The first time I saw a portrayal of a stutterer was in the film A Fish Called Wanda. I was ten years old, and up until that point had never seen or heard anyone else who stuttered. Michael Palin plays the character, “stuttering Ken,” a bumbling, nervous, unintelligent, and angry person who is always the victim of violence.

I Talk like a River is a book made of many things and made by many hands. But at its core its main ingredients are love and acceptance. Having illustrated this book, I can say with confidence that it was the purest and most positive collaborative experience in my book-making life.

My twelve-year-old self thought she would write fast and a lot. Back then, I raced through homework to get to the next pages of my autobiographical novel: Rita at Highland ­Elementary by Rita Highland Williams. The “­Highland”? As everyone knows, a serious writer should have three names! I chose the name of my beloved ­California elementary school to cement my serious-writer status.

But what about Vincent Chin?

That was the first question to pop into my head when The Detroit News offered me a job as a full-time reporter in the summer of 1993. That was also the first question my Asian American friends asked me. “Are you scared of going to Detroit because of Vincent Chin?”