We have just broken up from school for the holidays and our thoughts are turned towards Christmas next week. As well as reading Dickens’ A Christmas Carol together for the first time, which we all greatly enjoyed, we have been reading other stories with a Christmas setting, including two multicultural versions of the Nativity story, the birth of Jesus.
The first is The Road to Bethlehem: A Nativity Story from Ethiopia told by Elizabeth Laird (Collins, 1987). Elizabeth Laird has spent a lot of time in Ethiopia gathering stories from the oral tradition and her writing here certainly asks to be read aloud - not only is the story told simply with plenty of direct speech to bring it alive, but for those children who are familiar with the story from their own traditions, there is likely to be a good deal of intrigued discussion in which the differences are explored, including new characters and miracles.
The illustrations too are full of extra fascinating details - their vibrancy and appeal to young listeners/readers make it hard to take on board that they are taken from 200-year-old Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Library! Laird has added fascinating notes to each picture, which can be dipped into alongside reading the text - one Older Brother was particulary struck by was an episode on the Flight into Egypt showing arrowheads sticking out of the road to stop them: “but Mary took the hand of her Child, and walked through unharmed.”
The second book is one I blogged about last year but didn’t actually manage to share with my boys - however, we have now read together Ian Wallace’s beautifully illustrated version of The Huron Carol (Groundwood, 2006), based on an English translation of the Christmas carol written by a French Jesuit missionary, Father Jean de Brébeuf, for the Huron people in the 1600s. After reading through the first verse together line by line with its double-page-spread illustration, showing the people, landscapes and fauna of its Canadian roots, we have really enjoyed singing the whole carol from the music and words given at the end - in the original Huron, in French and in English. As we have pored over the familiar characters of the story in an unfamilar setting, and the baby Jesus wrapped in fur, surrounded by wolves and beavers, we have explored the reasons that the carol came into being.
We have all enjoyed sharing these books together - and any misgivings I might have had about confusing them with the different versions of what is to them a familiar story have been allayed - on the contrary, I believe their experience of the Christmas story has been enriched by them.
Poetry is often about the spiritual, the naked human voice crying out to be heard. Such is the voice of Japanese poet, painter and writer Tomihiro Hoshino. Hoshino is well known in Japan for his simple, down-to-earth verses and essays about the natural world and his reflections on life. A vigorous and active phys ed teacher, Hoshino became a quadripalegic in 1970 after a near fatal gymnastics accident. After spending nine years in hospital where he learned to write and paint with his mouth, he returned to his home village Azuma in Gunma prefecture. From there, he married and continued with his writing and painting, garnering a following with his books and exhibitions.
Although there are now several of Hoshino’s books translated into English, the one I have is Road of the Tinkling Bell published in 1990 (trans. Kyoko and Gavin Bantock.) It contains a sampling of Hoshino’s poetry, painting and essays. The writings are simple and heartfelt, easily appreciated and understood by children and adult alike. What I like about Hoshino’s work is the raw and naked wonder he expresses towards the natural world and his humble expressions of human vulnerability and weakness. In “Cyclamen,” he writes:
I decided today
to do nothing
The flowers
seem much closer somehow.
Road of the Tinkling Bell is illustrated with Hoshino’s own paintings which are strikingly well-crafted images of flowers and natural scenes. The pleasure of reading the verse goes hand-in-hand with the remarkable illustrations. In the original works, verse and illustration went together mouth-painted on stiff boards used for calligraphy. Such is the love of the Japanese for this remarkable artist, that a museum exists for his work in Gunma, Japan. However, one need not go there to be inspired by the simple, gracious words of a poet whose calling is genuine and deeply spiritual.
This week’s Poetry Friday host is Wild Rose Reader.
A lipogram is a kind of constrained writing in which a particular letter, or groups of letters, are missing. Imagine writing a paragraph, for example, excluding the letter ‘e.’ It’s tougher than you think, especially, if you decide to omit vowels — the linguistic glue, as it were — between the consonants. In A Voweller’s Bestiary, author JonArno Lawson takes a unique stab at the lipogrammatic genre. He has created an alphabet book of animals based on vowel combinations, rather than on the usual initial letter form. The lipogram part comes in when he excludes certain vowels from each set. Sound complicated? Well, what’s a constraint (and possible consternation!) for the poet in terms of rules can be a delight to the ear and eye of the reader. And that is how a Voweller’s Bestiary was received by my son, listening to the contorted word music of “Ants and Aardvarks” or “Jaguar, Tarantula, Tangalunga” or “Tortoise, Porpoise, Crocodile.” Reading poetry can attune your child to the sounds of language and help them appreciate the elasticity of words.
Another poetry book I tried out on my younger child was Rascally Rhymes by Jordan Troutt, illustrated by Sarah Preston-Bloor. This book, also an alphabet one, takes names and makes ‘rascally rhymes’ wit
h them. There’s Ian who eats “worms and toads/and rocks and snails/a la mode.” or Gillian who “stomps like a gorillian.” After we finished reading this book, my daughter and I went through all the names and tried to see if we knew anyone with the same name. That was fun! Palimpsest Press, who publishes this book, is now offering a contest on their blog for children to makes rhymes. Reading this book definitely had an effect on my daughter. While sorting laundry together the other night, she held up a sock and said “Mom, this sock doesn’t have a rhyme!”
The Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards are given annually to children’s books published in the preceding year that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races, as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence. On October 17th, winners of the 55th Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards received their awards, gave their acceptance speeches, and signed copies of their books at the United Nations Plaza in New York City.
PaperTigers congratulates:
WINNER - Books for Younger Children Category
The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington’s Slave Finds Freedom, written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
WINNER - Books For Older Children Category
We are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin, written by Larry Dane Brimner
HONORS - Books for Younger Children Category
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, written and illustrated by Lita Judge
HONORS - Books for Older Children Category
Rickshaw Girl, written by Mitali Perkins with illustrations by Jamie Hogan
Honors - Books for Older Children Category
Elijah of Buxton, written by Christopher Paul Curtis
Honors - Books for Older Children Category
Birmingham, 1963, written by Carole Boston Weatherford
You can read Mitali’s acceptance speech and see photos of the event on her blog. Check out Larry Brimner’s Write. Write. Written! — A Writer’s Journal and Lita Judge’s blog as well!
In November our PaperTigers website will focus on the theme of “war and peace in children’s books,” featuring original essays by Lita Judge (One Thousand Tracings) and Jo Montie, former member of the Jane Addams Award committee.
