Lyla Lee Books In Order

Publication Order of I'll Be the One Books

Publication Order of Mindy Kim Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Lyla Lee

Lyla Lee is a Young Adult author that has been very well received with her early novels. Her subjects are YA K-Pop and YA K-Dramas.

The first was published in January 2020. “Mindy Kim” is a young, middle-school aged Asian girl who decides to start a snack business at her school. Her new friend, Sally, and she decide to start the “Yummy Seaweed Business”.

Ms. Lee has written a series of “Mindy Kim” books that all focus on friendships, “tween” experiences, food that teens like to eat, and being under-represented as an Asian girl.

Being a Korean-American, Ms. Lee writes directly from her own experiences at a predominately white school as the new kid and an Asian girl. In her Y.A. books she gives voice to the Korean-American kids who rarely, if ever, are able to see themselves in books. Through Ms. Lee’s stories, they can celebrate their own cultural identity and have pride in their heritage.

Ms. Lee was born in South Korea and came to the United States when she was a young girl. In fourth grade her English teacher inspired her to start writing stories and at the age of fourteen she finished her first novel.

She has lived in various cities in the United States; Hollywood, California, Texas, and Florida. She attended USC- the University of Southern California where she studied Psychology and Cinematic Arts. She currently lives in Dallas, Texas. In between writing her engaging novels, she searches for a perfect bowl of shaved ice, looks for cute cafes, watches Korean TV dramas, eats all types of great food, plays with her Siberian Husky, Eiva, and she teaches kids.

In January 2020, when her first “Mindy Kim” story was published, she did a wide-ranging interview with a blog site. MG Book Village- aka “Middle Grade Book Village: a place for Middle Grade book lovers to share and connect”- did a wide ranging interview with Ms. Lee. It was part of Ms. Lee’s blog tour promoting the first two books of the “Mindy Kim” series.

Ms. Lee shared her thoughts about her books and her journey as a writer. She said her journey to being a published writer was “REALLY long”. Her fourth grade teacher was a huge inspiration and her stories inspired Ms. Lee to want to write. As a kid, she moved around frequently and books were always there for her, thus she became an avid reader.

From 8th grade to college Ms. Lee completed and submitted to literary agents a handful of books for publication. Her final project for her screenwriting class at USC got her an agent three weeks after college graduation. It was an adaption of a script she had written and turned into a novel.

Success never being a smooth road, the next two years saw two of her books being rejected by publishers. Ms. Lee wrote two more books. The second book was one she had written on a whim and it sold immediately. That was Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business.

With her books, Ms. Lee is wanting her young reader to learn how valuable being a friend and openminded is. Mindy is all alone in her new school and is sad. One friend takes a chance and she makes all the difference to Mindy.

Of course Mindy is scared but with her friend’s help, she intentionally goes to other kids for their friendships. Even though she isn’t exactly like the other kids, they take a chance on her too.

The MG Book Village site is very popular with teachers and librarians. Ms. Lee advises that the Mindy Kim books are fun to be read aloud in libraries and classrooms. The core message is about a second grader working her way through her life in a new home. Lots of aspects of Korean culture is worked into the stories.

The stories are interwoven with games that can be played and delicious foods that can be brought into the classrooms.

The Mindy Kim book series is tastefully illustrated by Dung Ho. Ms. Ho was born and raised in Hue, Vietnam. At Hue University College of Arts, she studied graphic design. After graduation, she worked in advertising and design.

Eventually she found her passion and gift for illustration and art for picture books. She decided to become a freelance illustrator. Ms. Ho works and lives in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Nature heavily influences are illustrations and observing the interactions between people and nature create more inspiration. She especially loves drawing children. She relaxes by watching movies and cooking.

Besides the hugely popular Mindy Kim series, she has also written other Y.A. books. I’ll Be the One and then Flip the Script was published. I’ll Be the One was optioned by HBO for production.