{"data":{"id":"55e4040f-f6c0-4caa-8405-d55b8a80afcf","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Edmonton social media guru pens children’s book focused on fertility struggles","summary":"For nearly a decade, Linda Hoang and her husband Mike tried to have a baby. They tried In vitro fertilization (IVF), Intrauterine insemination, adoption, herbals, all without answers as they struggled with unexplained infertility. Then their little miracle arrived, a natural conception at the end of a long ordeal.\n\nThat’s normally where their story would end, a little miracle in their hands and the closing on a long and arduous story. But Hoang didn’t want to just pack up their journey and put it out of mind. Instead, she turned her experience into a baby book, Miracle Baby, You’re Finally Here!\n\nHoang’s book comes, in part, from a desire to see her own story, her own family, reflected in the baby books she flipped through when she was still pregnant and shopping for her baby. Hoang couldn’t find one that reflected her family; a few came close, but none spoke to the difficult journey she faced. One even started to talk about the frustration and waiting, but “the punchline was like, we just weren’t ready for you. I’m like, no, that’s not what it is.\n\n“I still wanted to acknowledge this very challenging journey that so many other people walk,” says Hoang. “My hope with the book is to start those infertility conversations quite young and just make it feel like more of a natural part of families or family building.”\n\nThe book mirrors Hoang’s story of a couple dreaming of having a child but struggling. Written in rhyming verse, it traces the joy and excitement of a small family looking to grow, the disappointment and frustration that can accompany the waiting, and then the overwhelming joy that comes with their little miracle.\n\nHoang had to flex new creative muscles to work in a new genre. Her work is normally focused on social media consulting, her main business, or event planning. Hoang is the brains behind the Edmonton International Cat Festival, running May 2 to 31. She also runs the Chinatown Chow Down, an event to draw people to the central community in January.\n\nHoang has written about her life before, blogging “since I was 12.” She was open with her and her partner’s struggles with infertility while she was going through it, writing about treatments and experiences, the struggles, both physical and emotional.\n\nBut children’s picture books involve different challenges for the long-time writer, telling a story with a limited word count and an even more limited vocabulary. For a children’s book about a complex topic, Hoang had to choose her words carefully.\n\n“I wanted to represent those different paths that someone might take before conceiving a child. But obviously, if it’s a children’s book, we don’t want to be explaining necessarily in this book what IVF is,” says Hoang.\n\nTo include those complexities without burdening young readers, she turned to the illustrations, to be able to include mentions of fertility treatments without having to explain what they are or slow down the story with too much fluff.\n\nHoang worked with local illustrator Magdalena Duran Castillo to come up with solutions, such as a doctor at the Alberta Reproductive Centre talking to the young family with books about IVF and IUI on the shelves while the copy reads “There are many ways for families to grow.”\n\nThe book was released in April to coincide with Canadian Fertility Awareness Week, April 19 to 25. She had a draft ready last year, but with the lead time required for printing a book had to push back her publishing plans by a full year.\n\nReaction from fans has been positive, showing the number of people who struggle with infertility, and those who have struggled but who decide not to share their stories once their family is complete.\n\n“Someone actually bought one book, but then messaged and said, ‘Oh, I just thought of at least three other people in my life where this book could really be applicable for their children.'”\n\nShe said she’s considering other book projects, from more children’s literature to a book about a Vietnamese family loosely based on her grandmother; she’s had a chapter of that book finished for the past few years but hasn’t done more work.\n\nMiracle Baby, You’re Finally Here! is available at numerous local bookstores, from Audreys Books to Daisy Chain Books, as well as baby stores such as Princess and the Pea. For more information about the author, visit her website at linda-hoang.com.\n\nRelated Edmonton's The Book Boudoir has love between the covers\n\nReview: No hard road on the Sam Roberts Band's nostalgia trip to Chemical City\n\nBookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.\n\nYou can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/books/edmonton-linda-hoang-childrens-book-fertility-struggles","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/linda-4219.ej_302523664-1.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-04-21T16:30:22.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Books","Entertainment","Local Arts"],"authorName":"Justin Bell","contentHtml":"\"Linda

For nearly a decade, Linda Hoang and her husband Mike tried to have a baby. They tried In vitro fertilization (IVF), Intrauterine insemination, adoption, herbals, all without answers as they struggled with unexplained infertility. Then their little miracle arrived, a natural conception at the end of a long ordeal.

That’s normally where their story would end, a little miracle in their hands and the closing on a long and arduous story. But Hoang didn’t want to just pack up their journey and put it out of mind. Instead, she turned her experience into a baby book, Miracle Baby, You’re Finally Here!

Hoang’s book comes, in part, from a desire to see her own story, her own family, reflected in the baby books she flipped through when she was still pregnant and shopping for her baby. Hoang couldn’t find one that reflected her family; a few came close, but none spoke to the difficult journey she faced. One even started to talk about the frustration and waiting, but “the punchline was like, we just weren’t ready for you. I’m like, no, that’s not what it is.

“I still wanted to acknowledge this very challenging journey that so many other people walk,” says Hoang. “My hope with the book is to start those infertility conversations quite young and just make it feel like more of a natural part of families or family building.”

The book mirrors Hoang’s story of a couple dreaming of having a child but struggling. Written in rhyming verse, it traces the joy and excitement of a small family looking to grow, the disappointment and frustration that can accompany the waiting, and then the overwhelming joy that comes with their little miracle.

Hoang had to flex new creative muscles to work in a new genre. Her work is normally focused on social media consulting, her main business, or event planning. Hoang is the brains behind the Edmonton International Cat Festival, running May 2 to 31. She also runs the Chinatown Chow Down, an event to draw people to the central community in January.

Hoang has written about her life before, blogging “since I was 12.” She was open with her and her partner’s struggles with infertility while she was going through it, writing about treatments and experiences, the struggles, both physical and emotional.

\"

But children’s picture books involve different challenges for the long-time writer, telling a story with a limited word count and an even more limited vocabulary. For a children’s book about a complex topic, Hoang had to choose her words carefully.

“I wanted to represent those different paths that someone might take before conceiving a child. But obviously, if it’s a children’s book, we don’t want to be explaining necessarily in this book what IVF is,” says Hoang.

To include those complexities without burdening young readers, she turned to the illustrations, to be able to include mentions of fertility treatments without having to explain what they are or slow down the story with too much fluff.

Hoang worked with local illustrator Magdalena Duran Castillo to come up with solutions, such as a doctor at the Alberta Reproductive Centre talking to the young family with books about IVF and IUI on the shelves while the copy reads “There are many ways for families to grow.”

The book was released in April to coincide with Canadian Fertility Awareness Week, April 19 to 25. She had a draft ready last year, but with the lead time required for printing a book had to push back her publishing plans by a full year.

Reaction from fans has been positive, showing the number of people who struggle with infertility, and those who have struggled but who decide not to share their stories once their family is complete.

“Someone actually bought one book, but then messaged and said, ‘Oh, I just thought of at least three other people in my life where this book could really be applicable for their children.'”

She said she’s considering other book projects, from more children’s literature to a book about a Vietnamese family loosely based on her grandmother; she’s had a chapter of that book finished for the past few years but hasn’t done more work.

Miracle Baby, You’re Finally Here! is available at numerous local bookstores, from Audreys Books to Daisy Chain Books, as well as baby stores such as Princess and the Pea. For more information about the author, visit her website at linda-hoang.com .

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You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

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