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In some ways, debut author Maxwell Y. Kim’s first children’s book, “The Pumpkin with a Crack in It” — which features a farm full of friendly fruit and veggie characters and emphasizes kindness and the importance of inner beauty over outer perfection — has been decades in the making.
It’s the story of Pumpkin, a handsome and popular gourd who lets his good looks go to his head, leading him to learn a hard lesson about what kind of beauty truly matters. In regards to the book’s themes, Kim said that in society and pop culture, “humility and humbleness and the focus on inner beauty has come in waves, and I feel like we’re kind of at a low point right now.”
The San Mateo-based author hopes his story can be a small part of helping kids take in a positive message about building good character early. “There has to be a place to start, and teaching children that is important,” he said.
If you would have told Kim a few years ago he would soon publish a book, he wouldn’t have believed it. But it turns out the seeds of the idea were actually planted in his own Palo Alto childhood.
“It was apparently this big passion of mine when I was very young,” he said. “I wrote a bunch of books in elementary school; they all said I want to be a writer. Then I just ignored that for about 27 years.”
A graduate of Gunn High School, he turned away from creative writing and toward STEM and business. But he came to realize that he was no longer passionate about his work in biotech investing and health finance.
When his first child was born a little over two years ago, “fatherhood just hit me like a train,” Kim said. “I feel like I was one way and then he was born and suddenly, I was a new way.” Inspired by his love for his son, now a toddler, “I wanted to make something for him,” he said.
He was cleaning out his parents’ garage one day when he happened upon a cache of his old writing projects dating back to his Hoover Elementary School days, including some work featuring a pumpkin protagonist.
“Obviously the stories were crazy and second grade-ish,” Kim said, “but I liked the character.”
Why a pumpkin in particular?
“I wish I could go back and ask myself, but if I’m looking back I did have an affinity for them,” he said of the autumnal favorite. “I dressed up as one for Halloween. It’s a fun anthropomorphic character; it’s approachable,” he said.
He took inspiration from his past self and wrote “The Pumpkin with a Crack in It” for his son. His wife found illustrator Hema Gami to bring the story to life visually and, “it just became this thing,” Kim said. “I really liked it. I thought it was nice. This was something I could share with people.”
He self-published the book and started hitting the local literary scene, trying to get his work on bookshelves and scheduling author events at indie bookshops and public libraries up and down the Peninsula.
Self-promotion is “not something that comes easily to me, but it’s been a good experience,” he said. “Places like The Reading Bug (in San Carlos) and Fireside (in Redwood City) are really supportive of the local community.”
His next author appearance will be Nov. 8 at 11 a.m. at the San Mateo Public Library and will include giveaways of 25 copies of the book while supplies last.
Kim is already working on his second book, as his second child was born a few weeks ago. This next one, which will focus on siblings, will be for his daughter.
“I can’t have her growing up reading a book dedicated to her brother and not (her),” he noted with a laugh. He isn’t a very fast writer, he said, but for children’s books, “that’s good because you have an economy of words. Being very thoughtful about fewer words over many pages appealed to me, at least as a starting point.”
“I do have dreams of writing something longer; there’s a story in my head, but we’ll see,” he added.
Kim is an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy and would love to write a full-length novel someday. He also looks forward to introducing his children to some of his favorites, including N. K. Jemisin’s “The Fifth Season” series, when they’re old enough. For now, his son’s tastes run more to “Where the Wild Things Are” and “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” (and, naturally, “The Pumpkin with a Crack in It”).
Though publishing a book came as a surprise, Kim is thrilled to be combining his life as a parent with his forgotten childhood dream.
“As a parent, I’m a big advocate for books for children,” he said. “It’s exciting to be able to create something for kids and to help parents also to try to teach their kids.”
Maxwell Kim; Instagram: @pumpkin_writing. Kim will be at the San Mateo Public Library, main branch, at 11 a.m. on Nov. 8.
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