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Sukumar Ray, translated by Sampurna Chatterji
Wordygurdyboom! The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray
Puffin Classics (India), 2008.

Ages: 8+

Sukumar Ray was a Bengali writer born in Calcutta in 1887.   After being educated in India and England, he returned to his father’s printing press business U. Ray & Sons in Calcutta. At that time, the older Ray had begun publishing a children’s magazine called Sandesh. When Sukumar took over the press in 1915, he began to write for the magazine, producing poetry and stories, as well as illustrations for Sandesh. Wordygurdyboom! is a collection of Ray’s writing and illustrations, translated from the original Bengali by Sampurna Chatterji. As noted in the introduction by Ruskin Bond, Bengali is a language that ‘lends itself to rhyme and rhythm, to puns and wordplay.’  Ray, influenced by the nonsense verse of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, carved out his own unique style of verse in Bengali and, thanks to Sampurna Chatterji’s excellent translation, readers can really enjoy his ‘non-sensibility’ in this English anthology.

The book is made up of a selection of Ray’s writings which include poems, stories, and even a made-up hunting diary of a Professor Chuckleonymous. Throughout the book, strange creatures abound like the Limey Cow which is “not a cow, in fact it’s a bird” or the Billy Hawk calf who “is forbidden to laugh.”  There’s the Wonster who is a pining, whining, ‘nag-nag’ or the Pumpkin Grumpkin who looks like a walrus-manatee. In the poem Mish Mash, there are all manners of creatures combined to become such oddities as the ‘duckupine,’ the ‘elewhale’ or the ‘stortoise.”

In Ray’s stories, various odd characters appear like the calculating Raven of Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law or the mischievous school boy Dashu of “Dashu the Dotty One.” There’s Professor Globellius Brickbat who experiments with cannonballs made up of “nettle-juice, chilli-smoke, flea-fragrance, creeper-cordial, rotten-radish extract,” the result of which, as you can imagine, is not flattering to the appearance of the man post-experiment.

Wordygurdyboom! is a delightful collection of writing. What is astonishing, however, is the fact that this is a work of translation. Non-sense verse relies heavily on the nuances of language; that the Bengali could be translated into English in this manner is truly, as Bond points out, ‘deserving of a medal.’ Much credit has to be given to Sampurna Chatterji for bringing this lively, witty writer’s words into English for a new generation of readers to appreciate and enjoy.

Sally Ito
April 2012

Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Radha Chakravarty
The Land of Cards: Stories, Poems and Plays for Children
Puffin Classics, Penguin Books India 2010

Age 10 and up

Puffin Classics’ anthology of Rabindranath Tagore‘s work for children takes its title from his famous play. The Land of Cards is a country populated by the stiff, unbending cards of a traditional four-suit deck. They believe in and are rigidly ruled by rules. During the course of the play, the cards begin to realize their limitations, break through their bondage to superstitious beliefs, and claim their freedom. “The Land of Cards” exemplifies the humor and satire that make Tagore such a beloved literary figure, but the rest of this collection is also strong.

Radha Chakravarty’s translation begins with a selection of eleven poems. They capture for English readers some of the puns, rhythms and rhyming patterns that Tagore’s poetry is famous for in the original Bengali. The poems also present the themes of his work, including the outsmarting of the pretentious, the abuse of power, the silly wastefulness of bureaucracy, and the restorative power of the natural world.

Following the poems are three plays, “The Post Office” and “A Poetic Mood and Lack of Food” as well as the title play. It’s easy to imagine a talented teacher coaching a middle school class into a rousing performance of any of these. Even the shortest, “A Poetic Mood,” packs a punch, as a wealthy, pious hypocrite advises a penniless man to pay more attention to the beautiful day than to his hunger.

The final third of the book comprises eight stories, all both entertaining and morally instructive in Tagore’s witty way. “The Parrot’s Tale,” for example, describes the extravagant efforts of the king’s servants to “educate” a parrot by putting it in a golden cage and stuffing its mouth with textbook paper. The ridiculous situation ends with much money in the pockets of the king’s yes men–and a dead parrot. But since the bird no longer annoys people, no one cares.

The back matter includes a translator’s note and a “classic plus” section with a thoughtful Q&A on Tagore’s work, study questions and a brief glossary of Bengali words. Non-Indian children will need some orientation to the cultural context of Tagore’s writing; this anthology could be an excellent classroom resource or reference book as well as a pleasurable, instructive read for older children.

Charlotte Richardson
April 2012

George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Christopher Cardinale,
Which Side Are You On? The Story of a Song
Cinco Puntos Press, 2011

Ages 9+

In Which Side Are You On?, Harlan County, Kentucky native George Ella Lyon tells the terrifying true story of the event which inspired Florence Reese’s famous labor rights song. In the process, ably abetted by the darkly powerful images of illustrator Christopher Cardinale, Lyon celebrates not only the courage of union organizers during a 1931 coal miner’s strike but also the vital unifying role of folk music in difficult and dangerous times.

Written in the fictional voice of one of the songwriter’s seven children, the story begins with a description of the virtual slavery of the coal miners, whose homes are owned by the mining company and who are paid in scrip good only at the company store. “Gun thugs” have come for Pa, a miner and union organizer, but he was forewarned and has “lit out” across the mountain to hide. Bullets are ricocheting all over the house. The children are hiding under the bed. Ma, inspired by desperation, realizes, “We need a song.” She tears off a page of the calendar and composes the now-iconic anthem on “the back of May.” It becomes a rallying cry still adapted and sung “by people fighting for their rights all over the world.”

Reese, who lived to be 85, told the story of the strike and the song to many documentarians and organizers over her lifetime. In a wonderful author’s note, Lyon explains that songs and stories change as memories and needs change, then recounts how she learned the version presented in her book. All the issues in the story, she writes, remain “alive today, when wealth and power are held by a small percentage of people so that the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.”

Cardinale’s woodblock-looking illustrations bring alive the spunk and poverty of Appalachian people who stood up to “the man”.  A tidy childlike sans serif font adds to the effect. When Pa returns and Ma sings her song to him, her mouth wide open and her children and husband surrounding her, Cardinale encloses them in lavender streaked with black circular gestures that seem to send her music out into the world. “We can use that,” Pa says of the song. “It’ll bring folks together.”

As Ma writes, her lyrics appear line by line on banners across the pages. Tune and lyrics are also printed on the book cover. Song, story and image combine to introduce readers to rare courage and integrity. Which Side Are You On? presents a disturbing, provocative, consciousness-raising opportunity for children and adults alike.

Charlotte Richardson
March 2012

Head on over to our PaperTigers Book Review page where we bring together in one place the best children’s and young adults’ multicultural book reviews published in several countries.

PaperTigers reviews are written by us and have an international scope, to keep you up to date on what is being published around the world. These reviews can also be accessed here on the blog under the category Weekend Book Reviews.

In addition to offering our own reviews, we also reprint reviews from the following trusted sources:

From the USA, reviews by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a key resource for anyone interested in children’s books published in the USA;

From Canada, reviews from Resource Links, a national journal dedicated to reviewing and evaluating Canadian learning resources;

From China, reviews from the Asian Review of Books, published in Hong Kong by Paddyfield.com and Chameleon Press;

From the UK, reviews from Books for Keeps, the most authoritative children’s book magazine in the country.

We also have archived reviews from two valuable sources which are no longer being published:  Desi Journal (USA), a website dedicated to literature from and about the South Asian diaspora, and Book Trusted News (United Kingdom), the magazine of the Young Book Trust.

So look no further for kidlit book reviews. We have them all here!

Thank you to all the magazines and websites for sharing with us their great content! Publishers interested in having their books reviewed by PaperTigers, and magazines interested in having their reviews reprinted here, can email us at:

[email protected] for more information.

Setsu Broderick and Willamarie Moore, illustrated by Setsu Broderick,
Japanese Traditions: Rice Cakes, Cherry Blossoms and Matsuri
Tuttle Books.

Ages: 8-12

This delightful picture book of months shows Japan’s traditional customs and practices over the calendar year. Using a family of cats whimsically and colorfully drawn in a beautiful countryside setting, the authors explore the various customs and festivals engaged in by the residents through a typical Japanese year. The book is laid out in months, showing the festivals, games and foods associated with that season. This is the kind of book that one could read over the span of a year, enjoying what a typical country family in Japan would experience in their daily life. The seasons, after all, are somewhat universal and some of what appears in the book would be familiar to readers in many other parts of the world. I especially liked the spring time to early summer period –March to June – when all the fruit trees begin to blossom starting with the plum and ending with the hydrangea, and of course, including the ever symbolic cherry blossom which typically blooms in April.

The illustrations by Setsu Broderick are what make this book a real pleasure to read. As the preface indicates, this book is a look back by the illustrator Setsu, at her childhood memories of the Japanese countryside of 50 years ago. There’s a cozy familiarity to the images that are nonetheless finely detailed renderings of what a country house or yard might look like at any given season in the year. From the communal kotatsu – low table with a wraparound blanket around it with a heat lamp underneath — present in the winter households to the presence of the ubiquitous uchiwa fans in summer, each of the seasons contains nostalgic images from Japan’s more rural areas. For each of the months depicted, there is a question at the back about the activities the kittens are involved in or are doing. These questions are designed to make the reader look closer and enjoy the details – something that I know my daughter likes doing with picture books.

Japanese Traditions is exactly the kind of book worth curling up with in a warm place with your child. It’s a friendly, nostalgic look at the country, filled with the bustling details of the everyday life of Japanese families in the countryside as they experience it twelve months of the year.

Sally Ito
March 2012

Lindy Shapiro, illustrated by Kathleen Peterson,
Moon Mangoes
BeachHouse, 2011.

Ages 4-8

The winner of a Moonbeam Silver Medal, Moon Mangoes is an ode to children’s imagination and a meditation on parental love, by Maui-based author Lindy Shapiro.

Sitting on the front steps of their “tiny blue house with olive green shutters”, Mama and Anuenue (Anu, for short) cuddle up just before bedtime. Facing the beautiful mango tree in the front yard, they engage in a soothing and poetic dialog, prompted by Anu’s “what if” questions.

What if I ate up all those mangoes one by one, and I got so full that I turned into a mango tree?, begins Anu.

“I would bring you fresh, cool water to drink every morning. I’d gently pull out any weeds that block the sun…”, answers Mama.

Anu continues her litany of “what ifs” by asking what would happen if, instead of a tree, she turned into a kolohe ilio (dog), a pulelehua (butterfly), a pua’a (pig), a mo’o (lizard), a honu (turtle), and, finally, the moon that shines on their mango tree. Anu’s imagination, like Mama’s love, knows no boundaries.

Mama’s answer to each question assures Anu that she would be understood, cared for and loved, “no matter what if”.

Patterson’s full-page illustrations, whose wispy surfaces seem to have been wind-swept, aptly chronicle the inquisitive girl’s imagined transformations—from child to different animals to silvery moon, and back again.

This story will get a nod of recognition from parents; and any child who has ever snuggled with a loved one to imagine, read or listen to stories will enjoy the familiar feeling of connection and security the book conveys. Moon Mangoes’ many qualities make it a perfect choice for bedtime or lap reading.

Aline Pereira
March 2012

Monica Brown, illustrated by Sara Palacios, Spanish translation by Adriana Domínguez,
Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match / Marisol McDonald no combina
Children’s Book Press, 2011 (as of 2012 an imprint of Lee & Low Books).

Ages 4-8

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina is a perky bilingual tale about a mixed-heritage girl with a lot of spunk, by award-winning author Monica Brown (Waiting for the Biblioburro; Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People).

Inspired by the author’s personal experience as a Peruvian-American of European, Jewish and Amerindian descent, Marisol McDonald introduces us to a one-of-a-kind girl who defies stereotypes.

Stripes, polka dots and flower prints peacefully co-exist on Marisol’s outfit ensembles. In real life, however, her looks, clothes, playground games and food preferences seem to puzzle her friends, who love to say she “doesn’t match”.

Enchanting and quirky Marisol clearly marches to the beat of her own drums. And why wouldn’t she? After all, there’s nothing wrong with liking peanut butter & jelly burritos; wanting to play a game of soccer-pirates; or signing her first name in cursive and her last in print.

When a school friend challenges her, “Marisol, you couldn’t match if you wanted to!”, Marisol sets out to prove him wrong, dressing for school the next day in a single solid color, eating a “regular” peanut butter & jelly sandwich for lunch, playing a “normal” game of soccer… and feeling wrong all day long, until a thoughtful note from her teacher snaps her back to her old, cheerful, “mismatched” self.

Radiating joy and fun, Sara Palacios’ Pura Belpré Honor illustrations bring Marisol to life and convey the riches of her life and heritage. Children will enjoy looking for and finding clues in the pictures to all the different cultures, as well as to the story’s geographical—and very apt—setting.

Marisol’s lively story ends on a happy and sweet note, leaving readers with the important message that diversity is something to be embraced and celebrated.

Aline Pereira
February 2012

I’m posting my week-end book review a day early to clock in with Poetry Friday as a couple of days ago I received a review copy of Kate Coombs and Meilo So‘s new book Water Sings Blue, which Kate gave us a glimpse of back in January when her first copies arrived (and if you don’t know Kate’s blog, Book Aunt, it’s well worth a read).  It arrived just in time to squeeze it into our Water in Multicultural Children’s Books theme…

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Dori at Dori Reads…

Kate Coombs, illustrated by Meilo So,
Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems
Chronicle Books, 2012.

Ages 4-11

The finely tuned observation in both the poetry and illustrations of Water Sings Blue draws young readers into that world of the shoreline where time just seems to disappear and exploration offers up endless possibilities for discovery.  Kate Coombs’ poems are satisfyingly memorable, with their cohesive patterns of meter and rhyme that, nevertheless, contain plenty of surprises – like, for example, the alliteration and internal rhyming at the end of “Sand’s Story”, in which mighty rocks have turned to sand:

Now we grind and we grumble,
humbled and grave,
at the touch of our breaker
and maker, the wave.

… Not to mention the witty pun on “breaker”: and the gentle wit of Coomb’s verse also lights the imagination throughout this collection.

Turning the pages, readers encounter a vast array of sea characters, starting in the air with the seagull; then listening to “What the Waves Say” before diving down to meet the creatures of the deep: like the shy octopus author (think ink…), or the beautiful but self-absorbed fish whose tail and fins act as brushes, and who concludes his/her soliloquy with the wonderfully evocative: “I’m a water artist. / You wouldn’t understand.”  As well as creatures like sharks and jellyfish, there are poems about fascinating, less well-known fish – “Oarfish”, “Gulper Eel” and “Nudibranch”: they could become a follow-up project by themselves!  There’s also a deep-sea shipwreck, and back on the sea shore, a gnarled “Old Driftwood” telling stories “to all the attentive / astonished twigs”, and a property agent hermit crab with a salesman’s patter.

Bringing all the poems together in a visual feast are Meilo So’s gorgeous watercolors.  As well as her depiction of jewel-colored corals and waves in every shade of blue imaginable, her illustrations are clearly also influenced by direct observation of the shoreline around her Shetland Isle home, from fishermen’s cottages to diving gannets.

Just like in real beachcombing, young readers will lose track of time as they pore over So’s seashores for

Shaun Tan,
The Bird King and Other Sketches
Templar Publishing (UK), 2011; first published by Windy Hollow Books (Australia), 2010.

Ages 9 +

Shaun Tan’s beautifully produced sketchbook, The Bird King, generously lays bare the creative process of illustration. While not specifically designed for children, Tan’s familiar images are of instant, near-universal appeal, and his explanatory text will be a revelation to young fans, especially aspiring artists.

Tan’s introduction references Klee’s famous description of drawing as “taking a line for a walk.” The colored and black-and-white drawings are divided into sections. Images in which “one little drawing is enough” to suggest a whole story comprise the untold stories section. In book, theatre and film, Tan describes his preliminary sketches as “a constant reminder of what I was ‘getting at’ in the first place” during longer creative processes. In drawings from life, we see “ongoing studies in the relationship of line, form, colour and light” that are crucial to an artist’s lifelong process of learning to see. A final section, notebooks, is culled from small ball point pen sketches, doodles and scribbles, some “an equivalent to daydreaming” that Tan poetically compares to fishing: “casting loose lines into a random sea… catching ideas that might otherwise be hidden beneath the waves.”

The drawings themselves also include little notes, ideas for development, and titles that further decipher the artist’s visual language. One double-page drawing entitled “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” features a dozen of Tan’s creatures marching behind a small boy, bird on his head, palette in hand. The only color on the page is a splash of orange dropping from his brush, repeated on the body of a goldfish, held aloft in a bowl, by a large creature with a diving bell head in which a bird in a beret stands at the wheel. In Tan’s quixotic imagination, the robotic and the humanizing hover in edgy balance.

The production quality of this small hardcover book is excellent. Partially bound in red cloth, with embossed lettering on the front cover, it’s held closed with a red elastic band; a blue ribbon bookmark is sewn into the binding. The back matter includes a list of the drawings in the book (noting materials used and the original purpose of each sketch) and a bibliography of Tan’s published works.

Young artists will learn more from studying the lines Tan takes for a walk than from any number of art classes. Children who already know and love books by the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner will recognize preliminary sketches of work from favorite books. For newcomers, The Bird King is a great introduction to this evocative Australian writer-illustrator.

Charlotte Richardson
February 2012

Douglas Wood, illustrated by P. J. Lynch,
No One But You
Candlewick Press, 2011.

Ages 6+

There’s something wonderful about stimulating the senses through the simplistic beauty that Mother Nature has created. In Douglas Wood’s children’s book, No One But You, people of all ages are invited to use their five senses to discover “many important things” because “the best things, the most important ones of all, are the ones no one can teach you or show you or explain. No one can discover them but you.”

An award-winning writer and author of the best-selling book Old Turtle, Wood once again highlights his fascination with nature, this time focusing on the happiness that comes with the simple things in life: dangling your feet in a pond, eating a strawberry, gazing at the stars, laughing and smiling with loved ones. There is a rhythmic feel to his writing and the repetition of the two words “no one” throughout the book lends an almost hypnotic quality. This, paired with P. J. Lynch’s beautiful oil illustrations, makes for a winning combination. Lynch, an acclaimed illustrator and two-time winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal, has created images evocative of ones a parent would take of their own child, perhaps from the weekend getaway to the park or a camping trip by the lake. It encourages parents to contemplate whether they too can capture a loved one “set[ting] out to create their special place in the world.”

Younger children will be inspired by Wood’s beautifully crafted book, whether they set out to uncover the treasures of nature for the first time or they wish to share their enchantment with others. While this is a children’s book, adults can also take something away from the story. We live in an era where technology dominates every aspect of our lives, from how we socialize with others to how we shop. No One But You is a reminder that life is more than texting, emails, and sitting at a desk; it’s worthwhile to take time to slow down and enjoy what life and nature have to offer.

Keilin Huang
February 2012

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by Raúl Colón,
Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina
Marshall Cavendish, 2011.

Ages 10+

Alicia Alonso, the latest in a series of portraits of Latin figures by award-winning author and poet Carmen Bernier-Grand, is written in lyrical free verse, a style that particularly suits the dramatic life of this beloved Cuban dancer.

Alonso’s long career has been marked by many difficulties. Already a highly regarded dancer in Cuba, she and her young fiancé, also a dancer, immigrated to New York in 1937, when Alicia was 15 and pregnant. She resumed ballet as soon as her daughter was born. In a field known to destroy bodies and careers early in life, Alonso continued dancing until she was in her seventies, despite diminishing vision from a detached retina that led eventually to blindness.

Bernier-Grand tells the story in touching word-sketches of key moments in Alonso’s life: selection for the role of Swanilda in Coppélia; romance with Fernando Alonso, her eventual husband; parental disapproval of ballet as a career; separation from her daughter during her U.S. tours; learning Giselle while blind and hospitalized by using her fingers as her feet; ballet shoes stuck to her feet with dried blood; eventual refusal to dance in Cuba while Batista was in power.

“She counts steps, etches the stage in her mind.
Spotlights of different colors warn her
she is too near the orchestra pit.
She moves, a paintbrush on canvas…
She imagines an axis
and pirouettes across her own inner stage.”

Raúl Colón’s stylized pastel illustrations poignantly evoke ballet’s beauty and Alonso’s suffering, despite which she has had one of the longest, most esteemed careers in ballet history. Vision in one eye was partially restored in 1972. Alonso, who founded the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, still choreographs dances at age 92.

Back matter includes a detailed biographical narrative of Alonso’s life; lists of some of the ballets she has danced and choreographed and awards she has won; a glossary; an extensive bibliography of sources and websites; and notes on the text. While the simple story of the ballerina’s life will appeal even to very young children, the reference material is rich enough for an older child to use for a research project. In the process of understanding a woman artist’s life struggles, young readers will also learn much about U.S.-Cuban relations.

Charlotte Richardson
February 2012

Meg Medina, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz,
Tía Isa Wants a Car
Candlewick Press, 2011.

Ages 5-7

Nowadays, many of us take owning a car for granted and we think nothing of the fact that a good number of families have two, even three cars. Recently awarded a spot on the Amelia Bloomer Prize List for portraying a strong female protagonist, Meg Medina’s children’s book, Tía Isa Wants A Car, shows readers how dreams can come true if you set your mind to something and have a whole lot of perseverance and determination.

Dedicated to the memory of her own family’s first car, a “light-blue Wildcat that stalled everywhere and was awful to park on crowded streets,” Medina’s book tells the story of how a young girl and her aunt, Tía Isa, manage to save enough money to buy a “shiny green car” that will “take us to the beach!” With the funds from taking odd jobs around the neighborhood and her aunt’s work at a local bakery, the girl and Tía Isa save up enough (while also putting aside money for family out of the country) to ultimately end up with their dream car, a symbol of freedom literally as well as metaphorically. Tía Isa be able to take her family to the beach and not have to wait for the bus, but she has also defied a cultural norm: one where the women are obedient and demure. After purchasing the car, Tía Isa is no longer seen as a “[r]rrridículo” sister who prepares meals; rather she has taken on the role of a strong contributing family member who can act independently, yet still manage to support other family members who are far away.

The pictures by Claudio Muñoz, an award-winning illustrator whose work has appeared in The Economist, The Financial Times, and several children’s books, has created a visually pleasing accompaniment to Medina’s words. He has created his own descriptions of the characters through his illustrations, choosing to depict Tía Isa and her strong personality in bold, brightly patterned dresses, whereas mention of the loved ones living outside of the country are depicted in a more toned down palette of colors.

Tía Isa Wants a Car is a heart-warming story that brings together culture, the importance of family, and the rewards of hard work. Children will delight in the sprinkling of Spanish words throughout and they will take away the knowledge that nothing is impossible if you have the belief and drive to make your dreams a reality.

Keilin Huang
February 2012

Edited by Radhika Menon and Sandhya Rao, illustrated by Nirupama Sekhar,
Water Stories from Around the World
Tulika, 2010.

Ages 5-11

An international assortment of water stories converge in this beautifully presented anthology, with tales from India, Botswana, Spain, Nigeria, China and Greece, as well as the Australian Aboriginal and Native American traditions, and “The Green Man”, a “story from many myths”.  This was the first one I turned to, since I’ve always been curious about him – and I loved the way the story was narrated wholly as a reported experience within the context of the here and now, making the Green Man relevant to contemporary children as a metaphor for looking after our water, whether or not we believe the story to be true.

Each of the nine storytellers represented here has a very distinctive voice but the one thing they all have in common is that they grip the reader right from the first sentence. And among the stories themselves, there’s something for everyone: magic, retribution, monsters, dragons, giants, deities, misunderstandings, humor, pride… Within so much variety, the only the thing they all have in common is water.  Perhaps my favourite story is “House of Sun and Moon”, where water herself is personified.  Water gathering up “all her children” in her skirts – and that means “oceans, seas, glaciers, rivers, streams, brooks, lakes, ponds and puddles” – plus everything plant and animal that lives in them, is just the kind of image to capture readers’ imaginations. Another story, “A Well is Born”, set in India, brings the book right up to date.  Told in verse, it reveals how the observation of a farmer saves the day for an engineer drilling for water.  Even so, the origins of the ballad go back to a traditional myth from the Ivory Coast.

Helping to bring the stories together as a collection are Niruoama Sekhar’s colourful illustrations.  Her style shifts to allow each story some individuality but certain motifs are carried through the whole book. Water splashes energetically in a pleasing variety of pattern and tone; and in those places where she incorporates the white background of the page, there is a batik-like quality to her painting.

Two double-page spreads at the end add to the educative possibilities of this excellently presented book.  Firstly, a “Water Timeline” from 10,000 BC to the present day, with an information box that asks us to ponder the question “Where have we gone wrong?”, faced as we are “with the threat of a world with less and less water”, and it suggests the relevance of creating a timeline of water for our own neighborhoods.  And secondly, a “Water Facts” spread that centers on India and will be of equal interest to readers both within and outside the country.  This is followed by an immensely readable introduction to all the contributors that connects each of them with their parts of the book. Tulika have also created a website to accompany the book, and it’s well worth a visit.

All in all, this is an excellent anthology that is likely to become a firm favourite in homes and schools alike.

Marjorie Coughlan
January 2012

Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, illustrated by Michael Foreman,
Painting out the Stars
Walker Books, 2011.

Ages 8-11

Three magical stories make up this beautifully presented middle-grade book: “The Mysterious Traveller”, “Night Sky Dragons”, and “Cloud Tea Monkeys”, from which the collection takes its name. Set in unspecified times and countries, they transport readers to the desert, the steppe and a tea plantation respectively.  What links them is that they all hinge on inter-generational relationships that will resonate with today’s young readers.

“There were five riders but six camels, travelling fast.  Desperately fast.” So opens the first story, “The Mysterious Traveller”.  The sixth camel and his precious cargo, a baby girl with a mysterious necklace, are the only survivors following a sandstorm.  She is found and adopted by Issa, the most respected guide locally, who calls her Mariamma and teaches her all he knows.  The years pass and Issa goes blind, but is still the best guide in the area, with Mariamma’s help.  Their lives could have continued along this path, had not some strangers required a guide to take them safely over the mountains…

In “Night Sky Dragons”, young Yazul would rather make kites with his grandfather than follow the path of travel and trade, business and money that his father advocates.  He is fond of mischief too, and one day his antics cause untold, if unintentional damage.  Yazul despairs that not only will his father never love him, but he’ll never again feel the happiness of flying kites – but when bandits lay siege to their fortified han, Yazul has an idea to save them that could just reconcile both…

In the last of the three stories, a tea-picker falls ill.  Her daughter Tashi understands the grinding wheel of poverty: no work, no money, no medicine.  “The problem went round and round.  It was like a snake with its tail in its mouth and Tashi was frightened by it.” She tries unsuccessfully to pick the tea herself.  Despairing, she seeks out the shady spot where she has always shared her lunch with a large monkey family, little realising that they will now repay her kindness and friendship in the most extraordinary way…

It is perhaps no surprise that “Cloud Tea Monkeys” has previously been published as an acclaimed picture-book (illustrated by Jean Wijngaard), and that there are similar plans for the other two stories.  Michael Foreman’s black and white illustrations accompanying this edition are charming and add atmosphere, deftly conveying the atmosphere of each story, including the underlying humor in “Cloud Tea Monkeys”.  Readers of these great stories will find themselves cheering on the protagonists, while feeling complicit in the storyline by being able to anticipate enough, though not all, of each ending.  While the atmospheric description and details beg to be read aloud, the depth of characterisation and the relationships explored make this just the kind of book that independent readers will want to pick up again and again.

Marjorie Coughlan
December 2011

Maya Soetoro-Ng, illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Ladder to the Moon
Candlewick Press, 2011

Ages 4 and up

“What was Grandma Annie like?” young Suhaila asks her mother about the grandmother she never met.  “Full, soft, and curious,” her mother replies.  “Your grandma would wrap her arms around the whole world if she could.”

For children who never had the opportunity to meet a cherished grandparent, the absence of that influential figure becomes a presence in their lives, intensifying the feelings their own parents have about their loss.  “Becoming a parent made me think of my own mother with both intense grief and profound gratitude,” writes Maya Soetoro-Ng in a note following the text of Ladder to the Moon. “I wished that my mother and my daughter could have known and loved each other. I hoped that I could teach Suhaila some of the many things I learned as I grew up witnessing my mother’s extraordinary compassion and empathy.”  In the case of Soetoro-Ng and her daughters, the grandmother in question has intrigued many people around the world as she is also the mother of U.S. President Barack Obama, Soetero-Ng’s older half-brother.

Since the beginning of the Obama campaign, journalists and politicians have wondered and written about this mysterious and unconventional woman, Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995.  There is no question that she, a noted anthropologist and often single mother, had an enormous influence on the lives of her children and thus on history itself.  Her daughter’s dream story about the young Suhaila meeting her grandmother comes from a personal, family perspective that will resonate with any child in such a situation, as well as giving adult readers a new insight into this enigmatic figure.

Grandma Annie encourages Suhaila to use each of her five senses to reach out to the rest of the world. Together they find people in trouble: trembling in earthquakes, trying to outswim Tsunamis, and praying for peace.  Annie and Suhaila reach down from the moon to offer their solace and comfort as they bring these people up, making the moon brighter for all to see.

Yuyi Morales’ stunning illustrations bring diverse people together to share and connect on the moon.  In one scene, they tell stories around a campfire, each with a glowing circle of words around her head.  These lines, pulled from traditional narratives and the personal stories of Morales’ friends, represent six languages and four different alphabets.

Above all, Soetoro-Ng says of her mother, she was a storyteller.  Those stories have been the inspiration for much of the author’s own life; and with a story, she and Morales honor this posthumously famous woman in a deeply personal yet universal way.

Abigail Sawyer
December 2011

Edited by Debjani Chatterjee and Brian D’Arcy,
Let’s Celebrate! Festival Poems from Around the World
Frances Lincoln, 2011.

Ages 5-11

Let’s Celebrate is an effervescent anthology of diverse poetry put together by poets Debjani Chatterjee and Brian D’Arcy. It invites young readers to share in the exuberance of a wide array of festivals celebrated around the world. Starting with “The Chinese Dragon” bringing in the Chinese New Year, ending with “Kwanzaa” in December, and visiting different cultures, countries and religions in between, the book takes children on a journey whose unifying thread is the happiness that each of the festivals awakens. Children will likely find poems relating to festivals that are familiar to them, and their curiosity will be aroused to find out about the rest. Endnotes about each festival give relevant background; and again, children may want to know more after reading them.

The poems themselves come in a variety of forms – some with regular patterns of rhyme and meter, others in free verse. There are choruses that just have to be chanted aloud, like “Carnival! Carnival! Everybody shout out – Carnival!” in Valerie Bloom’s wonderful poem “Carnival”. There are also translations, like the selection of Japanese “Cherry Blossom” haiku; “Dance, Dance: A Poem for Rangali Bihu” from Assam; and extracts from Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Tomatoes”, used to commemorate the Spanish Tomatina Festival. Illustrator Shirin Adl’s exuberant splashes of red paint certainly get the message across here!

In fact, the illustrations are a joy throughout. Adl uses an effective blend of painting and paper/fabric/photographic collage (I especially love the seeds, pulses and herbs illustrating Chatterjee’s acrostic “Diwali”). Plenty of authentic contextual detail helps to bring the celebrating to life, and lots of happy children and their families are an open-armed invitation for young readers to join in the celebrations too, whether it’s helping to scrape pancakes off the ceiling while “Tossing Pancakes” (by Nick Toczek), running to “get your skates on” for the “Ice Festival” (by D’Arcy), or counting out the significance of each candle for “Hannukah” (by Andrea Shavick).

So yes, let us indeed celebrate – you can’t help but be caught up in the joyous spirit of this anthology. And with every day being a festival somewhere in the world, as Chatterjee and D’Arcy point out in their introduction, if there isn’t a poem for their particular festive day (or indeed, even if there is), Let’s Celebrate! will doubtless inspire young readers to compose one of their own.

Marjorie Coughlan
November 2011

James Rumford,
Tiger and Turtle
Roaring Brook Press, 2010.

Ages 4+

Tiger and Turtle live in the same forest and stay out of each other’s way.  They may not always agree, but they have learned there is no use arguing or fighting.  After all, “a tiger’s claws could not harm a turtle’s shell any more than a turtle’s feet could outrun a tiger’s.”  Then one day, the tiniest of flowers drifts down from the sky and changes their relationship forever.

Turtle wants to eat the flower, but Tiger has other ideas, and, while they may not be able to hurt each other (at least not very easily) they can sure fight over a flower!  For instance, Tiger can swipe at the flower and send it soaring out of Turtle’s reach.  And Turtle, once she is angry enough, learns that biting Tiger’s leg is actually pretty effective.  The two go back and forth escalating their efforts to control each other and gain the flower.  It seems as though disaster will surely befall them both, but at the last minute, we learn there was never anything to fight about as Tiger and Turtle narrowly escape a gruesome fate—together!  It is no surprise at all that after this, Tiger and Turtle move beyond mere tolerance to become the best of friends.

This gorgeous book, with a strong message about resolving conflict and the futility of fighting is, perhaps fittingly, dedicated to the author’s brother.  It is likely that the sibling relationship is the first place many children learn such lessons, and they will doubtless relate to the silliness and extremes Tiger and Turtle go to, to get their own way.  The art, inspired by Indian and Pakistan designs for shawls, rugs, and jali windows and rendered on handmade Chinese paper, is simply beautiful.  Indeed, gazing at Rumford’s warm colors, transcendent designs and the boldly drawn yet slightly dreamy Tiger and Turtle is likely to make anyone feel peaceful and at ease.  A book that can bring children to laugh, dream, calm down and think about important lessons is certainly a treasure.  Parents and children, perhaps for different reasons, will both want to reread Tiger and Turtle many times.

Abigail Sawyer
November 2011

Kazuki Ebine,
Ghandi: A Manga Biography
Penguin Books, 2011.

Ages 10-14

Award-winnning animation artist Kazuki Ebine’s Gandhi A Manga Biography appears at first glance to be an ideal meeting of form and content that will appeal greatly to young adult readers. The greyscale-illustrated book provides an easily digested overview of Gandhi’s life, including specific events in South Africa and India that tested and strengthened his resolve to resist all temptation toward violence. Ebine’s project is something of a ground breaker for a genre that is often associated with aggressive action stories.

As the page order is reversed (to left-to-right), the book will be an easy introduction to manga for readers accustomed to western page layout. Ebine’s skill as a draftsman is evident, particularly in his portrayal of Gandhi as he ages. Over the 192 pages of the story, Gandhi is taken from a precocious child through his education as a barrister in England to his appointment in South Africa, where his action on behalf of Indian civil rights inspires his growing conviction that only peaceful resistance has the moral force to overcome injustice, and finally to India, where he works with Nehru but fails to stop the political forces leading to the partition and to the creation of Pakistan.

Compelling as the story is, the execution is somewhat disappointing. Penguin’s second in its manga biography series (an earlier volume featured the Dalai Lama) badly needs an editor. The text is riddled with awkwardness, from the many instances of agreement error (Japanese doesn’t distinguish singular from plural) to amusingly goofy expressions. (My favorite is “When I first heard your speech, I was so inspired as if you boiled my blood.”) The only closing punctuation marks are exclamation points and question marks. The lack of page numbers is an inconvenience. Young readers expecting a deeper understanding of Gandhi’s life and moral development may find that in this case, the manga form is less adroit than usual at conveying story through image.

Despite these hindrances, manga enthusiasts will appreciate getting biographical information in a favored format, and Penguin’s effort to present Gandhi’s life and precepts to a generation of more visually-oriented young adult readers is laudable. Let’s hope the editorial glitches are worked out as the company publishes further inspiring lives in the manga genre.

Charlotte Richardson
November 2011

Ed Young, author-illustrator, text as told to Libby Koponen,
The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China
Little, Brown and Company, 2011.

Age 4-8 and up

Born in 1931 the fourth of five siblings, Ed Young spent the years of the great depression, Japanese occupation, and World War II in a magnificent environment thanks to his father’s building skills and negotiating acumen. The esteemed Young, a senior talent in the world of children’s literature, celebrates his baba’s loving care and his extended family’s safe passage through terrible times in this collage-illustrated memoir.

In exchange for building the house on a Shanghai property he couldn’t afford to buy (a safe suburb of embassy housing), Baba secured use of the home for 20 years. He designed a substantial two-story edifice with many outdoor spaces and even a swimming pool. (Empty most of the time, the pool was used for riding bikes.) Young’s large-format book with several fold-out pages incorporates many old family photographs, sketches of siblings and relatives, and detailed diagrams of the house that Baba built. At the close of the story, double foldout pages display a layout sketch of both floors of the house, with tiny images of people pasted in the various rooms. Thirteen rooms are depicted, plus outdoor decks and a rooftop playground.

Koponen shapes Young’s words into a lyrical account of family life, repeating the phrase “the house that Baba built” to poetic effect. Text is interspersed scrapbook-style amongst cutouts of Young’s sketches–household members on a see-saw, roller-skating on the rooftop, dancing in the large ground floor living room. Baba, who had received a graduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1917, was cultured and somewhat westernized, but like everyone in Shanghai, the family suffered food shortages and overcrowded conditions for many years. Bombs fell nearby towards the end, but the house withstood the attacks, thanks to Baba’s sturdy construction.

Back matter includes the location of the house on a contemporary map of Shanghai, a family time line from 1915-1947, and an author’s note describing his 1990 visit to the house and how this book came into being. A fascinating window into Shanghai history, Young’s heartfelt tribute to his baba will endear children yet again to his stunning visual imagery and, this time, to his personal story as well.

Charlotte Richardson
November 2011

 
Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, illustrated by Adjoa J. Burrowes,
Destiny’s Gift
Lee & Low Books, 2011.

Age: 5-11

Destiny’s Gift is a story about one particular bookstore – Wade’s Books – and of the fate generally of many small independent bookstores in North America. Mrs. Wade is the silver-haired, dreadlocked owner of Wade’s Books. Across the street from her store lives Destiny, a girl who visits the bookstore twice weekly. Destiny and Mrs. Wade have a special relationship; they both love words and books. However, one day Destiny discovers that Mrs. Wade can no longer afford to keep the store open. What can Destiny do to help Mrs. Wade? Will the bookstore stay open?

It’s hard not to read Destiny’s Gift without thinking about the metaphorical implications of the girl Destiny’s name on the situation of independent bookstores generally. What Destiny does for her local bookstore might be something others could do for bookstores in similar situations all over North America, but even then, such efforts, however heartfelt, may not be enough to save them. Destiny’s Gift thus ends on an ambiguous but realistic note. What is clear and heart-warming about the book is the special relationship the bookstore owner has with a young reader and writer. Adjoa Burrowes’ paper-cut style illustrations foreground this relationship nicely. And although the book speaks to a larger social topic on one hand, on the other, it speaks to the intimacy certain people have with books and reading. And ultimately, whatever the fate of bookstores might be, it is the pleasure of reading that unites the characters in Destiny’s Gift to act decisively.

Destiny’s Gift is a wonderful picture book that works its magic at several levels at once for both the parent and the child who reads it.

Sally Ito
November 2011

B. L. Sauder,
Year of the Golden Dragon
Coteau Books for Kids, 2009.

Ages 12-15

The drums have stopped. What does it mean? Master Chen knows. The Black Dragon is angry.

Thousands of years ago a jealous wife of the Emperor of China broke a gift of jade from the powerful Black Dragon. In turn, the angry Black Dragon demanded that all descendents of the Emperor join together at capital’s river to return that gift of jade to him the next time the Year of the Golden Dragon met the millennium – two thousand years later. In this beautiful blend of ancient legend and modern-day metropolis, B.L. Sauder fashions a tale of fantasy, mystery, and family as Chen Hong Mei from China and brothers Ryan and Alexander Wong from Canada, all descendants of the emperor, face, and must fix, the consequences of this ancient legend.

Mysteries have long shaped Ryan, Alex and Hong Mei’s lives – mysteries that converge during the year the millennium meets the Year of the Golden Dragon. Where did Hong Mei’s father go, and why does her mother never speak of him? What really happened during the fire that killed Ryan and Alex’s parents? Why did all their parents so treasure the jade pieces each of them carries and why do so many people now seem determined to steal them? Fans of Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” series and Blue Balliett’s mysteries will particularly enjoy the mixture of present and past, everyday existence and otherworldly life, and myth and adventure spiced by danger and family secrets.

Ancient magic blends into twenty-first century life as Ryan and Alex travel with their aunt and uncle from Canada to China to celebrate the New Year. But their trip takes an unexpected turn when they discover they must unite with fellow descendant Hong Mei to beat the clock – and ever-present enemies – to unravel and execute the ancient task given to them by the Black Dragon. Together the three find themselves caught up in a fantastical and fantastic series of events centered around three pendants of precious jade, a deadly enemy and a two-thousand-year-old mystery that will change all of their lives forever. Advance readers and reluctant readers alike will enjoy the quick pacing and blend of fantasy and reality in this tale of destiny and adventure.

Sara Hudson
October 2011

Manjula Padmanabhan
I Am Different! Can You Find Me?
The Global Fund for Children/Charlesbridge Publishing, 2011.

Ages 4-8

In this exuberant celebration of differences, Indian cartoonist, novelist and playwright Manjula Padmanabhan makes being unique a source of delight and excitement, rather than something to fear or avoid. Each colorful spread displays an array of a single object, all apparently exactly the same. But wait – one actually is different. Which one?  Readers will love the interactive fun of these sixteen puzzles in which they must identify the one ladder, iguana, car, flower, or other object that is not like the others.  (Where are the wheels on that car?  Is that girl asleep?)

As Padmanabhan writes, “In the United States, eight out of every ten people speak only English.” But in fact, both the country and the continent have always been a place of immigrants, and I Am Different encourages readers to remember those roots. Each spread repeats the question, “Can you find me?” in one of sixteen different languages now spoken in North America. Along with phonetic pronunciation, Padmanabhan offers a brief paragraph about each language, including fun facts like “Cheetah, pajamas, and shampoo are words you might know that come from Hindi,” or instructions on how to count to five in Cree, the most widely spoken indigenous language in Canada. By repeating the same phrase, “Can you find me?”, in a variety of languages, Padmanabhan brilliantly recognizes both the delights of being different as well as the commonalities we all share.

Padmanabhan has illustrated twenty-one children’s books, and is well known for her cartoon strip, Suki, which ran first in Bombay’s Sunday Observer and later the Pioneer in Delhi. In I am Different, bright, kindergarten-friendly colors and cartoon-like illustrations make an engaging game of hide-and-seek that will provoke young pre-readers (and indeed, the adults next to them) to think deeply about and rejoice in our differences. While some individual spreads may challenge the youngest readers, the book remains a valuable teaching tool for colors, shapes and counting, a wonderful bonding book for parents and children or brothers and sisters, and most of all a joyful embrace of discovering and celebrating things that make us unique.

Sara Hudson
October 2011

Shogo Oketani, translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa,
J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965
Stone Bridge Press, 2011.

Ages 9-12

J-Boys describes the life a Japanese boy, Kazuo Nakamoto, living in Tokyo in the mid-1960s.  The book is laid out in chronological segments over a year starting in October.  Kazuo is nine years old and lives with his brother Yasuo and his parents in West Ito, a district in Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo.  Set in an interesting period in Japan’s more recent past, this account of a boy’s life in mid-’60s Japan touches on a wide range of social topics relevant to the time.  For example, the book discusses the issue of migrant labor used to develop the rapidly growing city of Tokyo, the racism against resident Koreans, and pervasive American cultural influences present on TV and in music.

There is nostalgia for this lost world prevalent in Japan at the moment – a period roughly corresponding to the latter part of the Showa era; and J-Boys is really a book that celebrates that Japan from a child’s perspective.  But at the same time as the book is nostalgic, it also explains the culture of the day to an English-reading audience. Alongside the main text are side-boxes explaining cultural items such as the names of foods, or the terms of reference for certain holidays or traditional art forms, which help contextualize Kazuo’s world for the reader.  I found these more or less helpful; with a book like this, it’s always difficult to ascertain what or what not to include as extra information for the reader.  However, using the side-boxes I think was a good device.

J-Boys is a great read that brings a certain slice of Japanese life to life, without making the culture seem like an artifact.  Yes, this is an account of a Japan of the past, but of a recent past that contains many elements of interest to readers, from the once ubiquitous urban phenomenon of the bath house to the gathering spot of Kazuo’s friends in the empty lot.  I appreciated the fact that this book is a translation of a Japanese author, Shogo Oketani, who lived through the period described. Stone Bridge Press and translator Avery Udagawa should be credited for taking on a book like this to give young readers an insightful look into Japanese society from the perspective of a young boy growing up in the ’60s. Alongside the book, one can consult the very helpful J-Boys website for information on the author and on Japan, as well as resources for teachers.

Sally Ito
October 2011

Edwidge Danticat, illustrated by Alix Delinois,
Eight Days: A Story of Haiti
Orchard Books, 2010.

Ages 5-11

When a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, Haiti-born author Edwidge Danticat struggled to find a way to help her daughters make sense of it.  In her Author’s Note at the end of the book, she explains that she wrote Eight Days: A Story of Haiti as a response to her five-year-old daughter’s concerns: “I carefully told her about a few people, among them some children, who had been miraculously rescued.”  The result is this story of a young boy who is rescued after being trapped for eight days, during which hope, luck and his memories and imagination all play a part in his survival.

The story begins with the boy’s rescue – the accompanying illustration of an apparently international press pack gets the point across that his survival is newsworthy.  The questions asked will resonate with young readers: “Were you afraid?  Were you sad?  Did you cry?” The boy’s response forms the framework of the story, as he relates one activity/memory for each day.  This device is the perfect vehicle to show how he and his friend Oscar used the power of their imaginations to separate themselves from the reality of their situation: but it also allows the blur between imagination and reality to come through in the narrative.  So, for example, they spend Day 5 playing soccer with their friends.  “Oscar felt really tired and went to sleep.  He never woke up. That was the day I cried.” Or again, on Day 6, he is in the countryside playing with his sister and getting “soaking wet and muddy”, catching “a mouthful of rain”…

Illustrator Alix Delinois, who was also born in Haiti, brings the boy’s imaginings to life.  His palette of almost overpoweringly bright colours conveys the hyper-reality of his memories of what are, after all, very real people and events.  This interplay between the boy’s imagination and his physical situation allows Eight Days to be absorbed and pondered by young children at just that age when awareness of the human cost of natural disaster is dawning; and it also makes it a good book to read with older children.  This is a book for sharing.  It will raise plenty of questions, as well as perhaps the need for reassurance, and some searching of young readers’ own imaginations.

Marjorie Coughlan
October 2011

Monica Brown, illustrated by Julie Paschkis,
Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People
Henry Holt, 2011.

Ages 4-8

Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, a picture book biography by Peruvian-American scholar Monica Brown, exudes the spirit of Neruda’s poetry without quoting a single line. The work of award-winning illustrator Julie Paschkis contributes greatly to the success of the book. Beginning with his childhood love of nature and the teacher who inspired him to become a writer, Brown traces Neruda’s rich life, including the awakening of his political consciousness, his escape from Chile over the Andes, and even the houses he treasured over his lifetime. Her language has its own poetry:

“He wrote about scissors and thimbles and chairs and rings.
He wrote about buttons and feathers and shoes and hats.
He wrote about velvet cloth the color of the sea.”

Integrating streams of Spanish and English words into every illustration, Paschkis’s folk-art paintings capture Neruda’s poetic sensibility in visual form. Amidst the masks and clocks and seashells, the fruit and spectacles and pottery, that she depicts to accompany the above text, Paschkis weaves evocative and beautiful words from Neruda’s poems: alcachofa, thistle, clavos, whistle, thrum, timber, azul, apple…

To illustrate Neruda’s participation in a coal miners’ strike, Paschkis pictures people waving word-streaked banners: recoger, defend, nunca, libre, friend, corazón. “When he saw that they were cold and hungry and sick, he decided to share their story,” Brown writes. “Even when his poems made leaders angry, he would not be silenced, because he was a poet of the people.”

An author’s note at the back of the book gives a summary of Neruda’s life, including the names of some of his most famous poems. A resources page follows with a bibliography of Neruda’s poetry books and a reading list of further biographical reading.

This latest in Brown’s biographical series will be welcomed by parents and teachers eager to introduce Neruda’s magical poetry to young readers. (Brown’s earlier books for children include bilingual biographies of Gabriel García Márquez and of Neruda’s seminal teacher, Gabriela Mistral.) The sounds of the words included to illustrate the story of the beloved writer’s life capture the beauty and mystery of poetry for adults and children alike.

Charlotte Richardson
September 2011