Kids Comics Pitchfest 2025 Showcase

Water Girl

Whenever Mai, 12, gets overwhelmed with emotions, she melts into a puddle of water. Which happens quite frequently, as her big feelings make her a target at school and her once fun dad is now ignoring her since the divorce.

But when her father gets sick with water filling his lungs, Mai cannot help wondering if she caused it by playing too much with water. Determined to find a cure, she embarks on a magical journey to another world to retrieve the gem that will save him. With the help of the benevolent Viet dragons, Mai learns about her father’s mythology and must learn to embrace the real superpower of empathy to save her dad and herself.

My Why:

Water Girl is a story about family, emotions and Vietnamese folklore. It was inspired by my daughter and my late father.

A Vietnam War Veteran with undiagnosed PTSD, my father seldom talked about his past, his culture, and even less about his feelings. We grew distant until his sudden passing from lung cancer. I wish I had known him better and wanted to write this story for him and for the children of war veterans.

Like the main character, my daughter and I struggle with our intense emotions. We cry easily and are often called ‘drama queens’ or ‘cry babies’.

With this book, I hope to help highly sensitive children embrace who they are and their precious emotions and empathy.