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If you are a regular devotee of the kidlitosphere, you have no doubt come across Debbie Ridpath Ohi‘s inspiring writing and cartoons, whether on Inkygirl or another of her various and varied blogs, or indeed her website.  We are delighted to welcome Debbie to our online Gallery, with a selection of artwork that includes the first page spread from her short story for the Tomo anthology, our current Book of the Month; illustrations from her imminent picture book I’m Bored (written by Michael Ian Black and published by Simon & Schuster on 4 September…); and a selection of personal pieces.

Here’s a taster from our Q&A, in which Debbie’s excitement about illustrating I’m Bored is infectious:

So hard to choose just one part! The most exciting in terms of specific moments:

My meetings with Justin Chanda (editor/publisher) and art director Laurent Linn at the Simon & Schuster offices in NYC. I remember that for the first few minutes, all I could think was OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH I’M AT SIMON & SCHUSTER!!! To talk about a book that *I* was illustrating!! But then I realized that I needed to focus, so forcibly dragged my thoughts out of gush nirvana and back to the meeting.

Seriously, though, I learned so much from Justin and Laurent, and it was incredibly exciting to see I’m Bored progress from early sketches to the final proofs.

Another highlight for me: the first time I read Michael Ian Black’s manuscript. I laughed out loud and was so delighted….and then it hit home. *I* was going to be illustrating this story.

Yeay!  And we are excited that Debbie has two more books with Simon & Schuster in the offing.  So head on over to Debbie’s PaperTigers Gallery now – and keep an eye out at your local bookstore on 4 September – we’re sure you won’t be bored and you may never be able to look a potato in the eye in quite the same way again!

Continuing our Asian-North American theme, we are delighted to welecome artist Joung Un Kim to the PaperTigers Gallery.  Joung uses what she herself calls a “mix-and-match collage style” in her art, and through the course of her career she has illustrated many delightful picture books.  These include Sumi’s First Day of School Ever by Soyung Pak (Viking Juvenile, 2003) and, most recently, Neighbors: The Yard Critters Book 1, poems by George Held (Filsinger & Company, 2011).  Its sequel Neighbors: The Yard Critters Book Too will be coming out next year.

I love the way Joung incorporates printed paper in her work – in our Gallery you will see examples that include printed text, and also graph paper, music and a map.  My favourite work among the selection presented here is “Snow Birds”, a personal piece.  What’s yours?

PS Early in the year, Pragmatic Mom included Sumi’s First Day of School Ever in her great (Updated 5) list of “Top 10: Books That Teach Kids Compassion (ages 2-14)“

Li Jian,
The Water Dragon
Better Link Press, 2012.

Ages: 4+

Every day Ah Bao collects firewood in the forest near his tiny mountain village.  He carries a small ax and a rice crock made from a gourd. One day, Ah Bao notices a shiny red pebble on the ground and puts it in his rice crock. As soon as he does this, the crock begins to shake and rattle, and before he knows it, the crock is overflowing with more rice than Ah Bao could ever eat.

When he gets home he realizes that the stone has the same effect on money!  Now Ah Bao and his neighbors are never hungry or poor, but it hasn’t rained in the village since he found the magic stone. Ah Bao places the stone inside a bucket of water in the hope that it will overflow, but instead, the stone absorbs all the water in the bucket.  The next day, Ah Bao goes in search of the water dragon he dreams about, hoping he will convince it to shower his village with water once again.

Along the way, Ah Bao meets several animals caught up in trying predicaments.  He helps each of them and is rewarded in turn.  Each animal also warns Ah Bao that he will soon meet “a greedy red monster.” Undaunted, Ah Bao moves on.  When he finally meets the monster, both Ah Bao and the reader are surprised at how he handles the situation and the turn of events that follows. Ah Bao becomes a hero, but not as we might have expected!

This remarkable book is experienced illustrator Li Jian’s first foray into writing his own picture book. The story was inspired by legends he heard his elders tell when he was a child.  The pictures, which combine Li’s classical training in Chinese painting with his talent for bringing fairy tales to life, are at least as compelling as the bilingual text (in English and simplified Chinese characters).  Ah Bao is both a courageous and humble hero with a big heart and a sense of responsibility. He will be admired by children and parents, who will doubtless look forward to Li Jian’s next solo offering.

Abigail Sawyer
May 2012

N.B. Li Jian’s illustration work is currently highlighted in PaperTigers’ Illustrator Gallery.

Continuing our Water in Multicultural Children’s Literature theme, we have two new features on the PaperTigers website.

A River of Stories: Water-Themed Stories for Multicultural Readers, a Personal View by Alice Curry, in which she discusses the superb anthology A River of Stories: Tales and Poems from Across the Commonwealth, she compiled recently, illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski and published by the Commonwealth Education Trust.  Here’s the opening to whet your appetite:

On the southern-most tip of Africa, the lonely Zulu goddess of rain, Mbaba Mwana Waresa, searches for love amongst mortal men, rainbows glistening in her wake. On the northern-most tip of Canada, the solitary Ice King guards his wintry lair yet dreams, secretly, of warmer climes. On the tropical shores of Australia, old man Mookari, god of the storm, rattles into town before stealing, quietly, away. In Nigeria, the impetuous water god, Olokun, paces the shining floors of his underwater palace, whilst in Ghana, the goddess Mawu transforms herself into a waterfall to nourish the parched and thirsty earth.

Water gods and goddesses, spirits and deities have fuelled our imaginations and nourished our beliefs since the beginning of time. Not only is water a vital physical presence in our lives, but also a powerfully imaginative and symbolic source of inspiration for writers and storytellers everywhere. In our increasingly threatened world, in which climate-related natural disasters are a daily reality for much of the world’s population, water-themed stories are an important and relevant way of encouraging sustainable, respectful and empathic attitudes towards the environment. It is currently estimated that half of the world’s population will be living under severe water stress by 2030; for today’s children, the conservation of a healthy natural environment has become a development issue of the highest priority.

Now head on over and read the rest of the article…

View work by acclaimed artist Pulak Biswas in our Gallery, including illustrations from his most recent book The Flute written by Rachna Gilmore (Tradewind Books, 2011)…

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on the theme of Water in Multicultural Children’s Books here on PaperTigers.  Our first feature is an online Gallery of talented artist Li Jian‘s work, including illustrations from his first book to be published in English, The Water Dragon (Better Link Press, 2012).  We’ll be posting a full review soon – in the meantime, head on over to our Gallery to view a selection of his illustrations and to find out more about his work in our Q&A.

Head on over to the PaperTigers website to find out more about talented artist Shirin Adl and to see a selection of her work, including illustrations from our current Book of the Month, Let’s Celebrate! Festival Poems from Around the World.  Shirin grew up in Iran, and now lives in Oxford, UK.  Her work combines exuberance of color and media (find out in our Q&A, for example, how she used cling film to good effect in Let’s Celebrate!), and we will soon be able to enjoy her writing in print also – in the meantime, visit Shirin’s website for a taste of her unique story-telling voice.

Head on over to the Gallery section of the PaperTigers website to see some of the gorgeous illustrations from Michael Foreman’s A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope, selected for the 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set, as well as from a few others of his many books.

One of the questions I asked Michael in our recent interview was about the relationship between color and monochrome, which is so important in conveying the theme of hope in A Child’s Garden. Here’s his reply:

The use of colour was an important element. The boy’s world of rubble is without colour until the tiny green plant appears. As the plant is nurtured, colour gradually comes into the ground. Colour spreads as the plant grows and recedes as the plant is pulled down. Fortunately, roots are deep and seeds spread – and so does the colour.

I also asked about the colour blue, in particular the vibrant shade that appears in so many of his illustrations. Having grown up myself with Michael’s books, then shared them so often with my children, if I close my eyes, it is always that blue that comes into my mind when I think of his work (and you can find it in a stunning image from One World (Andersen Press, new edition 2011) featured in the Gallery). I’m so glad I asked:

That blue is the blue of shallow seas over white sand – the blue that lifts your heart. The blue of our family’s happiest times.

Isn’t that beautiful?

You will find many of the features exploring the new Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set gathered together on our homepage; and do also take a look at our Outreach section, which focuses on the Spirit of PaperTigers project.

Enjoy illustrations from 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers book Biblioburro and other books by Jeanette Winter in our online Gallery. The majority of Jeanette’s books are inspired by real people and events: in her recent interview with us, Jeanette said:

I am drawn to true-life stories, and true stories that relate to world events. Stories about brave and courageous individuals are personally so inspiring to me, and I want children to know about these people. I feel that children have the capacity to understand the big issues of our lives, if in a simplified way.

Her books certainly succeed in drawing out the essence of the people and situations she profiles, in a way that makes them memorable and inspiring for children. For example, I love her book (included in our Gallery) Mama: A True Story, in Which a Baby Hippo Loses His Mama During a Tsunami, But Finds a New Home, and a New Mama (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2007) because really the story is told in the title. With only a few speech bubbles calling “Mama!” among the visually stimulating illustrations, the turmoil and ultimate reassurance are conveyed without over-frightening small readers.

A vibrant illustration from Biblioburro fronts Jeanette’s Gallery. It tells the true story of Colombian teacher and literacy advocate Luis Soriano, who founded his donkey library to take books out to remote villages and ensure that children have access to help with their schoolwork. Read this post from True Tales and a Cherry on the Top for a beautiful anecdote that exemplifies why he got started; and watch this video:

Head on over to the PaperTigers website to see some examples of James Rumford

We’ll be bringing you Galleries featuring the other books in the SPT 2011 Book Set soon.

Head on over to the PaperTigers webite to view our new Gallery feature of Mongolian artist Bolormaa Baasansuren. Bolormaa won the Grand Prize in the 14th Noma Councours with illustrations for her beautiful picture book My Little Round House, which we selected as pasrt of our Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set 2010. We are delighted to welcome her back now as a post-script to our Mongolia theme from earlier this year. Actually, Bolormaa is currently studying in Japan, so it was good to hear that she and her husband, fellow-artist Ganbaatar Ichinnorov were safe and well following the trauma in Japan over recent weeks. All the work shown in this Gallery has been published in Japan and is not (yet?) available in Englis. Here’s a sneak preview to whet your appetite – now head on over to view the whole Gallery for yourself…