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In this post, our marketing intern Keilin Huang dishes on rotis around the world:

In one of our new LEE & LOW books released this October, Drummer Boy of John John, a young Trinidadian boy named Winston dreams of being in the best band in the Carnival parade, so he can get some of the Roti King’s famous rotis. As Winston puts it, “Carnival jus’ ain’t right without a roti.”

Winston craves these “folded pancakes filled with chicken and secret herbs and spices,” but what exactly is a roti? The word roti means “bread” in Hindi, Urdu, most other North Indian languages, and Malay, and is essentially a round, flat, bread that is cooked on a griddle:

Roti is unleavened, meaning that no rising agents are used, so most recipes involve just mixing water and flour together. Oftentimes, rotis are stuffed with vegetables, meats, curries, or spread with butter.

Roti is a staple in three main regions: India, the West Indies (Trinidad, Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname), and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore). In India, roti is often accompanied with cooked vegetables or curries, but it can also be spread with “ghee,” a clarified butter.

from Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-Ji

Similarly, in the West Indies, rotis are paired with different combinations of vegetables, herbs, and meats. In Drummer Boy of John John, the Roti King is probably making another popular roti called the “wrap roti.” The wrap roti is essentially the same as a normal roti, except it’s folded up with a curry stew inside of it.

from Drummer Boy of John John

Southeast Asian countries often pair rotis with sauces and stews, using the bread as a dipping tool. And people with a sweet tooth will especially appreciate these rotis with ice cream or “kaya” (a rich, creamy, coconut jam):

For those of you who are aspiring chefs (or just need something easy and delicious to eat!), here’s a roti recipe for Indian roti from our book Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-Ji. If you want to try Caribbean roti like what Winston eats in Trinidad, try this recipe. And of course, if you have your own family roti recipe, we’d love to hear it!

When One Shot South East Asia was proposed, my first thought was, what book to read? And my second, but I don't want to read the same book everyone else is. And did I want a book written by an American about set in that area? Or a book by an author from South East Asia?

So I thought, aha, I'll take a look at PaperTigers, and see what they have to say.

And then I thought.... hey. One purpose of the One Shot tours is not only to talk about books we love, but also to bring attention to titles and resources. So why not interview PaperTigers? Instead of talking about one book, instead highlight a resource that continually brings good books to the attention of its readers.

From PaperTigers website: PaperTigers is a website about books in English for young readers. It embraces multicultural books from or about anywhere in the world, with a particular focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia. PaperTigers offers a wealth of book-related resources for teachers, librarians, parents and all those interested in the world of children's and young adult books. The PaperTigers website is http://www.papertigers.org/; and yes, they have a blog.

I spoke with Aline Pereira via email. Many people contribute to both the website and the blog; Pereira is the Managing Editor.

Liz B: PaperTigers is a website about multicultural books, with a particular focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia. What was the reason behind PaperTigers and what led it to have this geographic area as its special focus?

Pereira: In 1996 Pacific Rim Voices, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, launched the Kiriyama Prize, a book prize whose aim was to choose outstanding books, fiction and nonfiction, that would contribute to greater understanding of and deeper empathy among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim, east and west, north and south. The geographical outreach of the Kiriyama Prize was later extended to include South Asia as well as the nations of the Pacific Rim (which already included the "ASEAN" countries of Southeast Asia).

A website titled WaterBridge Review gradually grew up alongside the Prize to offer interviews, book reviews etc with the same focus. Recognizing young readers as a vitally important audience when it comes to establishing a foundation for greater intercultural understanding, in 2001-2002 Pacific Rim Voices decided to launch a website that would highlight books for young readers (in English, or bilingual, with English as one of the languages) that would have the same geographical outreach as the other projects. Thus PaperTigers was created.

Some of the central ideas motivating PaperTigers were to celebrate the common humanity we all share, while also recognizing, respecting, and celebrating diverse cultures; and to help overcome stereotypes and prejudice that could diminish awareness of and respect for the humanity of "the other", whoever and wherever that "other" is.

While maintaining a particular focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia, in 2007 PaperTigers expanded its geographical outreach to include books in English from anywhere in the world. Its aim was then, and continues to be now, to offer a service to parents, teachers, librarians and others interested in multicultural or cross-cultural books, and in encouraging and promoting reading among children and young adults.

Liz B: In the years that PaperTigers has been online, have you noticed any differences or changes in your readership or the type of information users are looking for?

Pereira: I’m happy to say that our readership has grown consistently over the past 8 years. From the beginning, our audience has been comprised mainly of librarians and teachers, but the means of our audience or potential audience to receive information have certainly expanded/changed.

In order to serve our existing audience in a new way as well as to reach new readers, in 2007 we started the PaperTigers blog. It seemed like a natural extension of the website, and a good way to keep up with the changing times. We definitely saw a spike in the number of readers/visitors since then, and judging by the feedback we get from readers (mostly still via email!) we seem to be on the right track. We have managed to expand our reach mainly by consistently adding quality content to the website and blog and staying to true to our goals.

Liz B: The recent controversy over the cover for "Liar"by Justine Larbalestier included questions of whether white readers would pick up books with a cover illustration of someone who isn't white; or, at least, whether publishers, booksellers and librarians believe this to be true. What is your response to this?

Pereira: I haven't read Liar, but having seen the book cover and read all about the controversy surrounding it–and learning about the fact that the author herself said there was never a question about the narrator's race–I find the publisher's claim of "striving for ambiguity" with the choice of cover quite appalling. I understand that publishing is a business, but if publishers aren’t willing to shed old stereotypes about race and about what readers will or will not buy based on book covers, there isn’t much hope of bringing the narratives by or about non-whites to the attention of the general public. White-washing book covers hurts book creators and readers alike––and such an approach can’t be good for business in the long run either, no matter how profitable it may prove to be short-term. I can only hope that one day, sooner than later, publishing houses big and small will realize the wealth of humanity they are missing out on by sticking to old ways and not taking some risks.

[Note from Liz B: After our interview, it was announced that the cover of Liar was being changed to reflect the narrator's race.]

Liz B: What are some of your current favorite books from the Pacific Rim and SouthEast Asia?

Pereira: I recently read Carolyn Marsden’s The Buddha’s Diamonds (Candlewick Press) and enjoyed it a lot. The book, which is aimed at 9-12 year-olds is co-written with Thay Phap Niem, a Buddhist monk whose childhood in a fishing village in Vietnam is the basis for the coming-of age story. Marsden has also written Silk Umbrellas and The Gold-Threaded Dress, which take place in Thailand and are also wonderful reads. Her work is always engaging and of the highest quality.

As for picture books, Lee & Low has just released The East-West House: Noguchi’s Childhood in Japan, written and illustrated by Christy Hale. It tells of how Isamu Noguchi’s experience of growing up biracial in Japan influenced his outlook on life and his development as a multi-faceted artist. The book is lovely and very accessible.

Liz B: Thank you so much! You can find out even more about Aline Pereira and PaperTigers as this lovely interview by Mitali Perkins.

If you're looking for other books to read, check out the resources at the PaperTigers website; add the blog's RSS to your feedreader; and, of course, check out the other One Shot South East Asia posts, rounded up by Colleen at Chasing Ray.


© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

Southeast Asia’s literature is as rich and diverse as the region itself, but unfortunately, there’s still a derth of books for children by Southeast Asian authors translated into English. Even when they are written in English by Southeast Asian writers, such as the books by Singaporean Shamini Flint and Malaysian Margaret Lim), they rarely find their way into the US or other English speaking countries. It’s fairly easy to find factual books or folktale retellings, but the majority of the books in English related to the region are written by European or American authors.

PaperTigers this week joins many other bloggers on a virtual tour of children’s literature from/about Southeast Asia by pointing readers to reviews and blog posts written by our team:

Former PaperTigers blog contributor Janet Brown has looked closely at the book Happiness of Kati, by Thai writer Jane Vejjajiva. Aimed at 12+ year-olds, the book was the first children’s book to win the S.E.A. Write Award, given to the best literature by Southeast Asians. Read Janet’s three posts about the book (1, 2, 3), as she gets deeper into the beautifully layered story of a Thai girl and her family. And for an interesting look on the world of children’s books in Thailand, read the transcript of a paper by Jane Vejjajiva, presented at the IBBY Congress, in 2008.

Reviewed by Charlotte, The Killing Sea (Simon & Schuster) by lifelong Bali resident Richard Lewis is a fictionalized account of the impact of the 2004 Tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, particularly in the lives of two teenagers caught up in the tragedy. Lewis’ The Flame Tree, also set in Indonesia in post 9/11, is another important title, as it helps dispel stereotypes, especially common since then, about the Islamic world.

The Bee Tree

The round-up of the Southeast Asia blog tour, with links to all participating posts, will be posted at Chasing Ray on Wednesday, 08/12 (which means bloggers still have time to send in their posts!). We are looking forward to finding out what others have contributed to the feast!

Craig A. Lockard is Ben and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.  In his new book, Southeast Asia in World History, he looks at Southeast Asia from ancient times to the present, paying particular attention to the region’s role in world history and the distinctive societies that arose in lands shaped by green fields and forests, blue rivers and seas.  To read more excerpts from books in the New Oxford World History series click here.

The largest and most powerful Golden Age state was the Khmer kingdom of Angkor in Cambodia, established by King Jayavarman II in 802.  The name Angkor derives from the Sanskrit term for “holy city,” and Jayavarman considered himself a reincarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and fertility.  Jayavarman himself had lived many years at a Hindu court in Java before returning to Cambodia, indicating the widespread contacts among Southeast Asian states.  His successors consolidated the kingdom and conquered Dvaravati, a heavily Indianized and largely Buddhist Monk state in central Thailand.  One of the greatest Angkor kings, Jayavarman VII (who ruled from 1181 to 1219) was a devout Buddhist who boasted of his compassion for his people.  He expanded the empire, commissioned important artworks, built roads and sturdy stone walls, and sponsored the construction of monuments and temples.  His main legacy was the Bayon temple, which featured towers with large carved faces, probably of the egocentric king himself.

Angkor’s kings bragged about their achievements, and royal engravers gushed as they described on a monument King Yasovarman I in the late ninth century: “In all the sciences and in all the sports, in dancing, singing, and all the rest, he was as clever as if he had been the first inventor of them.”  Angkor flourished for half a millennium.  At its height in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the kingdom was a loosely integrated empire controlling much of present-day Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Southern Vietnam.  Angkor carried on an active trade with China, with many resident Chinese merchants.  Zhou Daguan, a Chinese ambassador in Angkor in 1296, left vivid descriptions of the society and its leaders.  In a report back home, he outlined the system of justice presided over by the king: “Disputes of the people, however insignificant, always go to the King.  Each day the king holds two audiences for affairs of state.  Those of the functionaries or the people who wish to see the king, sit on the ground to wait for him.”

Zhou Daguan also observed a spectacular royal procession of the Angkor king, Indravarman, in 1296:

When the king goes out, troops are at the head of the escort; then come flags, banners and music.  Palace women, numbering from three to five hundred, wearing flowered cloth, with flowers in their hair, hold candles in their hands, and form a troupe…Then come other palace women, carrying lances and shields, the king’s private guards, and carts drawn by goats and horses, all in gold, come next.  Ministers and princes are mounted on elephants, and in front of them one can see, from afar, their innumerable red umbrellas.  After them come the wives and concubines of the king, in palanquins, carriages, on horseback and on elephants.  They have more than one hundred parasols, flecked with gold.  Behind them comes the sovereign, standing on an elephant, holding his sacred sword in his hand.  The elephant’s tusks are encased in gold.

The well-financed Angkor government supported substantial public services including hospitals, schools, and libraries…Some kings were noted as avid patrons of knowledge and the arts.  One wrote that having drunk the nectar of knowledge, the king gives it to others to drink.  Theater, art, and dance reflected Hindu values and stories…By the twelfth century the bustling capital city, Angkor Thom, and its immediate environs had perhaps as many as 1 million people, much larger than any medieval European city but comparable to all but the largest Chinese and Arab cities of that era.  This was clearly one of the major urban complexes in the preindustrial world.  The magnificent temples still standing today and a remarkable water-control network testify to prosperity and organization.

Many stone temple mountains were built by thousands of conscripted workers as sanctuaries and mausoleums, designed to represent the Hindu conception of the cosmos.  At their center was a replica of Mt. Meru, where Hindus believe that the gods dwell…The temple complex Angkor Wat was the largest religious complex in the premodern world, built by some 70,000 workers in the twelfth century, and surrounded by a four-mile-long moat, dwarfing the magnificent European cathedrals and grand mosques of Baghdad or Cairo.  The reliefs carved into stone at Angkor Wat and other temples provided glimpses of daily life, showing fishing boats, midwives attending a childbirth, festival jugglers and dancers, the crowd at a cockfight, men playing chess, peasants bringing goods to market, and merchant stalls  According to Zhou, women operated most of these retail stalls: “In this country it is the women who are concerned with commerce.”  Khmer society in this era was matrilineal, and women played a much more important role in the family, society, and politics than in most other places in the world.  Women went out in public as they like, and Chinese visitors were shocked at their liberated behavior.

Some royal women at Angkor were noted for intellectual activities or service to others.  Jayarajadevi, the first wife of King Jayavarman VII, took in hundreds of abandoned girls, training and settling them.  After her death the king married Indradevi, a renowned scholar who lectured at a Buddhist monastery and who was acclaimed in a temple inscription as “naturally intelligent…very pure…the chief teacher of the king.”  Women dominated the palace staff, and some were even gladiators and warriors.  Women were also active in the arts, especially as poets…

In addition to building temples, drafted workers also constructed an extensive hydraulic network of canals and reservoirs for efficient water distribution, demonstrating some of the most advanced civil engineering in the premodern world.  With the help of plows pulled by oxen or water buffalo, Khmer farmers brought a moderately fertile region into astonishing productivity…Although some scholars are skeptical, according to Chinese visitors, the Khmers may have had the most productive agriculture in history, producing three to four harvests a year, wheras elsewhere in the world only one or two was normal.  Only a few premodern peoples, such as the Chinese and Balinese, could even come close to matching Khmer farming capabilities…

For me, The Clay Marble has always seemed a book for all ages, and an important introduction to modern Cambodian history, to Cambodian culture, and to the nightmare years of the Khmer Rouge ascendancy. As Minfong Ho explains in her introduction, she worked with the people she depicts in this novel, she had grown up in Southeast Asia, and she writes about Dara, Jantu, and their families with first-hand knowledge and with love.

The more I read this book, the more struck I am with the way that traditional Cambodian values are described, as well as the destruction to those values that was attempted by the Khmer Rouge. The importance of family, of community, of sharing, of rice planting and harvests are all made stunningly clear in this deceptively simple and powerful story.

Although I’ve read this book often, I’ve never approached it with Marjorie’s fearlessness. She read it aloud over the past month to her two sons, as she explains here.

” Well, we finished reading The Clay Marble about 10 days ago. At the time we were all shocked and upset by the ending and I thought I would leave it a few days before asking the boys what they wanted to say about it. It does mean that their immediate reactions are lost but both of them highlighted Friendship as something that stood out for them. The setting in terms of the war has had more of an impact on Older Brother. Little Brother was much more caught up in the narrative in terms of what was happening to Dara and the other characters. Anyway, here, verbatim, is what they said about it:

Older Brother (nearly 10): “I thought the Clay Marble was very interesting because it was based on things that really happened; and quite horrible at the same time because some people had lost their legs and got infections - things like that. When Jantu died I felt very sad, especially because I thought it was disgusting that she was shot by one of the soldiers that was supposed to be protecting her. She’d been a very good friend in the story.

When Sarun was coming to the Border and for quite a while at the Border, he was always talking about planting crops and building a home for the family but then after a few weeks he was going to join the army at their camp. Then he didn’t want to go home; he didn’t want to plant crops - he wanted to stay there and be a soldier. He wanted to shoot. He thought it made him be a man. He felt like a man, not just a young lad. Why does a rifle, some bullets, some clothing, some fighting - what’s it got to do with being a man? You might die.

Everyone was scared and had to keep moving around. I felt scared for the children who lost their parents.

I thought it was quite funny that Dara believed that the clay marble was really magic, but the extraordinary thing is that when she closed her hand around it, it gave her courage.”

Little Brother (7 and a 1/2): “The Clay Marble makes me think about friendship. Some of the grown-ups were very mean because they were bombing the Border and the refugees and not just the enemy’s soldiers. The fighting made Sarun stop thinking about growing his crops and they had to have more bombings.

It made me very sad when Jantu died. She was gifted and she helped Dara believe in herself. Dara was very brave.”

I think that although Little Brother especially was quite young to be taking in all of the inferences of the story, I don’t think they were too young and they were both completely caught up in it. They were horrified to hear about how close to reality it was. The small map at the beginning was brilliant and we referred back to it many times. We read the introduction afterwards and again, they were struck that there really had been a clay marble.

Yes, I found it emotionally draining. Fortunately I had read ahead so was not having to deal with my own reactions at the same time as the boys’! We read the last few chapters in one sitting the morning after we’d read about Dara finding Jantu and the Baby in the hospital. The boys were both stunned when Jantu was shot. They were indignant and upset, and furious with the way Sarun behaved afterwards - as was I! I think the ending was managed beautifully because, after all, this is a story written with a young audience in mind. Sarun did not lose face but was able to take up his role as head of the family and the story ends with a message of hope - emphasised by the epilogue of Dara “now”, a few years later and a mother herself. A novel for an adult audience wouldn’t get away with being so tidy at the end - but Minfong Ho delivers a riveting story and instills in her young audience the idea of the futility and randomness of war at a level they can absorb, without ever having to state it explicitely: and that is why I think it’s a fine book.”

If you haven’t explored The Clay Marble, please do pick it up–and then share it with others. It, like the best of novels, illuminates the present while explaining the past–and could possibly change the future.