How to use this Page

What better day for book trailers than a Saturday?

Angel de la luna and the 5th glorious mystery by M. Evelina Galang; Coffee House Press. Released November, 2013.

Angel has just lost her father, and her mother’s grief means she might as well be gone too. She’s got a sister and a grandmother to look out for, and a burgeoning consciousness of the unfairness in the world—in her family, her community, and her country.

Set against the backdrop of the second Philippine People Power Revolution in 2001, the contemporary struggles of surviving Filipina “Comfort Women” of WWII, and a cold winter’s season in the city of Chicago is the story of a daughter coming of age, coming to forgiveness, and learning to move past the chaos of grief to survive.  source

“Angel de la Luna is a beautifully told, and at times, heartbreaking coming of age and coming to America story. Evelina Galang is a masterful storyteller and through her brilliant voice and craft, Angel and her family become ours too.” — Edwidge Danticat
 source

M. Eveline Galang has been named one of the 100 most influential Filipinas in the United States by Filipina Women’s Network.

Galang is the recipient of numerous awards, among them, the 2004 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards Advancing Human Rights, the 2004 AWP Prize in the Novel and the 2007 Global Filipino Award in Literature for ONE TRIBE.Galang has been researching the lives of the women of Liga ng mga Lolang Pilipina (LILA Pilipina), surviving Filipina “Comfort Women” of WWII, since 1998. In 2002, she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in the Philippines where she continued her work with survivors. After former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared there was not enough evidence to prove 200,000 WWII “Comfort Women” were coerced into sex slave camps, she authored the blog, “Laban for the Lolas!” in support of House Resolution 121 and was the Filipino American Outreach coordinator for 121 Coalition. Read more about Galang on her website.

Thanks to Zarah Gagatiga, Chair of the Philippines Board on Books for Young People (PBBY), for sending me details on this year’s  27th National Children’s Book Day (NCBD) in the Philippines to be held on 20th July.

This year’s theme is “A Book Reader is a Winner” and PBBY will be commencing their celebrations at the Museo Pambata in Manila for the handing out of their annual awards. This year’s Salanga (Writers’ Prize) goes to Raymond G. Falgui for his poetry collection Green Leaf and Other Poems (the first time the award has been awarded for poetry); and the Alcala (Illustrators’ Prize) has been awarded to Aldy Aguirre for his “dreamy and whimsical illustrations” of Falgui’s poems in the same book.

Filipino author Candy Gourlay will be delivering the day’s keynote address, fresh from the successful publication of her Young Adult novel, Tall Story, in the UK. The day will also be marked by the opening of a Retrospective of Albert Gamos, an award-winning Filipino illustrator who died last year. An esteemed honorary member of Ang Illustrador Ng Kabataan (InK), he was well-known for his classical and intricate style of illustrating for children.

As part of the NCBD celebrations PBBY and the National Book Development Board (NBDB) will announce the Best Reads of 2008 and 2009.

Schools, learning communities, libraries and families are all encouraged to get involved. For ideas on what type of activities could be organized, check out Zarah’s Top Ten Suggestions.

And even if you are not in the Philippines, why not join in the celebrations by reading a Filipino children’s book or YA novel? The summer edition of the National Geographic Kids magazine has picked Candy Gourlay’s Tall Story as one of its Brilliant Summer Books. You can get plenty of ideas from our recent issue of PaperTigers focusing on the Philippines; and more Filipino book suggestions can always be found on Zarah’s and Tarie Sabido’s blogs.

As Zarah says “The NCBD celebration is not exclusive to PBBY. Bring it to your schools and families. After all, we are all here to celebrate reading, books and the Filipino young reader.”

Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, illustrated by Kristi Valiant

Cora always got stuck with the kid jobs when her mother cooks like licking the spoon and drawing in the flour.  So when her older siblings head out of the house, Cora asks her mother to make pancit.  Cora’s mother gives her the red apron that belonged to her grandfather who was a cook.  After washing her hands, Cora gets to help with grownup jobs like shredding chicken, checking the soaking noodles, and stirring the hot pan.  When the family sits down to dinner, Cora is nervous.  Will her pancit taste good?

This is a very warm book with a bustling, busy family.  It really speaks to the relationship of a mother and daughter, the way that traditions and foods are handed down to the next generation, and the pleasure children get from being part of creating and learning.  Gilmore’s text is joyful as it explains Filipino foods and heritage, giving us glimpses of the family history along the way.  Valiant’s art with its warm, deep colors show us a family that is familiar but has its own particular culture. 

A glowingly friendly look at a loving Filipino family, this book will have you hungry for your own family recipes and offers a great venue to discuss everyone’s particular family heritage through food.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Interview with Kristi Valiant at Elizabeth Dulemba’s blog.

Also reviewed by Paper Tigers, The Picnic Basket, Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup, and BookDragon.

What have I been working on? Mainly this book: Cora Cooks Pancit for Shen's Books.

Cora loves the kitchen, but her older brother and sisters always get to help with the real cooking while she gets stuck with kid jobs like licking the spoon. When her older siblings head out for the day, Cora finally gets the chance to be Mama's assistant chef. She chooses to make her Grandpa's pancit recipe, a Filipino noodle dish.

The pancit recipe is included in the book, and it's delicious! My husband and I made a big pot of pancit a few weeks ago, and we've already bought ingredients to make it again. Mmmm...

Amazon says the book will be out in April, so look for it in April or May in your bookstore!

-Kristi Valiant

What with one thing and another, I never got around to Part II of my sister's wedding. I wouldn't really do it justice by just giving you the "blow by blow" (one of my favorite Lady Susan-isms), but I will share my thoughts on the day.

I have to say that my sister was the most gorgeous bride, not only because she looked fantastic in her dress and bolero and handmade hair flower, but because of the huge grin she had on her face all day. She really did glow, it was fantastic to see her so happy.

I think their ceremony had to have been the most meaningful ceremony I've witnessed as well. It wasn't just rote, AB and Seeeester were very much a part of every aspect, from the readings they chose (not your standard wedding readings, but readings that really fit who they are), to them singing with the choir up in the choir stand, to them being surrounded by everyone rather than being isolated from everyone. Obviously I'm biased because I was the maid of honor and because the bride is my sister, but I've never felt so involved in a wedding before, and that felt very special to me as well. I tried very hard to not bawl all over myself, but it was close.

I love how every detail was really meaningful to them: cord and veil were used in my brother's wedding and AB's brother's wedding; they hand made a lot of their things--table centerpieces, boutonnieres and corsages, jewelry, hairpieces, programs, invitations, namecards; photos taken at the park where they first met.

And I loved that the whole weekend was about expressing who they are as people: incredibly generous, fun-loving, warm, hospitable, and very loving people. It was great to be able to share in that love all weekend.

It was incredibly tiring, but was a beautiful way to celebrate two wonderful people. I can't express more how wonderful it was to witness and celebrate that.

Their photographer captured a lot of really beautiful moments of the day here.

And yes, we did indeed do the Electric Slide -- no Filipino wedding is complete without it.

I'm supposed to be writing my 20 page paper right now, but somehow I ran across this Filipino food blog, bucaio, of a woman in the Philippines who is from the same province my parents are from. She has a lot of recipes and stories about food in that part of the country that I am enjoying reading. Her posts are very descriptive. Here's one for tinola, which is a kind of chicken soup with ginger

"You will become so brown...ALL will turn around!" I love it!

So, it's making the rounds, this video, I've seen it posted on multiple blogs. And most of us Filipinos have pretty much the same thing to say about it: yeah, well it's just a very Filipino thing to do. We like to dance, we like to perform, we're all about the pageantry, and well it's all about the drama. So, I too give you the clip that circled the internets 3 times and back again. Yes, they

I just discovered HappySlip.com. Christine (not me) is a Filipina-American woman who makes videos that pokes fun at her Filipino parents... you have to understand that all, and I feel like I can almost mean unequivocally all, Filipino-American children that have immigrant parents can relate to this. My entire life I have laughed my head off at jokes like this, because we all know someone like

It's May: that month when the sun comes out, the flowers bloom and we honor our mothers. Oh and it's Asian Pacific American Heritage month. I've actually been working on this post for several months now. I keep wanting to write something about my mother, to get down her life's story somewhere, but the fact is, there's just too much to write about. But now feels like a fitting time to get