A WRITER from Fingest has seen her dream come true with the publication of her debut children’s book, which reflects her own heritage and cultural background.
Lucy Tandon Copp, 36, who is married with two daughters, aged six and four, and a (not so) miniature schnauzer, began writing children’s stories shortly after she had her second daughter. This led to the publication of A Love as Full as the Moon, which is out next month and available to pre-order now.
“When I was on my second maternity leave, that’s when I really had a shift in my desire to write,” she says.
Lucy noticed that stories featuring children with a mixed-race, dual heritage background, especially similar to her own, were few and far between.
“I was reading so many children’s books with my kids and I just suddenly realised that I had something to contribute by way of representation.
“My dad is English and my mum is Malaysian-Chinese. She moved to the UK from Malaysia when she was about 18 and she met my dad around that time.
“So, the mum and the dad in A Love as Full as the Moon do reflect my lived experience with my mum being Malaysian-Chinese, my dad being English.”
The book tells the story of a little girl named Luna, who is named after the moon. Her Mama tells her that the moon has a special way of bringing people together and that so does Luna, being born into her mixed heritage family.
When she is questioned about this by her school friends she becomes hesitant and doubtful but, as the mid-autumn Moon Festival approaches and her family members unite, there is a heartwarming sense of celebration.
The story explores Luna’s journey of self-acceptance, identity and ways of belonging.
Born in Oxford, Lucy moved to Cumnor in Oxfordshire at the age of seven but she and her family travelled.
She says: “When I was growing up I used to go to Malaysia to visit my family and we would stay with them and experience all of what Malaysia has to offer.
“It’s just a fantastic place and it holds a lot of those childhood memories for me.
“I won’t ever forget my own Poh Poh and Kong Kong, my maternal grandma and maternal grandfather, who have both passed away. I still remember them very much as a core memory of my experience in Malaysia.”
Having studied classics at university in Bristol, Lucy did an NTCJ diploma at News Associates in London, before working as a journalist for 10 years.
“When you become a mother, you really start to think about your experiences as a child and what you want better for your own children and for other children,” says Lucy.
“You suddenly become all wrapped up in this different world that you have never experienced before and I really felt like I had something to contribute.
“I naturally gravitated towards writing creatively, even though I was a journalist. I had always had this idea that I would like to write a book of some kind one day.”
In 2022, Lucy was selected to join Penguin UK’s WriteNow Editorial programme. “I submitted a story which was about an orangutan and a durian, which is a really stinky fruit that Malaysia is famed for because it smells like rotten eggs and smelly socks but it’s also quite tasty.
“I submitted it and I got selected, so it seemed like the stars had aligned for me.
“I was partnered with an editor called Annie Gnoan and we ended up working on this manuscript. They said, ‘Oh, do you have any other books that you’ve written? This is your opportunity to show us up to three stories’, so I submitted a story which at the time was just called Luna — and that turned into the book A Love as Full as the Moon.
“The Moon Festival is also known as the mid-autumn festival and it is a big celebration of when the moon is big and full and bright which is a recurring phrase in my book.
“I wanted to write a story about a little girl who was mixed race and not just any kind of mix but a very specific mix that I just did not see. I really do feel that every child deserves to see themselves as a main character in books and, while I feel as though strides have been taken towards making representation better on UK bookshelves, there is still a long way to go.
“I’m intrigued to see where the journey for authors of colour goes in the future. I’m trying to put out stories that haven’t been seen before and if one child sees themselves in the books that I’ve written and says, ‘Oh, Mummy, Daddy’, or whatever, ‘this is like our family, this is like me’ and if that boosts their confidence and helps them to feel like they belong, that they matter and are worthy of being a hero or star of this story, then I consider that that’s my job accomplished.”
The book, the first in a two-book deal, is being published by Penguin’s imprint, Puffin Books.
Lucy says: “My illustrator on the book, Sienna Kim, is based in Los Angeles and she has done a fantastic job.
“It’s a real partnership between me, Sienna and the entire team at Puffin. There are so many people working on this book, so it’s quite an amazing product to end up with.”
With Lydia Silver, of Darley Anderson, as her agent, Lucy was also accepted for a second two-book deal, with Bloomsbury. Logan’s Lantern comes out in January.
“Logan’s Lantern actually ended up in a four-way auction, which was quite remarkable and went into the second bid stage where publishers then put in a revised offer,” says Lucy. “That was really exciting.
“In September, which is East and South East Asian heritage month, I’m going to be at the Story Feast Literary Festival, at SOAS University. I’m also going to be doing the workshop at the British Library for a festival called Little Story Feast and that’s the first of its kind.”
l A Love as Full as the Moon, by Lucy Tandon Copp, is published by Puffin Books on Thursday, August 7 and is available to pre-order, priced £7.99, from all good bookshops. For more information, visit www.penguin.co.uk or www.lucytandoncopp.com