Eight of us went to interview the author of the book "The Magic Seed" on 21 March 2003. The name of the author is Mrs Irene Yim. Her name means "peaceful". She studied in an English secondary school, and was good at both English and Chinese. She built her interest in writing during her school life. Good English teacher is also one of the reasons for Irene's love of English. She was taught by a good English teacher in her primary school life. She discovered children's literature in London after she had decided not to be a teacher of Chinese Language. She has been writing books for more than twenty years. She likes to write books for young people below eighteen years old.

The ideas of "The Magic Seed" come from children nowadays. They always feel unhappy and they would think about suicide. Irene notices from the newspapers that young people don't like to go home. So she wrote this book hoping us to learn to be the old woman in the story caring and trying to help others. She chooses pigs as the characters of this story in order to make the story a comedy. She hopes readers will learn more in a relaxed way. She emphasizes illustrations are very important in stories. She hopes parents would tell the story to their children before bed-time.

Irene also gives us some precious advice for writing a story. She says that if we didn't know how to start the story, we could create a problem, describe the problem and then finally solve the problem. Another useful skill is to add some contraries and changes. For example, there is a sad family in the beginning of the story, but it becomes a happy family later. Changes would turn the story more colourful and exciting.

"Fantasy stories can encourage children to think," said Irene. She wants to leave enough room for readers to think, and so she created many fantasy stories. "Easy-to-understand stories are always popular than the serious ones," said Irene. I do agree with this point.

This is the first time for me to be a reporter meeting an author. It is a brand-new experience. It helps me to gain confidence in using English and meet middle-aged people. Besides learning a lot of writing skills, I have a new comprehension about the story. I find that it is more meaningful than I have thought. After reading "The Magic Seed", I discover that children story-books can include truth and rationalities which are useful in our lives. Not only does the book teach us to love our family members, but also it encourages us to be the old woman - considering the others and bringing peace and love to others.

Cindy Fung
Pui Ching Middle School

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