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PaperTigers is a website dedicated to children’s and young readers’ books from and about the Pacific Rim and South Asia, produced by Aline Pereira and local collaborators in the Pacific Rim and beyond! Through a panorama of books published in these regions, books reviews, interviews with authors and illustrators, an art gallery, lists of essential readings and a resource section, PaperTigers wants to highlight the richness of the children’s book world in (and about!) this area, and to be a useful resource for librarians, teachers, parents, and publishers.
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This morning I discovered this gem of a website from the United Kingdom and was instantly hooked. If you haven’t already visited the World Stories site, do check it out.
World Stories (www.worldstories.org.uk) is a growing online collection of short stories for children. Throughout history, before pens, computers, books and libraries – people have told each other stories and World Stories understands that stories are really important. They can help us understand each other and learn about other cultures, and they can help us celebrate our own traditions and culture. Most of all they are fun!
Our collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories from around the world. One in eight children in the UK speaks a language other than English as their first language and the stories are available in the 21 languages most spoken by UK children. The stories can be read and listened to online, or downloaded. Everything is free!
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 1/21/2013
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PaperTigers is a proud sponsor of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, an annual event held in Singapore that brings together content creators and producers with parents, teachers, librarians and anyone interested in quality Asian content for children around the world. Dates for the 2013 AFCC have been announced – May 25th – 30th , and festival organizer, The National Book Development Council of Singapore, is hard at work ensuring that this year’s program is equally, perhaps even more so, inspiring than previous years. The AFCC website has recently been relaunched and details for the 2013 festival are being added daily. Early bird registration has begun and the call for submissions has gone out for the Book Illustrators Gallery.
Both Marjorie and I plan on attending this year’s AFCC and will be speaking in several of the sessions. I was blessed to be able to attend the 2011 AFCC and have been counting down the months until I could return. It will be such a thrill to reconnect with old friends and make new ones all while being immersed in the world of Asian children’s literature! If you are able, do try to attend. It may take a wee bit of time to travel to Singapore but it will definitely be worth the effort!
(Read PaperTigers’ July 2011 issue to learn more about my time at the 2011 Asian Festival of Childrens Content).
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 1/20/2013
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Reviewed by Charlotte Richardson:
Retold by Nathan Kumar Scott, illustrated by Jagdish Chitara,
The Great Race: An Indonesian Trickster Tale
Tara Books, 2011.
Ages: 3+
With The Great Race, Tara Books continues its stellar presentation of picture books illustrated by talented indigenous Indian artists. Nathan Kumar Scott retells the simple Indonesian trickster tale, a version of the tortoise and hare story. The traditional craft of illustrator Jagdish Chitara, a Waghari textile artist from Ahmedabad, is painting ritual cloths that celebrate the Mother Goddess in brilliant white, red and black. He uses the same ancient techniques and colors to depict the many stylized animal characters in this endearing folk story, his first secular project…
Read the full review
Mark you calendar for the 2013 American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Award announcements.
The ALA will announce 19 awards at 8 a.m. PT on Jan. 28 from the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. The awards include the esteemed John Newbery Medal, Randolph Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Michael L. Printz Award.
The awards honor children’s and young adult authors and illustrators, as well as producers of children’s audio and video materials. Recognized worldwide for the high quality they represent, the awards serve as a guide for parents, educators, librarians and those interested in providing youth with the very best reading and viewing materials.
This year marks the 75th anniversary for the Randolph Caldecott Medal. Presented every year since 1938, the Caldecott Medal is named for Randolph Caldecott, a 19th-century English illustrator known for the action, vitality and humor of his picture books. No other literary prize for children’s picture books has the economic significance of the Caldecott Medal. Receiving a Caldecott Medal practically guarantees that the winning title will remain in print and on library and bookstore shelves for decades to come. For example Dorothy P. Lathrop won the first Caldecott Medal in 1938 for “Animals of the Bible,” and 75 years later it is still available.
The ALA will provide a free live webcast of the announcements. Approximately 12,500 viewers are expected to join more than 1,300 onsite audience members. Live streaming efforts will begin the morning of the announcements at http://tinyurl.com/alaymawc13 , and connections will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Those unable to join the webcast can follow real-time results via Twitter @ alayma and the ALA Youth Media Awards Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/alayma .
After the announcements, the ALA website at www.ala.org will feature an award wrap release detailing 2013 selections. Also later in the day winning authors will post video messages to the ALA Youth Media Awards YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/ALAYouthMediaAwards .
Holly Kent, Sales and Marketing Manager at The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, recently emailed and asked if we could share with our readers about a great contest open to young writers in grades 4 to 12: The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s annual Book Week Writing Contest for Kids & Teens. This national contest is a much anticipated part of TD Canadian Children’s Book Week and the deadline for entries is fast approaching.
Young Canadian writers are invited to send in a sample of their best writing (stories and/or poems, fiction or non-fiction) not to exceed 1,500 words. Judging is done by noted writers from across Canada and the winner from each grade will receive a $250 gift certificate for the bookstore of his or her choice. Two honourable mentions from each grade category will also receive $50 gift certificates.
All entries must be postmarked by February 1, 2013. The winners will be announced during TD Canadian Children’s Book Week May 4 – 11, 2013.
Contest details and entry forms can be found here.
To learn more about The Canadian Children’s Book Centre and the wonderful work they do, be sure to read Holly’s Guest Blogger posts that she wrote for us in August 2012.
Reviewed by Abigail Sawyer:
Paul Yee,
The Secret Keepers
Tradewind Books, 2011.
Ages: 11+
It is 1906 in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and the world has just come to an end; the world of Jackson Leong and his family at least. After their father’s death several months earlier, Jack, his older brother Lincoln, his two younger sisters, and their mother relocated from a farm in the Sacramento area to be near family in the bustling city. Now 16-year-old Lincoln, who “was big and tall and had quickly learned everything the family needed to know about their new hometown” has been killed in the aftermath of the great earthquake, leaving Jack to keep the family together while trying to manage the nickelodeon business his brother had begun. On top of all this, Jack’s “yin-yang eyes” see ghosts everywhere: and they seem to be trying to tell him something…
Read the full review
Read our interview with Paul Yee, in which he talks about The Secret Keepers.
Reviewed by Aline Pereira:
Grace Lin,
Starry River of the Sky
Little, Brown, 2012.
Ages: 8-12
Grace Lin’s new middle-grade fantasy, Starry River of the Sky, is a gem every bit as compelling as its companion, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and cut from the same bedrock too: it masterfully weaves Chinese folklore into a richly textured yarn about magic, unexpected connections and the power of stories to shape our lives.
When Rendi finds a job as a helper at an Inn after running away from home in anger, he finds the small, in-the-middle-of-nowhere village of Clear Sky and its inhabitants mysteriously odd and out of sorts. For starters, the moon seems to be missing…
Read the full review
This week seemed to fly by and I can hardly believe that Friday is upon us and it is time to celebrate Poetry Friday! For those who may not be familiar with the concept, at the end of the week many children’s book aficionados and bloggers often use their sites to contribute favorite poems or chat about something poetical in an event called Poetry Friday. The features can be original poems, reviews of poetry books, reviews of poetic picture books, links to poems at copyright protected sites, thoughts about poetry, song lyrics and more. One blog rounds up all the posts on the subject, so that poetry aficionados can read more posts on a favorite subject. The list of blogs scheduled to host Poetry Friday in 2013 can be found here and you can delve into our PaperTigers’ Poetry Friday time vault here.
For this week’s Poetry Friday contribution I’d like to highlight one of my favorite children’s poetry books: Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems / Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de invierno by Francisco X. Alarcón, illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children’s Book Press/Lee and Low Books, 2001). If the winter days in your neck of the woods are depressingly short, dark and gloomy, get hold of a copy of Iguanas in the Snow and prepare to have your spirit restored. You’ll immediately be taken to a wintery world of bright, engaging colors that looks to be just as magical as the long, golden days of summer are. Celebrate winter with a Mexican American family in Nothern California and witness their joy as they frolic in the snow, an experience that reminds the author of the iguanas playing by his grandmother’s house in Mexico. Celebrate life in a city where people are bridges to each other and children sing poetry in two languages. Be dazzled by the promise of seedling redwoods—like all children—destined to be the ancestors of tomorrow. This book was a well deserved winner of the 2002 Pura Belpré Award Honor Book for Narrative and can be read online on the International Children’s Digital Library website by clicking here.
Iguanas in the Snow
what fun
to see snow
for the first time
on the Sierra Nevada
all dressed in white
like a bride
get out of
Papa’s car
in a hurry
touch the wet
snow with our
bare fingers
and throw
snowballs
at each other
what a ride
to slide
down slopes
on top
of black
inner tubes
together with
brothers and sisters
cousins and uncles
all sporting
green jackets
and pants
gotten
in a sale at
the army surplus
“Ha! ha! ha!”
Mama laughs
and says with joy
“we look like
happy iguanas
in the snow”
This week’s Poetry Friday is being hosted by No Water River
Reviewed by Charlotte Richardson:
Bruce Pascoe,
Fog A Dox
Magabala Books, 2012.
Ages: 10+
“A story of courage, acceptance and respect,” Magabala Books rightly claims of masterful storyteller Bruce Pascoe’s latest YA novel, Fog A Dox. Set in the Australian bush of southwest Victoria and written in Pascoe’s captivating bush vernacular, the story begins with Albert, an old woodsman (“tree feller”) who brings home three orphaned baby foxes, then coaxes his Dingo mix dog, Brim, to nurse them along with her own pups…
Read the full review
Reviewed by Aline Pereira:
Na’ima B. Robert, illustrated by Valentina Cavallinni,
Going to Mecca
Frances Lincoln, 2012.
Ages: 5+
Going to Mecca opens with the image of a family getting ready for a trip to Saudi Arabia, where they will be performing the Hajj, the holy pilgrimage to Mecca that is considered one of the pillars of the Islamic faith. We see the youngest of the three children waving goodbye to his parents and siblings. Still a baby, and not yet ready for the journey his family is about to embark on, he is staying with grandma…
Read the full review
From The Carle Museum’s website:
The Caldecott Medal: 75 Years of Distinguished Illustration
January 8 – June 30, 2013
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, The Carle Museum, located in Amherst, MA, USA is mounting a special exhibition of high quality prints, organized by Barbara Elleman, in the Reading Library. At the end of the 1930s, with urging from publisher and children’s book advocate Frederick Melcher, the American Library Association created a highly welcomed award, to recognize the true artistry of illustration in children’s picture books. Designed to parallel the Newbery Award, established in 1922 and presented each year to a book with outstanding literary qualities, the Randolph Caldecott Medal honored a picture book featuring “the most distinguished illustration of the year.” Its namesake, Randolph Caldecott, was a noted British illustrator of the mid 1800s, who had charmed children with energetic interpretations of nursery rhymes that seemingly burst with humor and mischief, and he was considered worthy to symbolize what was to become an internationally recognized award. In 1938, the first Caldecott Medal was presented to Dorothy Lathrop for Animals of the Bible, A Picture Book, and to mark the 75th anniversary of this award, Barbara Elleman has included a little over one-third of the honorees in the display. The exhibition is grouped into four categories: SNOW, HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAMS, FOLKLORE, and LONG LOVED, LONG REMEMBERED. Additionally, nearly all of the books are shelved in the bookcase dedicated to the memory of Lori Schilder, and we are grateful to her family for funding to enable this and future exhibitions.
Join Guest Curator and former Book Links editor Barbara Elleman for an exhibition tour on January 20 at 3:00 pm. Free with Museum Admission. For more information click here
The Caldecott Award is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The 75th Anniversary logo was designed by 2008 Caldecott Medal Winner Brian Selznick who has cleverly brought together characters from past Caldecott Medal-winning books — beginning with the very first in 1938 and spanning all the way to the 21st century.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 1/1/2013
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Exhibition of Artworks from Jeannie Baker’s Innovative Picture Book, Mirror~ ongoing until Jan 2013, Blacktown, Australia
Reflections… On the Work of Jeannie Baker~ ongoing until Jan 2013, Blacktown, Australia
17th Annual Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature~ ongoing until Jan 1, 2013, Concord, MA, USA
23rd Annual Children’s Illustration Show~ ongoing until Jan 13, 2013 Northampton, MA, USA
Appleton Museum of Art Exhibit: Sendak & Co: Children’s Book Illustrations Since Where the Wild Things Are~ ongoing until Jan 20, 2013, Ocala, FL, USA
Exhibits of Winning Entries from the 2012 Growing Up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Feb 2013, USA
Nami Island International Illustration Concours for Picture Book Illustrations~ submissions accepted until Feb 15, 2013, Korea
Tall Tales & Huge Hearts: Raúl Colón~ ongoing until Mar 29, 2013, Abilene, TX, USA
Skipping Stones Youth Honor Awards Celebrating Multicultural Awareness, International Understanding and Nature Appreciation~ submissions accepted until June 25, 2013, USA
The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation Winner Announced~ United Kingdom
2012 Cybils (the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Shortlists Announced~ Jan 1
Modern Language Association Annual Conference~ Jan 3 – 6, Boston, MA, USA
SCBWI Metro New York Event: What Libraries Are Looking For In Children’s Books~ Jan 8, New York, NY, USA
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Walter Dean Myers at Central Library~ Jan 8, Fort Worth, TX, USA
The Carle Museum Presents: The Caldecott Medal: 75 Years of Distinguished Illustration~ Jan 8 – June 30, Amherst, MA, USA
2nd Annual One Book Two Book – A Celebration of Children’s Literature~ Jan 11 – 13, Iowa City, IA, USA
11th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities~ Jan 11 – 14, Honolulu, HI, USA
Penguin Young Readers Group Presents: John and Hank Green: An Evening of Awesome~ Jan 15, New York, NY, USA
Children’s Literature and Social Justice~ Jan 15 – Mar 19, Portland, OR, USA
Chapter & Verse’s (A Book Club for Adults Discussing Children’s Lit)~ Jan 17, USA
No Name-Calling Week~ Jan 21 – 25, USA and Canada
Jaipur Literature Festival~ Jan 24 – 29, Jaipur, India
ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Events at the ALA Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 24 – 29, Seattle, WA, USA
Yabun 2013: Celebrating Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultures~ Jan 25, Sydney, Australia
American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 25 – 29, Seattle, WA, USA
YALSA Events at ALA’s 2013 Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 25 – 29, Seattle, WA, USA
24th Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities~ Jan 26 – Feb 3, Eatonville, Fl, USA
Family Literacy Day~ Jan 27, Canada
SCBWI Eastern PA Event: Picture Book Day with Australian Author Christopher Cheng~ Jan 27, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2013 ALA Youth Media Awards Press Conference~ Jan 28, Seattle, WA, USA
The Literature Centre (formerly Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre) Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia
Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia
Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia
International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany
Tulika Book Events~ India
International Library of Children’s Literature Events~ Tokyo, Japan
Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom
Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom
Arne Nixon Center’s Children’s Literature Book Clubs for Adults Events~ USA
Events Sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress~ USA
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ Amherst, MA, USA
The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events
We at PaperTigers wish all our readers Happy Holidays and all the very best for 2013.
We are currently taking a short break and look forward to being back in the New Year.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/23/2012
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Felicia Hoshino, Japanese translation by Akiko Hisa,
Sora and the Cloud
Immedium, 2012.
Bilingual: English/Japanese
Ages: 3-8
Sora and the Cloud is award-winning illustrator Felicia Hoshino’s debut as an author. Featuring Sora, a little boy whose name means “sky,” this very delicate, whisper-like story in English and Japanese is about Sora discovering the world with the help of a fluffy cloud friend. And how appropriate that cloud and sky should come together!
While Sora and Cloud float around town dreaming up adventures, little Sora gets to see many familiar places (some readers will recognize the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Chinatown) and to learn more about his Japanese heritage. “Like a mobile in the breeze, Sora’s sky adventure spins all around him,” until he drifts gently into sleep and back down to earth, where more adventures await. The last page shows Sora and his family relaxing together under a big tree – the image of his little sister looking up to the sky and saying hello to a cloud fittingly pointing to the universality of children’s sense of wonder and boundless imagination.
Fans of Hoshino’s illustration work in A Place Where Sunflowers Grow and Little Sap and Monsieur Rodin will find the watercolors/mixed media in this bilingual treat a treasure trove to pore over and marvel at. The double spread of cute ants busily moving around town, matching Sora’s impression of people as tiny ants when seen from up above, is priceless. It adds a touch of sweet humor to a story that is all warmth, delicacy and gentle embrace.
Sora and the Cloud soars in more ways than one, and is a perfect story to share with very young ones who are starting to look at the world with wonder and amazement.
The short Japanese phrases and cultural references sprinkled throughout the book are translated and explained in the end matter, where we also learn that a portion of the book’s proceeds go to the Japan Earthquake Relief.
Aline Pereira
December 2012
Review as part of our current theme of Cats and Dogs in Multicultural Children’s Books
Betty Jean Lifton, photography by Eikoh Hosoe,
Taka-chan and I: A Dog’s Journey to Japan by Runcible
New York Review Children’s Collection, 2012 (reprint of 1967 edition)
Ages: 5+
Illustrated with luminous black-and-white photographs by the art photographer Eikoh Hosoe and inspired by her experiences in 1960s Japan, Betty Jean Lifton’s wry and witty 1967 Taka-chan and I, is, happily, back in print.
Hosoe’s photographs of adorable 5-year-old Taka-chan with Runcible, Lifton’s Weimaraner-narrator, evoke a fabled timelessness. (Children and parents may recognize his name as Edward Lear’s invented adjective.) Runcible lived in Japan with Lifton and her husband, psychiatrist and writer Robert Jay Lifton. His story begins on Cape Cod (US), where a particularly enthusiastic dig in the sand takes him far underground with no way home. At long last he discovers that he’s dug his way to Japan. The photograph of him emerging from the sand nose-to-nose with Taka-chan, bowing from the hip to greet him, is priceless.
Taka-chan is being detained by the Black Dragon. Ominous images of girl and dog in his shadowy “palace” create suspense; the dragon is later revealed to be an elaborate sculpture (embodying, folk-tale fashion, the dragon spirit). He’s peeved that Taka-chan’s disloyal fishing village has ceased to feed dragons who protect the fishermen, but if by sundown Runcible places a white flower before the most loyal person in Japan, Taka-chan will be free. Runcible negotiates: Taka-chan escorts him on his mission.
Off they go, Taka-chan in a little straw hat and pinafore dress. In busy Tokyo, they are separated. Runcible looks for her in the Emperor’s gardens, then gets fed at a sushi shop. A deer tells him the most loyal person in the land is Hachiko, the dog who returned daily to Shibuya Station for a decade after his master’s death and whose statue commemorates his loyalty.* Dog and girl are reunited, flower is bestowed, girl is released, and eventually Runcible loyally digs his way home to his own master.
Lifton’s story is a delightful take on the traditional Japanese folk stories she loved; Hosoe’s images imbue her text with magic. Taka-chan, in a summer kimono, feeding Runcible with chopsticks at a formal low table in a tatami room, is unforgettable, her gesture and expression as ingenuous as Runcible’s soulful look. A photograph of the author, photographer and dog at the back of the book accompanies amusing brief biographies of each. Taka-chan and I is a classic to be cherished for generations.
Charlotte Richardson
December 2012
*Hachiko’s story became a Japanese film in 1987; a 2009 adaptation for American audiences starred Richard Gere.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/21/2012
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Yesterday it was announced that poet John Agard has been awarded the Queen’s Medal for Poetry. And what is especially exciting about this news? Well, apart from the fact that this fine poet’s work has been suitably recognised, it’s exciting also because much of Agard’s wonderful poetry is aimed at young people. The Poetry Archive website, a great place to begin exploring Agard’s work, describes him as a “unique and energetic force in contemporary British poetry” – and two of his collections were highlighted in his selection for the Medal: Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2009), which along with an accompanying DVD brings together performances of some of his best poetry spanning 30 years; and his recent book Goldilocks on CCTV (Frances Lincoln, 2011).
John Agard was born in Guyana in 1949 and moved to the UK in the 1970s. Along with his partner, fellow-poet and often co-author Grace Nichols, Agard has been an important voice for promoting awareness of Caribbean culture in the UK, breaking down barriers and broadening perspectives on poetry (and he is currently one of the Advisors for the Caribbean Poetry Project). The British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy says:
John Agard has always made people sit up and listen. He has done this with intelligence, humour and generosity. He has the ability to temper anger with wit and difficult truths with kindness. He levels the ground beneath all our feet, whether he is presenting Dante to children or introducing his own (Guyanan) culture to someone who hasn’t encountered it before. In performance he is electrifying – compelling, funny, moving and thought-provoking. His work in Education over years has changed the way that readers, writers and teachers think about poetry.
Here he is reciting his superb “Listen Mr Oxford Don”, one of the poems on the John Agard Live! DVD created by Pamela Robertson-Pearce to accompany Alternative Anthem:
I recently selected Agard’s The Young Inferno in my Top Ten Multicultural Ghost Stories. Goldilocks on CCTV continues the inspired partnership of Agard’s poetry with Satoshi Kitamura as illustrator and the contemporary take on fairy-tales is just wonderful! You can read “Pumpkin Biker Cinderella” on the Frances Lincoln Website (go to the “Excerpt” tab), and here’s a video of a dead-pan Agard reading the hilarious title poem:
And finally, since our current theme at PaperTigers is Cats and Dogs, do read “Books Make Good Pets” – witty and wonderful!
This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe (I’ll add the link to the round-up post when it goes live)…
We wish Aline Pereira, former Managing Editor of PaperTigers, a very Happy Birthday this week – and say a big thank you also, for asking her friends to join her celebration by contributing to PaperTigers’ WaterBridge Outreach program. Thank you, Aline; and thank you also for all the donations that are coming in.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/18/2012
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Our newest PaperTigers’ issue is now live and focuses on cats and dogs in multicultural children’s literature – a topic that was suggested by my 12-year-old daughter, who is animal fanatic.
Among the many highlights in the issue is our interview with Aboriginal elder and storyteller Gladys Milroy, in which she discusses her children’s book Dingo’s Tree, co-authored with her daughter Jill Milroy, who is currently Dean of the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia. Dingo’s Tree is published by Magabala Books, Australia’s oldest independent Indigenous publishing house, and is PaperTigers’ Book of the Month. Look for our review of the book soon and in the meantime enjoy this wonderful review that Emma Perry at My Book Corner has graciously allowed us to reprint.
Located in Australia, My Book Corner provides book reviews on an entire assortment of children’s literature and is a great place to visit and find out what is hot in the world of Australian kid and YA lit. We reprint some of My Book Corner’s reviews under the reviews tab of the PaperTigers website.
Gladys Milroy and Jill Milroy,
Dingo’s Tree
Magabala Books, 2012.
Reviewed by Emma Perry at My Book Corner
Divided in to four short chapters entitled Dingo’s Tree, The Raindrop, The Tree That Walked and The Last Tree this is a poignant story about man’s destruction of the landscape and its impact on the landscape, natural resources and the animals who depend on them for survival.
Penned and illustrated by mother and daughter team Gladys Milroy and Jill Milroy this is a picture book which gives voice to the very real threats on Australia’s landscape. Mining. The beauty of its narrative, combined with the Milroys’ warm illustrations ensure that Dingo’s Tree will leave a lasting impression.
This deceptively simple yet powerful parable begins when Dingo is unable to find a tree of his own. He draws one and so begins the magical yet sad centre of this parable. The tree grows and grows too tall even for the moon to view the top, then in the aftermath of a cyclone it disappears. As a single, beautiful raindrop appears on a tiny tree, arguments ensue as to who owns it, however a much more pressing matter soon emerges.
The selflessness of crow who flies for miles each day to supply Little Tree with water, is set in parallel against man …
“mining is cutting too deep for the scars to heal. Once destroyed, mountains can’t grow again and give birth to the rivers that they send to the sea.”
The character of the Dingo continues to emerge as one of wisdom and reason, the rain drop must be reserved, saved for Dingo who will know when the time is right.
The ending is gorgeous and poignant, you can not fail to be moved by the final poetic lines followed by Dingo and Wombat’s final conversation…
An ever timely message about environment and man’s role in preserving and maintaining it.
Dr Anita Heiss’ review of Dingo’s Tree can be enjoyed here.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/16/2012
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Kat Aragon, illustrated by Mary Jo Madrid,
The Oldest House in the USA/La casa mas antigua de los Estados Unidos
Lectura Books, 2012.
Ages: 6-8
Perhaps the best thing about The Oldest House in the USA, in my admittedly biased opinion, is that the author got it right: the oldest house in the USA is in Santa Fe, New Mexico (not far from where I grew up), and nowhere in New England.
There is a tendency in the United States to propagate the myth of European “discovery” which would suggest that this land was all but uninhabited before the Mayflower arrived in Massachusetts in 1620. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, the oldest house in the USA was already 400 years old by then and had already endured its first serious remodeling project!
It was built, as the angels Teresa and Annie who protect it in Kat Aragon’s charming bilingual picture book, tell us, in 1200 by the original inhabitants of what is now Santa Fe: the ancestral Puebloans. They lived in the house for more than 200 years before something mysteriously drove them away. It remained vacant until the Spaniards came in 1598 and has been continuously inhabited ever since.
The angels provide the narrative, and Mary Jo Madrid’s lovely watercolor illustrations help us realize that the house has been many things to many people over its 800 year history. The Pueblo people were living in the house again, for instance, in 1680 during the Pueblo Revolt when they managed to drive out the Spanish for a brief time. When the Spaniards came back, however, in 1692 under the leadership of General DeVargas, they recaptured the house and installed the Spanish governor there. DeVargas gave his name to the street the house sits on, and so it remains to this day.
The Oldest House in the USA offers readers a glimpse of a part of US history that is very different from the one that is usually packaged up for school children, one that is no less rich or interesting. Most children will see architecture and customs completely unfamiliar to them depicted in the illustrations, which will open their eyes to the many possibilities contained in the history of the Americas when we take the time to look a little more deeply.
Abigail Sawyer
December 2012
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/12/2012
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Head on over to the PaperTigers website, where you will find hundreds of Cats and Dogs waiting to greet you. I exaggerate only slightly for one of our new features is a Gallery of Korean artist Chinlun Lee‘s work, including illustrations from her delightful picture book The Very Kind Rich Lady and Her One Hundred Dogs.
Japanese illustrator Kae Nishimura also features in our Gallery; and we have new interviews with illustrator Meilo So from her home in the Scottish Shetland Islands and Australian Aboriginal elder and storyteller Gladys Milroy, co-author with her daughter Jill Milroy of our Book of the Month, Dingo’s Tree (Magabala Books, 2012).
Also from Australia, Susanne Gervay has written a Personal View about “The Images of Dogs in Ships in the Field” – Ships in the Field is her latest book and was a project close to her heart since it relates part of her childhood as the daughter of Hungarian refugees.
Our featured authors and illustrators all share stories and photographs of the dogs and cats in their lives. In the early days of the PaperTigers Blog, Janet wrote a post about reading to her family’s huskies when she was a child. In my own family, you will often find the dog curled up next to (or on top of) whoever is reading – and over the next couple of months we invite you to send us your photos and/or stories of reading time shared with a pet to be featured here on the Blog – please do email them to me, marjorieATpapertigersDOTorg – we’d love to hear from you.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/7/2012
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Illustrated by Ramsingh Urveti, designed by Jonathan Yamakami,
I Saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tail
Tara Books, 2011.
Ages: 8+
The glorious blue and intriguing cut-outs on the cover of this truly stunning book just beg you to pick it up and explore its pages. As you open the book, the feathered (or is it fiery?) eye leaves the peacock’s head behind, and you have to keep on turning until you find the whole bird. From then on, each page reveals a half-line of the anonymous seventeenth-century English nonsense/puzzle poem that makes up the text. The clever cut-outs mean you can read the poem in two ways – in its original tricky layout that offers a surreal, perplexing view of all the amazing things that “I saw,” or the more logical sequence created by joining the second half of the former line to the first half of the latter:
I saw a peacock with a fiery tail
I saw a blazing comet drop down hail
I saw a cloud… [you can read the whole poem here]
The secret is in the lack of punctuation throughout and the poem would make a fun punctuation task for younger children to work out – but the poem offers much more than a school exercise and is a delight for people of all ages to ponder the essence of poetry. Joined here with Ramsingh Urveti’s combination of black on white and white on black art influenced by his Gond roots, and Jonathan Yamakami’s imaginative book design, I Saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tale is a veritable feast for any poetry lover.
This is Urveti’s first solo book but he was a contributor to Tara Books’ much loved The Nightlife of Trees (New Horizons Award 2008). Here, his artwork is extraordinary in the way it manages to convey all the twists and turns of the poem whether puzzling or logical. He incorporates the recurring “I saw” inventively throughout. The ebb and flow of the different scales alluded to, from a mighty oak to a tiny ant, are reflected in the intensity of the patterns that at times seem to froth from the page. The book’s physical design is full of surprises right to the end: and this is a very physical book. In the age of the e-book, this is an oasis for anyone who loves the physicality of the book. If you think you know just the person you’d like to give it to, you might have to get hold of two copies – this is one of those books that would otherwise be impossible to give away!
This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted byRobyn Hood Black at Read, Write, Howl - head on over.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/6/2012
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Two must read articles recently published in the The New York Times: For Young Latino Readers, an Image Is Missing and Books to Match Diverse Young Readers. “Students of other races and ethnicities seldom encounter characters like themselves in books, and some education experts say that can be an obstacle to literacy.” Read what teachers, students, parents and literacy advocates have to say about this and then use The New York Times interactive page to click on book titles that feature main characters who are black, Latino, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native and read the beginning of each book.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/5/2012
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It’s been our privilege to have Indian writer, editor and blogger Richa Jha as our guest blogger for the past two weeks. Today we present the final part in her three part series:
Reader-less Books: Reading Habits of Indian Children ~ by Richa Jha
If you haven’t read the previous entries, you can get caught up by reading Part 1 here and Part 2 here. In today’s post Richa addresses some of the reasons on why Indian youth may not be reading books written by Indian authors.
We can’t see them
Our books get lost in the sea of international books on the bookshelves at the stores, especially when there are tens of series vying for attention. A single spine in the middle of it is no show. Some of the bookstores do have dedicated shelves or sections for Indian authors, but the traffic is thin there. Children’s books continue to figure low on most publishing houses’ agenda. The lack of the necessary promotional push for these books from their side affects their visibility. So does the media’s cool shrug at most of these books. The bookstores aren’t too enthusiastic either to back the Indian authors as they don’t see them moving off the shelf much. This chicken-egg situation only compounds the general feeling of apathy that the Indian authors sense towards their work, in general, from all sides.
Let’s blame it on our parents!
My generation of parents grew up on a staple diet of Enid Blyton and Edward Stratemeyer (creator of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew), and for most, that fodder lies frozen in time. An essential rites of passage, we expect to see our children reading these. Most parents shy away from even exploring the Indian-Author shelves at bookstores.
At the same time, we do have a new (but small) breed of parents who are keen to introduce their children to the growing world of Indian YA fiction. But while the parents take care to buy these books, most children are reluctant to explore them. Buying, therefore, isn’t always enough. A possible way to get our kids interested in them would be to explore the book together. I remember sitting with my son a couple of years ago and reading aloud a relatively unknown gem by Ranjit Lal, The Red Jaguar on the Mountain. By the end of the first chapter, he was hooked and came back later to say, ‘The book is so cool!’
Things can only get better from here. Last month, India’s first zombie fiction for young adults, Zombiestan by Mainak Dhar hit the shelves (the second one by him is due for a release soon). Payal Dhar’s There’s a Ghost in My PC, Oops the Mighty Gurgle by RamG Vallath and The Deadly Royal Recipe by Ranjit Lal – all for middle schoolers slated for release soon – promise to be a hell of an adventure-and-fun packed reads. There’s visible promotion around them and the publishers and the authors seem to be having fun talking about their books. Don’t stop me from turning up that bubbly voice inside me that’s humming now-these-are-what-our-children-will-go-grab. Out of choice. Ahem! Amen.
Richa Jha is a writer and editor and, like many of us, nurtures an intense love for picture books. In her words:
I love picture books, and want the world to fall in love with them as well. My blog Snuggle With Picture Books is a natural extension of this madness. The Indian parents, teachers and kids are warming up to loads and loads of Indian picture books beginning to fill up the shelves in bookshops. It’s about time we had a dedicated platform to it. The idea behind the website is to try and feature every picture book (in English) out there in the Indian market. Usually, only a few titles end up getting talked about everywhere, be it because of their true merit, or some very good promotion, or some well-known names associated with them. There are many other deserving titles that get left out in the visibility-race. This website views every single book out there as being deserving of being ‘seen’ and celebrated.
Laguna BelAir School, located in Santa Rosa City, Philippines, is a participant in our WaterBridge Outreach Program. We highlighted their feedback on the 2011 Book Set last week and we have just updated their feedback page with new photos. Click here to view.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 12/2/2012
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What We Wear. What We Wear: Dressing Up Around the World,
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Maya Ajmera, Elise Hofer Derstine, and Cynthia Pon,
What We Wear: Dressing Up Around the World
A Global Fund for Children Book/Charlesbridge, 2012.
Ages: 4-7
Dressing up means something a little different to everyone, but for children dressing up is always important. It might mean trying on a parent’s clothes in the back of a closet, putting on a costume for a performance or holiday, painting your face, playing pretend, or wearing a team uniform for a big game. No matter where, dressing up is special, but the details of dressing up differ considerably depending on the traditions of one’s culture.
Though the outfits vary greatly from place to place, the reasons for dressing up unite us all. This richly photographed book of smiling children from around the world dressing up in every imaginable way will open windows onto other cultures for children everywhere. Whether vibrant beads on the head, neck, and shoulders of a Kenyan child or identical navy blue baseball caps on a Japanese team, it is clear that children everywhere delight in dressing up, whatever the occasion. Captions accompanying the photos suggest the different reasons people wear special clothing and where to find people wearing such garments: folk festivals, cultural events, religious rituals and even school. A world map highlights the countries the photographed children call home, underscoring the point that dressing up is universal.
Children will recognize the familiar in these pages and will also be delighted to see their counterparts in other countries dressed so differently. The pictures are likely to inspire a sense of wonder that may lead young children to think about what they share and how they differ from people of other cultures. The authors also make suggestions for learning more about dressing up all over the world such as going to museums, making masks and costumes on your own, and visiting cultural institutions and festivals.
Expressing one’s self and experiencing one’s culture through clothing is an important part of developing self-identity. This makes What We Wear a perfect book to have on the shelves of a pre-school or primary grade library, inspiring kids to see themselves and children everywhere as part of a global community.
Abigail Sawyer
November 2012
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