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PaperTigers is a proud sponsor of  the 3rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) which takes place this week in Singapore. From May 26 – 29, participants from around the globe will gather ” to meet, interact, network and find common ground and business opportunities with the entire community of children’s content creators.” Last year’s AFCC  was highly successful with over 600 conference participants from 23 countries. ( Read our blog posts about the 2011 AFCC by clicking here and our website focus issue on Singapore and the Asian Festival of Children’s Content by clicking here). The 2012 AFCC is bound to break  attendance records with the introduction of new awards, a country focus (Philippines), specialized language workshops and a greater reach to communities in Asia. Be sure to check the AFCC’s Facebook page for timely updates and photos from this year’s event as well as the AFCC website . If you are lucky enough to be attending this year’s conference and will be blogging, facebooking or tweeting please leave a comment below with the relevant links so we can follow along!

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

Ages: 4+

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

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

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

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

Abigail Sawyer
May 2012

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

Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia,
Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus
Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus
Kane Miller, 2011.

Ages: 5 – 9

Atinuke, a Nigerian-born storyteller, is the author of the award-winning Anna Hibiscus series. Anna Hibiscus is a precocious, curious young girl who lives in a “big white house” in “Africa…[a]mazing Africa” with her big, sometimes overbearing, but always loving, family. While Atinuke has not identified a specific African country for the setting of her books, she has successfully captured the beauty of the African continent through her playful short stories.

Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus and Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus both focus on Anna as she prepares to visit her grandma in “Canada…[c]old Canada.” Both books are divided into short chapters, each of which is like participating in an intercultural exchange. From cuisine to familial hierarchy and even linguistics, Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus and Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus present a glimpse into the life of a child who is discovering two different cultures while also identifying her place in the world.

Each chapter also has a lesson to be learned, from the power of forgiveness to the unconditional love of family to more difficult topics, such as the breaking down of stereotypes and the prejudice and poverty that is present in both African and Canadian society. Atinuke doesn’t look in-depth at these issues, but she frames it in such a way so young readers can understand it and note its importance to Anna and her friends and family.

The illustrator, Lauren Tobia, has created what look like rough sketches to depict certain scenes throughout the book. She doesn’t use color, but instead opts for small details, such as small animals hidden within the plants or adding patterns to items of clothing to complement Atinuke’s colorful descriptions and storytelling.

The Anna Hibiscus series will tickle the senses of both young and old readers thanks to the colorful writing of Atinuke and the drawings by Tobia. Readers will take away not only a better understanding of the world, but also a better sense of what it means to live in an increasingly diverse world.

Keilin Huang
May 2012

Japanese Picture Books as a Window to Japan ~ by Holly Thompson

Part 1 of 3

Some years ago, as we prepared for a second time to settle in Japan, with children ages two and seven, we were excited about the immediate access we would have to Japanese children’s literature. Japan has long had a robust children’s book market, and we were eager to be immersed in it. So after we moved into our rented home and formed our new school, work and household routines, just as we had in the U.S., we made weekly trips to our local library and brought home stacks of picture books, nature field guides, activity and art books, and, of course, manga—fiction, historical, and biography. With bookstores located at most Japanese train stations and plentiful throughout our town, we also spent hours browsing shop aisles.

Written Japanese includes three writing systems—kanji characters plus two phonetic syllabaries, and young children first learn to read the phonetic hiragana syllabary. Once children can read the hiragana symbols, reading words written in hiragana is immediate. Japanese children aged three and four are often seen reading books that are written entirely in hiragana, and our daughter could read this way in Japanese well before she could read in English.

Japanese picture books took our family deeper inside Japan. Not only were we exposed to great and quirky Japanese stories, but children’s books also provided a window into attitudes and human relations in our adopted culture. We came to better appreciate the rhythms of the language, learned dialogue for every situation, and encountered an infinite number of Japanese onomatopoeias. Japanese is such a complex language to read and write well, and children’s science and nonfiction books offered easy-to-comprehend information about the world around us—the physical world and the society to which we were adapting.

Many of our favorite Japanese children’s books from our years with younger children were published by Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers —their regular picture books, as well as their monthly series: Kodomo no tomo (Children’s Companion, in three age levels—0-2, 2-4, 5-6), Kagaku no tomo (Children’s Science Companion, in two age levels—3-5 and 5-6), Takusan no fushigi (World of Wonders, ages 8 and up) and the discontinued Ookina poketto (Big Pocket).

Fukuinkan Shoten’s monthly books (image on left) include original richly illustrated picture book stories, folktales, and outstanding and varied nonfiction. Published in sturdy paperbacks and often organized in their own sections in school and public libraries, these children’s books have endured on our shelves. I’ve often wondered if English-language publishers might benefit by considering the monthly book model that Fukuinkan Shoten has followed with great success here in Japan. Many of the most successful and popular monthly books, published initially as paperbacks with smaller print runs, are later published in hardcover, such as Taro Gomi’s Minna Unchi, famous in English as Everyone Poops.

Even without small children now, I still like to purchase Fukuinkan Shot

Neil Christopher, illustrated by Eva Widermann,
Arctic Giants
Inhabit Media, 2010.

Ages: 12+

Arctic Giants is part anthropology, folklore, and story-telling.  It tells of mythical beings – races of giants – long present in the Inuit world.  Drawing from research in archives, explorer accounts, and interviews with elders, author Neil Christopher has assembled a comprehensive array of stories and accounts of various kinds of giants that inhabit the Arctic regions.  The giants can generally be divided into two groups – the lesser giants and the greater giants.  The greater giants, known as Inukpasugjuit, are of massive scale in size and strength.  Giants of this size fish for whales like catfish, affect the weather, and can alter the landscape with their girth and might.  The lesser giants – the Inugaruligasugjuit – are considerably smaller in size but are still larger and mightier than humans. They are sometimes cannibalistic and prey on humans.

Arctic Giants is divided into two main sections covering stories of the lesser giants and the greater giants.  These fantastical and magical beings are illustrated in comic-book style by Eva Widermann.  She does excellent renderings of the giants in the Arctic landscape, wearing typical Inuit clothing such as the amauti (the traditional cape) and parkas made of animal skins.  It’s always fun to find the little human in some of the illustrations, either perched on a giant’s shoulder or sitting on his palm, or hiding behind a boulder.  Since some of these giants are cannibals, they are often terrifyingly depicted with human skull necklaces and pupil-less eyes, or as one grisly illustration would have it, feasting on human limbs.  So, a warning:  this is not a book for the faint-hearted!  I’m sure there’s much ink to be spilled on the psychological and spiritual implications of these beings who live side-by-side with humans in the largely inhospitable and severe terrain of the Arctic, but this book’s purpose is to introduce to the reader a certain pantheon of super-beings that have existed in the Inuit imagination for centuries.  For anyone interested in Inuit folklore and ethnography, Arctic Giants makes for an informative and entertaining study.  And for lovers of comic book heroes and villains, this is a new go-to book for inspiration!

Sally Ito
May 2012

Here in Canada we are currently in the midst of celebrating TD Canadian Children’s Book Week: the single most important national event celebrating Canadian children’s books and the importance of reading! During the week close to 35,000 children, teens and adults are participating in activities held in every province and territory across the country. The theme for TD Canadian Children’s Book Week 2012 is Read a Book, Share a Story and celebrates the importance of sharing stories. 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Lillian H. Smith becoming the first trained children’s librarian in the British Empire and this year’s book week theme focuses on the important role that librarians play in sharing books and creating lifelong readers (download the theme guide here). The 2012 Book Week posted (image on left) was created by illustrator Janice Nadeau.

During TD Canadian Children’s Book Week twenty-nine English-speaking and five Francophone authors, illustrators and storytellers are visiting schools, libraries, bookstores and community centres in every province and territory across the country. In addition to the tour participants’ websites and blogs be sure to check out the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Facebook page to see the latest news, press clippings and pictures from the tour.

TD Canadian Children’s Book Week is organized by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, in partnership with the Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada, and is made possible through the generous support of sponsors and funders.

Enrique R. Lamadrid and Juan Estevan Arellano, illustrated by Amy Córdova,
Juan the Bear and the Water of Life / La Acequia de Juan del Oso
University of New Mexico Press, 2008.

Ages: 7+

The 19th century waterways that irrigate the Upper Mora Valley in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains are a marvel of engineering to this day. In places, the water seems to defy gravity, and no one is quite sure how the people who built them—lacking tools as basic as a metal-bladed shovel—accomplished it. Though the history of their construction is lost, stories about the dedicated pioneers who built them have evolved, through oral tradition, into regional legends presented here in picture-book form.

La Acequia de Juan del Oso comes from the story of “The Three Juanes”: the remarkably strong Juan del Oso, son of a local woman and a bear; Juan Mudacerros, who moves mountains; and Juan Mudarríos, who can change the course of rivers. Folklorists Enrique R. Lamadrid and Juan Estevan Arellano recognize similar characters in Spanish tradition, from which the acequia technology of the American Southwest is also derived. The super-human young men, all of them exiled from their communities as a result of unintentionally misusing their special strengths and powers, work together as only they can to bring the water up and over the mountain. Amy Córdova’s rich and colorful illustrations bring the landscape and characters to life in this story that is not only about the reward of hard work but also the pain of exclusion and the value of community.

The authors skillfully incorporate what is known about the building of the canals (such as rudimentary tools, including a half-empty brandy bottle used as a level) with the legend of the boy whose mother married a bear but is forced to return home. When an innocent swipe seriously injures another child, the half-bear Juan flees to the woods where he finds his welcoming father and the other legendary Juanes. Together they accomplish the work that enables the expanding village population to inhabit a valley on the other side of the mountain. This book brings both the folktale and the limited known history of the acequia together in a way that celebrates not only the past and the legends but also the people who live in the Mora Valley today who continue to make a beautiful life in this stark, arid, and high-altitude environment.

Abigail Sawyer
May 2012

Sunny Seki, author-illustrator,
Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll: The Adventures of a Blind Japanese Girl Who Saves Her Village
Tuttle, 2012.

Age: 5 and up

Sunny Seki’s latest children’s book is set 200 years ago in the village of Takasaki, 90 miles from Tokyo, just after a devastating volcanic eruption of nearby (and still active) Mt. Asama. Yuko-chan, Seki’s spunky little fictional heroine, is a blind orphan, cared for by the monks at Daruma Temple there.

Yuko-chan’s intelligence, compassion and complete lack of self-pity are evident early in the story. She knows all about how Daruma (Bodhidharma to westerners) brought the Buddha’s teaching to China. Daruma was famous for continuing to meditate even after his arms and legs became numb. He exhorted followers, “If you fall seven times, you must pick yourself up eight times! You need strong faith, and the belief that you can accomplish your goals!”

The indomitable Yuko-chan, inspired by Daruma’s words, helps deliver food to bereft villagers who have lost their homes and farms. One day, she notices that her tea gourd always returns to upright after being dropped, and she likens it to Daruma, never giving up. She gets the villagers to begin painting gourds with Daruma’s famously fierce face. The Daruma dolls quickly gain popularity. Her ingenious idea provides a new livelihood for the community.

Takasaki is in fact famous today for its Daruma dolls. Visitors purchase the dolls with the eyes blank. They paint in one eye when they make a wish or vow and add the other when their goal is achieved. Actually an old tradition with a murky history, the eye painting has been criticized in recent years by Japanese organizations for the blind. Perhaps their protest inspired Seki’s story; it’s poetically appropriate that his vision-impaired little girl would resolve a village crisis with goal-inspiring, blank-eyed Daruma dolls.

Award-winning author-illustrator Sunny Seki brings the feisty and adorable Yuko-chan vividly to life in word and image. He captures the simple beauties of nature and the rustic built environment of the time as well. A Japanese translation follows the English text on each page, with hiragana (phonetic) symbols printed in superscript so novice Japanese readers can more easily follow the story. The back matter gives additional information about Daruma and the Daruma doll tradition. Tuttle’s expert design and high production quality further enhance the experience of Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll. Its impact will deepen with repeated reading.

Charlotte Richardson
April 2012

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

Another highlight for me at the recent Bologna Children’s Book Fair was the Malaysia booth. Norhayati Razali, Assistant Director of the National Book Council of Malaysia, was responsible for the set up and organization of the Malaysian stand and she did a fabulous job! 12 Malaysian publishers and organizations were represented and the contingent of approx.  40 Malaysians at this year’s fair was the biggest group ever. Malaysia is well-known for her friendly people and that definitely held true for all those working at the Malaysian booth! Such a welcoming group of people and everyone eager to talk about Malaysian children’s literature. Malaysia has lots to celebrate in the world of kidlit including the fact that the current President of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), Mr. Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddib, is Malaysian!

A portion of the Malaysian Booth at the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Launch of the Best Malaysian Children’s Books and the Teachers’ Gallery (Info can be found at  www.bestmalaysianbooks-stories.com)

IBBY President Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddib (standing on right) talks about the promotion of Malaysian and South East Asian children’s literature to the rest of the world.

Malaysia host a forum with China exhibitors and Mr.  Mingzhou Zhang, Vice President of the Chinese Board on Books for Young People (Chinese Section of IBBY).

It was our lucky day! After the book launch for Yusof Gagah’s latest book Sang Montel both Marjorie and I won beautiful scarves  hand-made by Yusof’s wife Zakiah Moha Isa. Not only is Zakiah a very talented storyteller she is also an amazing batik artist and instructor who converts Yusof’s amazing elephant images onto bags, scarves, and other apparel.

Linda Tan Lingard is the managing partner of Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency based in Kuala Lumpur and also 0 Comments on The Malaysian Booth at the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair as of 1/1/1900