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By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: June 7, 2012

Father’s Day is almost upon us. Why not celebrate by reading a few books about the proud papas who brighten our days? So snuggle up with your little ones and thank your lucky stars for the doting fathers in their lives.

Surfer Chick

By Kristy Dempsey; illustrated by Henry Cole

This book is radical, dude. Seriously, Kristy Dempsey delivers a tidal wave of fun with this tale of a young would-be surfer chick yearning to rip the tides like her righteous dad. When she wipes out, she becomes more determined than ever. Cole’s sunny funny painted illustrations add humor yet a mellow yellow vibe.

Ages 3-7 | Publisher: Abrams, Harry N., Inc. | May 1, 2012

Darth Vader and Son

By Jeffrey Brown

If “Luke, I am your father,” is a familiar phrase and let’s face it, who hasn’t heard it, then you’ll love this hilarious sendup to single fathers trying desperately to be nurturing dads. The book poses the question if Darth Vader had been a real pop to Luke, what might have happened? Told in a comic way with light-hearted illustrations, you’ll laugh until you cry.

All Ages | Publisher: Chronicle Books | April 18, 2012

The Night Before Father’s Day 

By Natasha Wing; illustrated by Amy Wummer

Wing employs “’twas the night before” as a clever convention in this rhyming story of a family working together to surprise Dad on Father’s Day. I especially appreciated the handy mom who could check the oil while leading her kids as they clean up the garage and wash the car. You should check out the other “night before” books from this bestselling series.

Ages 3-5 | Publisher: Penguin Group | May 10, 2012

The Barefoot Book of Father and Daughter Tales

Retold by

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A couple of weeks ago I posted the responses of some of the authors and illustrators of the books in our Spirit of PaperTigers‘ 2010 Book Set to the question, “If you were to pick a place anywhere in the world to send your book, where would it be and why?” – and what about the others, what did they say?

Lucia Gonzalez, author of The Storyteller’s Candle (Children’s Book Press, 2008):

I would like The Storyteller’s Candle to travel to Puerto Rico, to be in classrooms, libraries, and homes from the smallest town to the capital city San Juan. I want children in the island to know and be proud of the work of Pura Belpré, and to re-encounter the stories that belong to them.

and Lulu Delacre, the book’s illustrator:

I would like to send The Storyteller’s Candle to Tibetan schools for monks and nuns in Ladakh, India. Their lovely children have no libraries, and live off the generosity of others. They are taught English and the lesson that Pura Belpré imparts at the end of the book might be one they truly connect to.

Katie Smith Milway, author of One Hen (Kids Can Press, 2008):

If I could send One Hen anywhere in the world right now, it would be to Haiti, in Creole, to inspire children there to play an entrepreneurial role in rebuilding their nation. Happily, a Haitian Creole edition of the book is due out in 2010 through publisher EducaVision.

and Eugenie Fernandes, the book’s illustrator:

One Hen is already at the White House, so… after that I would like to send it… everywhere!, because it’s a book that connects us all.

Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, authors of Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing (Barefoot Books, 2008):

Little Leap Forward is about the lives of children who are growing up in a very poor, overcrowded society, in which food is rationed and there are no toys (beyond what they can make themselves) – a closed society in which freedom, knowledge and creativity are suppressed, and the people they love are about to be taken away from them. It is also a story about the irrepressible power of friendship, love and the imagination, even in the face of hardship and revolution.

So if we could send the book to children in areas of need in the world, it would be to any country where people are not free to express themselves, where families are divided, and children suffer from hunger, fear and poverty. In

0 Comments on Spirit of PaperTigers: If you could send your book anywhere in the world… (Part 2) as of 1/1/1900

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Established in 1992 by Nancy Traversy and Tessa Strickland, Barefoot Books is a children’s book publisher based in Bath, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. It publishes multicultural books that, in addition to providing high-quality content, pay great attention to art and design. One of the company’s core values is to use art and stories “to create deep and lasting connections—whether it’s a child and parent connecting over a book; a child connecting to the universal wisdom of other cultures; or a broad network of people connecting through shared values and the desire to help children become happy, engaged members of a global community.”

Tessa Strickland, Barefoot Books’ co-founder and editor-in-chief, answered our questions about Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing, one of the seven books selected for inclusion in our Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set Donation Project, and about other topics related to the company and to multicultural children’s literature.

Q&A

PT: How did Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing come about as a project for Barefoot Books?

TS: This project came about in quite a circuitous way. First, I was contacted by Clare Farrow, who wanted to know if I was interested in having her retell any traditional Chinese tales. In the course of our conversation, I learnt that she and her husband, Guo Yue, had just completed a manuscript about his life, Music, Food and Love. It so happened that this telephone conversation came about just as I was starting to cast around for stories for older readers, and I was fascinated by what Clare told me about Yue’s childhood in Beijing. So, I asked to read a copy of the manuscript.

PT: When you acquired the manuscript, did you know from the get go that you would published it as an illustrated middle grade book, or was the decision regarding full plate illustrations made later in the process?

TS: When I read Music, Food and Love (Piatkus, 2006), I thought that the best way to tell Yue’s story to children would be to focus on the summer of 1966. The manuscript went through about four drafts and was a close collaboration between Yue and Clare, me, and an excellent editor, Anne Finnis. The decision to make full-plate illustrations was made once we had a manuscript that everyone was happy with.

PT: What can you tell us about the pairing of Guo Yue and Clare Farrow’s text with Helen Cann’s art?

TS: We have done a number of books with Helen Cann; I knew that she would be a delight to work with. Not only is she very talented, she is also extremely interested in developing her own style and in working
collaboratively. She had some very fruitful meetings and discussions with Clare and Yue, who were both extremely happy with her illustrations.

PT: How do you think the public’s attitude toward multicultural books for children has changed since Barefoot Books was founded, in 1992? Are there any major differences between the US and the UK markets in that regard?

TS: As Barefoot has always focused on multicultural books, it is hard to say with very m

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Today we are thrilled to be announcing our Spirit of PaperTigers Project, an initiative of Pacific Rim Voices, whose aim is to promote literacy while raising awareness of our common humanity. The idea is to donate 100 book sets of 7 carefully selected multicultural books to libraries and schools in areas of need across the globe.

The following titles have been selected for inclusion in the 2010 Book Set:

Planting The Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai, by Claire A. Nivola. Frances Foster Books, 2008.

First Come the Zebra, by Lynne Barash. Lee & Low, 2009.
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Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing, by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann. Barefoot Books, 2008.

The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos, by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre. Children’s Book Press, 2008.

My Little Round House, by Bolormaa Baasansuren, English adaptation by Helen Mixter. Groundwood Books, 2009.

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes. Kids Can Press, 2008.

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon, by Grace Lin. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009.

Our website currently highlights all the authors and illustrators whose books have been selected, as well as other features related to the project. Please note that we will be further exploring the particular reasons for selecting each title, here, on the blog, during the month of February.

One important aspect of the Spirit of PaperTigers project is that we will be receiving feedback from the book set recipients. In the course of the coming months, as feedback comes in, we will be posting it to the blog and the site, so everyone can find out about where the books are going and who they are reaching.

To learn more about the project and enjoy the new features, visit the website. And please help us spread the word on this exciting new venture!…

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Last night we all jumped in the car after school and raced to Leeds to go and watch the beautifully crafted staging of Little Leap Forward. Adapted from the book, by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann and published by Barefoot Books, it tells the story of events from Yue’s own childhood set against Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China.

A powerful combination of masked actors, puppets and shadow-box/animation, not to mention an atmospheric score and cleverly versatile set, the story is told “only” through mime. We followed Little Leap Forward’s dawning awareness of the importance of freedom, both through the political events unfolding around him and through his love for a songbird captured for him by his best friend. No matter how much Little Leap Forward coaxes and bribes with seeds, the bird cannot sing from within the confines of a cage. A “scary” dream sequence that had Little Brother on the edge of his seat alerts Little Leap Forward to what he has to do and he sets the bird free.

I have to say that this particular performance will be looked back on by us - and probably by the cast - with very mixed feelings. There was a group of children in the audience from a local School for the Deaf, who were entranced - picking up enough of the vibrations of the music to get a feel for it, and able to particpate fully in the action on stage. Wonderful. However, the first three rows were taken up by a youth-group outing and it very soon became evident that the children did not know how to behave in a public, live performance. All the more credit to the production, then, that in the scene when Red Guards arrest Little Leap Forward’s mother (an event related in Guo Yue and Clare Farrow’s book for adults, Music, Food and Love), there was not a sound from the auditorium.

Afterwards, the four actors/puppeteers gave a short talk to these children (which we gate-crashed!) and again, they captivated their audience. I couldn’t help thinking what a pity it was that the children had obviously not had any sort of introduction to what they were going to see… I wonder how many would have liked to turn the clock back and engage with it more fully, once they’d had a chance to find out a bit more about it?

Little Leap Forward is on tour in England until 17 July - for further details, look here. In the meantime, watch this short video

and read the production blog. If you haven’t come across the book yet, watch this very moving introduction, narrated by Yue and featuring his magical flute-playing; and read our review, here on PaperTigers.

Little Leap Forward was definitely a production not to be missed: a big thank you to Nicky Fearn, Frances Merriman, Jonny Quick and Mark Whitaker, the faces behind the masks; and to Gemma Bonham of The Carriageworks, for an empathetic discussion afterwards.

* Photograph credit: Ian Tilton

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We have recently published a review of Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijung by Guo Yue (on whose childhood the book is based) and Clare Farrow, and illustrated by Helen Cann. To celebrate the launch of the book, Barefoot Books also made this video. Yue both narrates and plays the music: his flute-playing is hauntingly beautiful. Prepare to be captivated!

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The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures retold by Burleigh Muten, illustrated by Helen Cann
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Library Binding: 80 pages
Publisher: Barefoot Books (August 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1841480487
ISBN-13: 978-1841480480


When I was just three months pregnant with my daughter, I was browsing the children's section at a local bookstore already trying to find books for my new child's library. This book jumped out at me, and I simply had to buy it.

The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures retold by Burleigh Muten, illustrated by Helen Cann features the following eight retellings of goddess stories from different cultures:

• Egyptian: Isis, The Lady of Ten Thousand Names
• Chinese: Kuan Yin, The Princess who Became a Goddess
• North American, Lakota Sioux: White Buffalo Woman, We Are All One Family
• Welsh: Cerridwen, Mother of Magic
• Scandinavian: Freya, The Blessing Necklace
• Japanese: Ama-terasu, Ama-Terasu's Mirror
• Nigerian-Yoruba: Oshun, The Great Mother
• Greek: The Triple Goddess, Persephone, Demeter, and Hekate

There is a brief introduction at the beginning of each story that gives some background information about the featured goddess. For example, in the Nigerian-Yoruba story, we learn that Oshun has been worshiped for thousands of years, and one of her powers, among many, is to bring children to couples who don't have any. We then read the story of how Oshun "bargained with the gods as they prepared the Earth for the first humans and of how she gave birth to these first humans."

Each story in the book is fairly short (5-8) pages, and through each one, children learn about the goddess and her culture. The illustrations also depict cultural symbols and clothing.

This would be a great book for any child who likes mythology. It would also be a great way to introduce children to many different cultures around the world.

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That is the premise of two books I've read recently, both of which apply that premise in different ways. One has a female author and female main character, the other has a male author and male main character. The particular illnesses vary, and the plot begins at different places in the progression of the disease.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Tessa who is dying of leukemia, and only has a few months left to live. She makes a list of the things she'd like to do before she dies, and convinces her friend Zoey to help her carry it out. There's no possible recovery for Tessa, but before she goes, she wants to experience life in different forms. She wants to commit petty crimes and try drugs and have sex and more, and in pursuing her list, she finds life, but more importantly, she finds actual love.

Downham's book is excellently crafted. It is life-affirming even as it is (I'm sorry to lable it this way, but here goes) a downer because Tessa is palpably sick from page one. And she's not all the way to acceptance in her grief stages, either, so along with sadness you get a few heaping doses of anger. These are the things that make the book read as true, and part of what make it so well-done. If you are looking for excellent writing and story, it's here. If you are looking for a book you can experience as real, that will absorb your attention and remove you from the world you live in, it's here. If you are looking for light-hearted amusement, well, best look elsewhere. book (told in first person) never passes from her p.o.v., so you "experience" her death with her, in shortening paragraphs with lots of white space in between. Before I Die has moments of beauty in it and reads as true (emotionally and factually).

Deadline by Chris Crutcher is about a eighteen-year-old boy named Ben who learns, just as he's about to start his senior year, that he has a rare, incurable form of leukemia and less than a year to live. Because he's 18, Ben manages to swear his doctor to secrecy, which means that for the longest time, Ben's the only one who knows that he's ill. Ben's decision is based on his need to protect others, nothing more. Ben decides to live "balls out". He makes a list of things he'd most like to do before he dies: date Dallas Suzuki (a hot girl), play football, torment his right-wing civics teacher, help the town drunk, get a street names after Malcolm X. Ben seeks not only to live his life, but to make the world a better place for the people he leaves behind in it.

Ben is almost a full year older than his brother, Cody, but they are both in the same grade. Cody's the quarterback, and Ben's a runt; still, he gives football a go. The relationship between Ben and Cody is one of the strong points in this novel. Crutcher tells the story in first person, but unlike Tessa, Ben's a smart-ass, so his voice is breezier (glib, even, to use Ben's own term), and the fact that he keeps his condition a secret allows him to interact with others as if nothing's wrong (with him). Along the way, Ben learns the secrets of other townspeople, and learns that keeping secrets can have devastating results. Kirkus* knocked it for describing only his fatigue, but really, he describes dream-like visions involving Hey-Soos, a Christ-like figure who offers him guidance, and more. The book doesn't end with Ben's death, but with his legacy (and thinking of it makes me cry all over again).

On the surface, these are the same book: Teen MC is dying of leukemia, makes a list of things to do before they die, dies at or near the end. Both look for love and try to get some living in while they can. These books make an interesting side-by-side study for writers because they prove that the devil is in the details, and that it's not the idea that's original, it's the treatment of the idea. Downham's book ends up being about finding love and making the most of time; Crutcher's is about those things too, but overall, it's about truth.

If you're going for an engaging story with the basic plot line I've described, you can't go wrong with either book. If you're looking for an honest exploration of what it feels like, actually, to be terminally ill (and to die), go for Before I Die. If I had to pick only one to read, however, I'd pick Deadline, because I liked the main character better, and I liked the different and complicated plot threads that Crutcher chose to weave together, which include discussions of politics, incest, child molestation, manic depression and more. I'll take a smart-ass over an angstite (is that a word? let's pretend it is) any day. I'm not saying that Deadline is the better book, it's just the way my taste runs. But truly, you can't go wrong with either choice.

*But it was, after all, Kirkus, and the reader seemed to have an axe to grind with Crutcher's politics as well. And really, this is about a kid who was trying to ignore his illness as best he could, so I didn't feel I needed all the details piled on. (If you feel you'd prefer all the awful details, read Before I Die).

To quote one of my favorite movies, The Great Race, "PUSH THE BUTTON, MAX!"

Check out the snowflakes for the Robert's Snow auction being featured today, which you can find listed at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Jules and Eisha have also posted an ongoing list of blog posts thus far featuring snowflakes and the artists who created them. While you're there, check out Jules and Eisha's other content. Today, for instance, they interview Sheila Ruth, the force behind Wands and Worlds, the coordinator for the Science Fiction & Fantasy category at the CYBILS, and an all-around smart lady.

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Book Divas, an online community/ book club for young adult and college readers, is having an author visit with Jenny Downham on October 2nd to promote her novel Before I Die.

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