Girl's inspirational fish tale tells story of 'tinklefish' from desert

By J.J. Jensen
Times Snohomish County bureau

	MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Hannah Baek hopes her book, "The Legend of the Tinklefish From the Sand," will raise $100,000 for Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
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Hannah Baek can't explain how she creates the characters in her stories.

She can't describe how she decides to illustrate the pages in her self-published book, and she can't identify where her story ideas come from — they just "pop in" to her head.

But what the unassuming 10-year-old Snohomish-area author does know is that if people are finding inspiration in her words and pictures, that's a good thing.

Hannah, who last spring wrote "The Legend of the Tinklefish From the Sand," a fictional tale of caring and helping others, hopes sales of her 12-page book will help raise $100,000 for Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

"From comments I've heard from my friends, they say I'm an inspiration," Hannah said after school last week, as she swiveled in a chair at Woodinville Montessori School's Bothell campus.

"Tinklefish," which recently won the annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest for third-graders in Washington and British Columbia, is about a fish that lives in a desert and has small bells instead of scales.

When the tinklefish takes its first dip in a pool, its bells rust, and because it can't move, it expects to die. Later, others take the time to nurse the tinklefish back to health, and it winds up in a hospital, where sick children find a healing power in its presence and the sound of its bells.

	Hannah's book is about an inspirational fish.

When Hannah's dad, Sung Baek, a nonpracticing physician who works as a cancer researcher, read the book, he told his daughter she had described the process of being ill better than any healer, guru or doctor. He encouraged her to get the book published, and the family contacted Elfin Cove Press of Bellevue.

When people are sick, Sung Baek said, it's not their fault, but they may get down on themselves and give up hope.

"The very important part about getting sick is it's not your wrongdoing," he said. "And getting better doesn't require special knowledge, just common sense. And being sick doesn't mean death, but some people act dead already."

Baek began passing the story among his colleagues and friends, and they took away similar messages.

On the book's back cover are comments from state Sen. Paull Shin, D-Edmonds, and two physicians.

"Tinklefish teaches a valuable lesson to young people about happiness and appreciation for life," Shin writes.

Young patients also have been moved by the story.

The book costs $25 and comes with a necklace and bell. Hannah said that when she read the book at Children's recently, some patients were wearing the bells, like the characters in her book.

"One girl said, 'Good job, I like your book,' " Hannah said, "and that was cool because she was the shyest kid there."

Hannah, who is also active in ballet, kendo and diving and plays piano, said she hasn't had much experience with healing but is glad her book is helping others.

J.J. Jensen: 425-745-7809 or jjensen@seattletimes.com

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