The Japan Times recently published an article entitled Fate’s path led Canadian to Kamakura: Heather Willson makes her mark, keeps focused on road ahead and her Cambodia school. The school referred to in the article, Butterfly School, is a free English school in the village of Popeae, near Udong, Cambodia, established by Heather Willson with Head Teacher Sovann Phon in September 2005.
Last year we were pleased to have the Butterfly School involved with our Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach Project. Holly Thompson, author and SCBWI Tokyo regional advisor, hand delivered a 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set to the school. The photo accompanying the Japan Times article (and reprinted here) shows Heather reading one of the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers books, My Little Round House, to the Butterfly School students.
To read more about the Butterfly School’s involvement with our project and to read their feedback on the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set, please click here
I had the great pleasure this past weekend of going to Tokyo for two PaperTigers related events — one, to give a talk about PaperTigers to the SCBWI Tokyo chapter, and two, to visit the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Exhibit held annually in Japan at the Itabashi Art Museum. On Friday, July 8 a small but enthusiastic audience of SCBWI members came to my talk at Tokyo’s Women’s Plaza in Shibuya to hear me explain what PaperTigers is all about. I told everyone how there were three main components to PaperTigers — the blog, the website, and the outreach program. When my focus turned to the SPT outreach program, I was also able to introduce host Holly Thompson’s particular outreach contribution which involved a set of books being donated to the Butterfly School in Cambodia. That was a great plus! After our talk, we had a round of Q and A about PaperTigers and I got to see some of the lovely work of illustrators such as Izumi Tanaka and hear about writer and illustrator Yoko Yoshizawa’s work with the retelling of folktales around the world, using the work of local illustrators. I met Ruth Gilmore, librarian and church worker, and author of kidsermons– a four book series of children’s sermons. I was able to meet with Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu, creator of the wonderful website about Japan called Here and There Japan. And of course, it was quite exciting for all of us to chat about Holly Thompson’s new fundraising project, the Tomo anthology of Japan-related YA fiction, which is now receiving submissions. Check out the Tomo blog as well as Holly’s own blog and website, Hatbooks.
The following Saturday I went to the Itabashi Art Museum to see the 2010 Bologna Book Fair exhibit. The Book Fair exhibit tours Japan annually. In the Tokyo area, the hosting museum is the Itabashi Art Museum which has been hosting the book fair for thirty years. I was most intrigued by the artwork of the winner of the 2010 International Award for Illustration, Philip Giordano. His illustrations were for a rather fantastical re-telling of the famous Japanese fairytale — Kaguyahime. There were many other wonderful illustrations, but I was a bit dismayed by how few there were from the Americas — south and north. Yet, I was very glad to get a taste of some of the world’s best art for children; it certainly inspired me to think about writing for children in a new way! I picked up the Illustrator’s Annual and have been enjoying browsing through it.
As delightful as my Tokyo visit was, it ended rather soberly with tremors from a 7.3 earthquake that hit Tohoku on the morning of July 10. I was in my cousin’s apartment when things started to sway and shake