie Doughty, Raising Kind Humans gives parents, educators, and caregivers the tools to turn social-emotional learning (SEL) and empathy into everyday practice.
Episodes weave together the building blocks of the KIND Method, a 4-step framework for kid-friendly service projects and character building:
• KNOW: Learn facts and read books to build foundational empathy.
• INQUIRE: Connect with nonprofits, local helpers, and community leaders.
• NOODLE: Explore big concepts through fun, hands-on activities.
• DO: Take real-world action with impactful, age-appropriate family service projects.
Featuring interviews with child development experts, bestselling parenting authors, and nonprofit directors, you’ll discover actionable parenting tips, book recommendations, and weekend volunteer ideas for kids. Subscribe now to learn how to do the work, navigate tough conversations, and raise the next generation of compassionate leaders. Let's turn kindness into a verb.
Follow along on Instagram @teamkindhumans, or check out the website: www.TeamKindHumans.com
Raising Kind Humans
60. Making Connections With History Through Picture Books with Ann Suk Wang
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Connecting kids to the people, places, and stories of the past will help anchor their knowledge of historical events. Ann Suk Wang has written a gorgeous picture book about a family living through the Korean War.
This poetic story gives a beautiful description of showing kindness during a difficult time. It's a must for your bookshelf!
Listen in as we pull back the curtain of this story and learn about the family that lived in the House Before Falling Into The Sea.
Follow Ann on Instagram @annsukwang
Have you listened to the SuperKind Kids podcast yet? It's a podcast just for those young kindness superheroes that are ready to make a difference! With cool guests and fun topics, your kid will be begging to do community service. Really! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Head to kindclassroom.com or follow me on Instagram @teamkindhumans.
Hello, my dear friends. Welcome back to another episode of Raising Kind Humans. I'm your host, Katie Doty. I have been working so diligently to create something for you that I think you're going to love. I am so excited to announce that the Team Kind Humans membership is now available for all kids everywhere. This is a membership just for kids. And also for you to be able to check raising a kind human off your to-do list. Because I know as a busy mom, I don't enjoy scouring the internet for activities, lesson plans, and things when I just I know what I want and I just need somebody to hand it to me. And I feel like the membership is a place where all you have to do is press play and do the activities and feel really good about raising your kid to be kind. Um because I've done a ton of research. I've worked really hard at figuring out what works best, figuring out what kids love and how to make it so simple that it's a no-brainer. It's super easy. And anyone can just implement this into their daily life. So I wanted to tell you just a little bit about it and what you can expect inside the team. Kind Team's membership. What uh my goal is, is that I create a weekly video that you can just press play and show your kids. Let me teach them, let me be the teacher. Um, I miss that part of being in the classroom. I miss the kids. I love homeschooling my own, but I miss working with other people's children. So I will create a weekly video that either is part of a kind schooling quest where we really do a deep dive into a nonprofit and um work some community service for that. Or it might be a fun celebration like National Ice Cream Day or International Sandcastle Day, and I will tie in kindness activities to go with that. So the video will educate, it will teach about whatever the topic is, and then there will be an activity to go with it. So that really honestly, all you have to do is press play, watch it, and then do the activity that goes with it. There's also a community attached to this, and so this is a safe place for kids to come and show off their work that they are doing each week. And I will be in there weekly cheering them on, asking them questions, giving them prompts and high fives. Um, and it's a place for them to connect with other kind-minded kids. Also included in the membership is Leaping Letters, which is my digital preschool program. So if you have kids younger than elementary school aged, then they can play through the alphabet. There's kindness activities included for each letter. Each letter has um story recommendations. We go through letter sound, letter recognition, how to write it, how to say it. We have tons of games. We do an art project for each letter, play-doh activities, there's gymnastics, so much. And that's all video based. So literally just press play and I will hang out with your kid and teach them the alphabet and how to play and be kind. So that one is super fun. Um, but that's also included in the membership. And so I wanted to let you know that this is available and I'm so excited because we are launching this week. It's available, and we are starting with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation as our first kind schooling quest together. I have some really cool guests coming in. Um, you will get to hear from Dr. Arya Vishnavi, who is a cancer research scientist. She teaches directly to the kids. They get to do science with her. Um, and I think that's really cool. You hear directly from Alex's Lemonade Stand and what they're all about. And I have some really cool service activities that go with it. So please come join us. Come be part of Team Kind Humans. I think this membership is something that will help you feel good about raising your kid to be kind while also not being overwhelmed with more things on your plate. So if you want more information, just go to teamkindhumans.com slash membership. There's a little video in there, lots of extra um information, and that's where you can sign up. So I hope you will come join us. Uh, but today, I'm so excited about this conversation that I get to share with you. Um Anne Sukwong is here, and she wrote a gorgeous picture book called The House Before Falling Into the Sea. And we do a deep dive into her book and the behind the scenes of where this story came from, what it means to her, and how you can implement it into your um into your family life and use it, one, to teach history, but also to make connections to people who um were part of the Korean War and uh give your kids an inside scoop, an inside peek at families that experience this, but also some of the good that came from it. It's a beautifully written story, beautifully illustrated. Um, and I know you're going to enjoy the behind the scenes of this. It's very interesting and some really cool stuff comes up. So without further ado, please welcome Anne. Hello, Anne. Welcome to the Raising Kind Humans podcast. I'm thrilled that you're here and that we get to dive into your book today, The House Before Falling Into the Sea. I love the title. It's so good.
SPEAKER_01Thanks. And it's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00Yay. I I love this story. I'm gonna let you you tell more about this, but I love this story because it's based on a true story, correct? Yes, yes, and it's something that I feel like parents can tie into more learning. There's so much that you can dive into in this book and connect back to the characters that it's not a to me, it's not a one-time read. It's a read multiple times over and over again and look at different aspects. So can you tell us where did this story come from? And how did you know it needed to be a children's book?
SPEAKER_01Thanks for saying that it's something you can read over and over. That's how I feel even when I read it, um, because I learned new things, uh, even about the illustrations um, you know, after it came out. So um, yes, there's lots of things in there. And I think with different ages, you also get different things. Um, but it needed to be a children's book, I think. Um, well, it started off as a middle grade book, and um I decided that it, you know, sometimes you play with format and just try to see if you could get something um shortened and if it would still work. And so I played with it, and um I could tell that writing it in that way for a picture book worked really well, even better than a middle grade. So I stuck with it and I kept going. And I also love poetry and um just the flow, the rhythm of storytelling in picture books. So I think uh it worked for this book in particular. And yes, it's a true story. And um, at the time it was during the pandemic, and uh actually I started writing it before, but when it got sold, it was during the pandemic. And I just felt more than ever that being kind to people around us and um showing love to our neighbors was uh uh an important thing that was real in my life, but also something I think was needed in the world.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it this is your first one, right? This is my first book.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes I'm focusing on one book over another. Um and so that's why I decided on this one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's beautiful. And I think that you you can tell you are a very talented writer, and the way that you're able to tell this story in such a I mean, telling a story, a picture book, you don't get very many words, and you have to be able to get from the beginning to the end with all the emotion and the message and the detail with very few words, and you the way that you write is poetry and it's beautiful, and I feel like it's such the how do I want to say this? The story itself is kind of heavy in the in what your family had to go through, but the writing and the illustrations are so light that it's it's welcoming to any reader to jump in and be part of that story. And I just think you did a beautiful job letting us in at a kid-friendly level. Was it hard to to kind of take this story? And maybe we need to go back. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the story and then we'll dive in a little bit more?
SPEAKER_01Yes, sorry, I probably didn't answer that first question, forgot part of it. Um, but the story is about wartime Korea. And when my mother was seven years old, she lived in a city called Pusan, which is at the southeastmost part of South Korea, and um other communist countries were trying to take over the entire Korea. They pushed everybody down who wanted um freedom and more of a democracy, if you will. And uh everybody were forced, they were forced to go all the way down to this one city. And my mom happened to live there with her family, and they realized as people were entering their town, uh, they needed places to stay. And so they opened up their home and allowed different people to stay there. And um, and so that's what it's mainly about, um, or that's the backdrop. Mostly, uh, even though the backdrop of the war, it's really about showing kindness to your neighbors, showing love to those around you. And sometimes your neighbors are from right next door, and sometimes they're from much further away, um, but they're still our neighbors, people we can identify with, and um and and just showing kindness in a very hard time when it's hard to do that. And I just believe no matter what situation people are in, they can show another level of kindness. And um, and so that's at the heart of the story. And even though it was a pretty weighty topic, my editor and I at Dial wanted to make sure that this was relevant for children and able to be absorbed and um not just entertaining, but but that they would get it. Yeah, and I think many kids do. I'm surprised when I go to school visits and um I shouldn't be surprised, they're very smart, kids are so smart, and um yeah, they uh they really do get the message of the story and can uh extend it more than just Korean War 1950. You know, they can see how it's used even today. So um that was the main point of all this, not just to think about the Korean War and something from the past, although that's definitely a part of it. It's it's about how we're living now as well.
SPEAKER_00I love that and how the story continues from generation to generation and showing that kindness as you pass along this story to your relatives, to your family.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'm glad you pointed that out because um there are people who are giving this to their parents. Uh, somebody said that they're using it for intergenerational storytelling because it's hard for older generations to talk about difficult things. So it is a gentle way of opening that door and helping people to tell their stories in every aspect, not just the hard parts, but um, but the other parts as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yes, what a beautiful gift you've given to families to be able to use. And to others too. I think this is a story that I read it to my seven-year-old. And while he doesn't understand right now war and the Korean War of 1950 and things that are happening at that time period, he now has a story that he will connect it to when he does learn about it. And I feel like it gives it that personal, meaningful touch that when he does learn about it from the history books, he has something to make a connection to and a story to remember. And I think that is so much more powerful than just learning the details, but learning the stories of the actual people who lived through it and what happened and some of the goodness that came out of it that's now being passed down from generation to generation. And I just I love books like yours because I'm grateful as a parent to be able to give that to my kid. And I feel like so many others will benefit from it as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes, thanks for saying that. Um, there's a part in the book where um that uh Kyang, the protagonist, is uh frustrated with all the things the parents are asking of her. And you know, what kid doesn't go through that right now? We're all asked to do things that we don't want to do sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And any kid can connect to that. I think it's brilliant. Yeah. I love it. Do you remember the first time you heard this story? Who told it to you and and about how old were you?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, I wouldn't be able to say how old I was, um, but this story has gone around our family since as far as I can remember. And different parts of the story were told at different times. So at first I knew, oh, my mom lived through the Korean War, and you know, different people came through the house. And then I would hear details of those people over time. Um, but really the thing that drew me to writing this story was after my father passed away, um, there were some people at his funeral honoring our family. And my mom said, Oh, they were who lived in our house during that time. And um I thought, oh, wow, they're still around and we're still connected. And when she said that, I asked more questions, more detailed questions, and decided that this was a story that needed to be told. It that war isn't all about pain and suffering. Um, there is some brightness when you're helping others. And um my mom remembers that time as a seven-year-old just enjoying the kids who came through. And so um she liked playing with different people, and so she didn't understand the depth and all that was going on around her, but um, she could remember that, and with hindsight, she can put it all together, of course. And my train of thinking with your question, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, I love that, and I love it because it is from the perspective of your mother as a child, and children just want to play and have fun, and I feel like you built that in as a way of showing, even during a really difficult time, look at the beauty that comes from it, and from a seven-year-old's perspective, she got to play with new friends, and that was that was entertaining and fun for her and something that she remembers. Can you go back to the last page of the book? And there's there's two people on the hilltop, and it looks like next to maybe a gravestone with a little message on it. Is that there where the house was now? Is that a true part of it?
SPEAKER_01It is not, that's the fiction part. Um, my grandmother actually was brought to America and she passed away here. Um, although my grandfather is still buried in Korea. So there is a site for him, but they're not buried together. I thought that would be a nice tribute for both of them to have them together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I loved it. I thought it was a beautiful way to kind of tie it in a nice little bow and that that the story isn't over, right? That it's still continuing on today and being passed along from generation to generation and and remembering those that that did show kindness, that it still means something to those today. I just love that.
SPEAKER_01Right. And the girls are a little bit older in that last shot, and um it came to my father's um funeral that made me think because they still leave flowers for my grandmother, who's also um at the same um same site. So um I know they still honor her and thank her for what she did so many years ago. And so yeah, the story continues.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I just love it. And it's it's just so beautifully written and something that I feel like will be around for a long time. And it's one of those stories that you just want to share with everyone because it it means more that it's a true story, right? And that you are able to put your heart and soul into it and honor your family in that way. What a gift for them. It's just such a gift for them. And I I'm so excited for you that this is your your first picture book, and I hope that there are many more to come because you really are a brilliant writer. And yeah, it's just beautiful. Can you tell us a little bit about the illustrator? Did you know her beforehand, or did you get to know her during the process?
SPEAKER_01So um at the beginning, um, during the process, I did not know her at all. Um we we meaning um my editor and I and the art director um tried to pick somebody um who we thought fit my words and could draw something or illustrate something very epic and big and beautiful. And I loved her watercolor. And she was relatively unknown. She had three books under her belt, but one I didn't even know about. I thought it was only two. I just loved her watercolor and the epic way she told stories through her watercolor. And I just thought that they elevated um the words, uh, the story itself. And so we chose her, but I never met her until after it was published and found out so many things about her connection to this story because she did more research and asked her family about the Korean War and discovered that her side of the family actually were fleeing North Korea and made their way down to Busan and needed housing for three years. So it was a perfect match, really. And um, you know, some people say that's a coincidence, but I like to say, oh, thank God for that. I mean, it was um it was just such a personal story for her as well. And she did lots of research and really put her heart and soul into it. And I think you can tell. And something very exciting is that this year, early this year, she Um, she was told that she got the Caldecott honor for her 2023 book, The Truth About Dragons. And she just received that this last weekend from the American Library Association, ALA in the um San Diego Conference. And um and so she's just celebrated all around now. And her next book is this one. So um, so it's all very exciting, and I just feel blessed that um that she said yes to this project and that we partnered together in it.
SPEAKER_00She's amazing. That's incredible. I can't believe one. I can't believe the connection that she had to this story that's absolutely meant to be that you found each other to tell this story in such a beautiful way, because I feel like it really does shine through in her illustrations that she got it. She understood the story and that it meant something to her too. Because illustrators just have this beautiful way of adding details to the story that are not presented with words, but through pictures. And I feel like she just she understood and really brought it to life on the page. And how amazing that she just won that big award and your book is the next one. Oh my gosh, so many incredible things with this story.
SPEAKER_01Right. I know there's a lot of things people don't know that I love sharing these details about. And she really did add things I never told her to add, but she was able to do that because of her own background. And um really I was surprised. It's it's like finding Easter eggs in a story. She didn't mean to put in Easter eggs per se, but she did have lots of fun things in there. And so I tell kids, you know, keep going through it. You're gonna see things um in the illustrations that you definitely didn't see the first time.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Fun little surprises. Yes, lots of them. I was shocked, and I didn't even know until I went through it several times. And I think I did like three school visits. I even saw another one. So it I'm learning this book.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I love it. Tell me what it was like the first time you got to see your book in print when you got a hard copy. What was that like?
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's so thrilling. Um you know, I uh authors do like a you know, a reveal. They do an opening, box opening, and I invited my mom um to my opening, if you will, or uh the revealing of the actual copy, and I opened the box and we just cried. It was it was a dream come true. I desire to be an author for children's books. It was our story, it was um just all the things. It was so beautiful, more beautiful than what I saw on the computer. Um and I'm looking at it now and flipping through it. Um it felt surreal, but just joy and excitement and hope and thankfulness, really grateful for how this all came together.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, so all the things, all the things, all the things. That's incredible. I just I love being able to ask authors about the backstory of writing their book and how it came to be because there's always so much more that you don't really think about. When you go to the bookstore and you pick up a book, you're like, oh, this is cute, what a nice story, and you kind of move on. But for the author and the illustrator, they put their heart and soul into it. And it's usually something that's so meaningful to them. And so I'm grateful that you came today to tell your story and and kind of behind the scenes of of what was happening and why it's important to you. I just love it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Thank you for asking all these great questions um to reveal those. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's so fun. Well, do you have you said you had others you're working on? Are you do you have another main project that you're focusing on? What's in the future for you?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um, I have several picture books done, but between my agent and I, we're trying to roll them out um one at a time, but it doesn't make selling the next one easier. Well, maybe a little bit easier, but I haven't sold it yet. But um have gotten all those champagne rejections, you know, where oh, I have a story like this already, or um, you know, whatever the case may be. Um, I feel like we're getting close with that one. And that's another story, but more another story about my family, um, but more my dad's story, because he was a stone collector. And um, there's a specific art in stones in the Korean culture and the Chinese culture and the Japanese culture. And um so it's more a story about that and relationship between generations. Oh my gosh, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00I hope that that gets into production very soon because your storytelling needs to continue. It's just been so lovely getting to know you and learning your work and and reading your words. It's it's incredible. So, where can people find you and find out more about you and buy your books?
SPEAKER_01Yes, um, I try to make it as easy as possible. It's my full name, Ann Sukwong, spelled A-N-N-S-U-K W A-N-G, and that's the handle for Instagram and um Facebook and um and also it's myfullname.com is my website. So um, and then AnSouk Wong um author at gmail.com is how they how people can reach me by email. Um so yeah, chances are if you put in my name, there'll be all the different ways you can find me on X and you know, all the other things. So many platforms. Yeah, but I'm most active on, I would say Instagram.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And then you mentioned school visits. I know a lot of teachers listen to this podcast too. Um, do you offer school visits both in person and virtual, or do you only do in-person? What are your choices?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I offer all of it. So I've done Zoom or online uh visits as well as in person. So um I like doing both. I love going in person, love meeting the kids and the teachers and interacting that way um if possible. But I know sometimes um schools are far away and can't fly me out, so that's okay. We do the next best thing, which is online, and um I'm happy to do it that way. Oh yeah, I live in the LA area, so um I can go to any school pretty much in California. I can get to fairly easily. Um, I go up north a lot, and um yeah, I have like library visits and um I'll have one at the LA Public Library, Korea Town Branch, uh PICO, um coming up in July 20 something, a Wednesday. I have to look back at my calendar, but yeah, that's the next thing. Um but yeah, I am completely open. I'm um scheduling things right now with schools. So this is a good time for next year.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. That's just perfect. I think bringing in authors is such a gift to kids because it shows them kind of just like we're doing here, that behind the scenes of how to do it and the passion that goes into it and the fun you can have and that it's possible for you too. And um, I just love when teachers bring authors in to talk to the kids. So I'm so happy that you offer that.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, absolutely. And um yeah, even middle grade and high school, I just change it up for the different ages. And I've done adults like teachers association um conferences and things like that. So um yeah, I just adjust it to whoever the audience is, but um I'm happy to do it. Thank you so much for doing what you do and sharing kindness with um everybody uh you can, and especially the homeschooling community. I really um love that community, have lots of friends in it, and um yeah, you're doing a great job. So thank you.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you for saying that. This has been so fun to be able to connect with you and I will share all the things. Um, but I really honestly look forward to more books by you. So keep going because you're doing amazing, and thank you so much for coming on here today. Ah, thank you.