And while her best friend can’t believe she would give up the opportunity to change her looks, Joyce’s sister can’t believe she would even consider the surgery. Joyce is certain that this surgery could change her life, then she’ll look more like the typical white American beauty-the kind of girl her crush dates. When Joyce’s plastic-surgery-crazed aunt wins the lottery and decides to help everyone in the family improve their looks, Joyce is offered the chance to have eyelid surgery to give her monolids a fold. Joyce questions whether she’ll ever be pretty or special enough to stand out, especially when her older sister, Helen, outshines her in every way. On the last day of her junior year, Joyce Park finally musters up the courage to ask her crush to sign her yearbook, but he can’t remember her name. Na cites Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street among the influences on her writing and also admires the work of Madeleine L'Engle and of her first writing teacher, Jacqueline Woodson.From master storyteller and Printz Award–winning author An Na comes a thoughtful novel about American beauty standards through the eyes of a Korean-American teenager who must decide how far she’s willing to go to be seen as beautiful.

She divides her time between Oakland, California and Warren, Vermont, and makes frequent visits to middle schools to talk about her works and encourages young Asian-American students to become artists and harness their creativity. Starting her career as a middle school English and History teacher, Na turned to writing novels after taking a young adult literature class while enrolled in an M.F.A. Na grew up in San Diego, California, and has a bachelor of arts from Amherst College. The last day of her junior year Joyce finds the courage to ask her mega-crush, John Ford Kang, to sign her yearbook. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award, Young People's Literature, and later found its way onto numerous 'best book' lists. The Fold by An Na is the story of Joyce Park and her struggle with self image, love, and family. Printz Award from the American Library Association recognizing the year's 'best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit'. She gained success with her first novel A Step From Heaven, published by Front Street Press in 2001, which won the annual Michael L. An Na (born 1972) is a South Korea-born American children's book author.