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JacketFlap tags: Books, Picture Books, Mary Hoffman, Frances Lincoln, Karin Littlewood, The Colour of Home, children's books about refugees, MWD Reviews, MWD book reviews, Add a tag
Whist putting together my new interview with Mary Hoffman, I revisited my first encounter with her beautiful book The Colour of Home, which I … Continue reading ...
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JacketFlap tags: Ying-Hwa Hu, Cornelius Van Wright, Lord of the Rings, Moby Dick, David, Mary Hoffman, Amazing Grace, LeVar Burton, Karin Littlewood, The Colour of Home, Tolkein, Rhiannon Lassiter, June Allan, Malorie Blackman, Princess Grace, Ros Asquith, Janetta Otter-Barry, Elena Ferrante, MWD interview, Caroline Binch, Letterbox Library, An Angel Just Like Me, Boundless Grace, Bravo Grace!, Diverse Voices, Encore Grace!, Grace & Family, Grace at Christmas, Greystones Press, Lines in the Sand, Shay Youngblood, Starring Grace, The Great Big Book Of..., Interviews, Add a tag
Mary Hoffman is the best-selling author of picture book Amazing Grace, which is currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary, as well as its six picture-book and chapter-book sequels and other acclaimed picture books such as The Colour of Home, An Angel … Continue reading ...
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JacketFlap tags: Not just the single story, Tamarind Publishers, The Boy on the Beach Frances Lincoln Chidlren's Books, Niki Daly, Dianne Hofmeyr, Karin Littlewood, Add a tag
Malorie Blackman has asked for more stories of people of colour in YA fiction. And in The Times on July 15th in My Hunt for Stories about Children that look a bit like mine, Nikita Lalwani quotes the Dominican American writer, Junot Diaz who says vampires reputedly have no mirror reflection and in his work he sets out ‘to make mirrors so that kids like me, might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it.’ And on TED the writer Chimamanda Adichie speaks on the danger of the single story and warns that ‘if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories.’
The exciting news – YA might be lagging in showing people of colour, but picture books aren’t. To kick off as its summer, I’m beginning with one of my favouritea – The Boy on the Beach published by Bloomsbury in 1999. Why is this book out of print? Safeguard it if you have a copy. Niki Daly has jumped across borders and shown us a boy on a hot summer’s day. Sheer joy and energy on every page. You can smell the sea, hear the seagulls and feel the sticky ice-cream running down your chin. Of course the boy gets lost as many children do on crowded beaches, and is found by a lifeguard and rewarded with an ice-cream but can’t interrupt licking it for one second to tell his name... which he writes with his toe in the sand.
Diversity needs to be unselfconscious – telling about children of all cultures and all skin colours in all situations. The Tamarind list has picture book stories like The Silence Seeker by Ben Morley, illustrated by Carl Pearce where a boy from a family of asylum seekers moves in next door, and Joe thinks they are ‘silence seekers’ and tries to find a quiet place in the city for the boy. Modern, dynamic, comic style illustrations.
Frances Lincoln has always forged ahead with picture books that represent children of all colour in a way that doesn't feel forced or pigeonholed, as in Mary Hoffman’s Amazing Grace books, illustrated by Caroline Binch, and Niki Daly’s Jamela stories as well as his The Herd Boy,
Picture books seem to encapsulate these overlapping stories in very visual terms. The heroes in them are every shade of brown and reflect all cultures. I'm neither an academic or a librarian. How can I ever hope to make this dip into picture books an entire rich experience of what's available and out there. Please add your titles in the comments below or your personal favourites on Twitter of Facebook, so we are armed with a list that won’t tell a single story but will tell overlapping stories, so that children don't risk 'critical misunderstanding' and will see themselves reflected back in all shades and from all cultures – heroes all of them!
www.diannehofmeyr.com
Dianne Hofmeyr's latest picture book, Zeraffa Giraffa, is illustrated by Jane Ray. On Twitter @dihofmeyr
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Immi's Gift, Julia Rawlinson, Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas, children's books about giving, Christmas books, 2010, Tiphanie Beeke, Karin Littlewood, Add a tag
Blog: Playing by the book (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Fishing, Karin Littlewood, Cross cultural friendship, Polar regions, Friendship, Add a tag
A few posts ago I mentioned British illustrator Karin Littlewood’s latest book – Immi, as something I was looking forward to reading. Having typed those original words I was overcome by temptation and bought us a copy on spec – we’ve loved all of the books we’ve seen where Karin Littlewood has been the illustrator and that was good enough reason to take a punt on Immi. And Wow! wow! wow! Immi has immediately become my favourite new book! Here are some of the reasons why….
Immi, an Inuit girl, catches fish through a hole in the ice. One day instead of fish she finds a small trinket, a little wooden bird, on the end of her line and is amazed by its beauty and colours.
As each day passes she catches another wonderful curio and so she starts to use them to decorate her igloo. Her home becomes a thing of wonder and animals from far and wide come to visit.
They always stayed for supper,
and they filled those long dark nights
with stories of faraway lands.And Immi’s world seemed a brighter
and more colourful place.
In the closing pages of this stunning book the mystery of the source of the treasures adorning Immi’s igloo is revealed and the generosity is reciprocated, leaving readers feeling both in awe at the beauty and diversity of the world, at the same time feeling touched by the possibility of being able to reach out across oceans and cultures to share something special.
This respect of and faith in humanity is a theme close to my heart, and then add to that the thread in this book of how sharing stories can move us and enrich our lives… well you can see why I love the tale told in Immi.
If the beliefs at the heart of this book weren’t enough to persuade me to encourage you to find this lovely book to read with your own children, then the illustrations would clinch it.
The watercolour and pencil illustrations sing out throughout this book. The brightly coloured treasures Immi catches glow like jewels against the icy, dark backdrop of a polar landscape, and yet their vibrancy never swamps the sense of peacefulness that the landscapes and night skies exude.
Immi reminds me of two other books I love – The Red Book by Barbara Lehman, (which I reviewed here) and Polly and the North Star by Polly Horner (which I reviewed 4 Comments on The ability of stories to transport us, last added: 11/11/2010
Blog: Playing by the book (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Colours, Water, Mud, Karin Littlewood, Anne Faundez, Africa, Animals, Rain, Add a tag
Today is the start of the UK’s Children’s Book Week, a celebration of reading for pleasure for children of primary school age (5-11) with special events taking place all over the country in schools, libraries and bookshops. 79 years old and going from strength to strength, the theme of this year’s Children’s Book Week is “books from around the world“.
As part of Children’s Book Week a special pack has been created (primarily with teachers in mind, but available to anyone to download) including book lists relating to this year’s theme for different age groups, for example:
For younger children:
For emerging readers
Poetry fro
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Reading Aloud, reading aloud to children, Storytime, Somalia, Mary Hoffman, refugees, Karin Littlewood, The Color of Home, The Colour of Home, Add a tag
We came home from the library recently with a very special story: The Colour of Home by Mary Hoffman and illustrated by Karin Littlewood (Frances Lincoln, 2002). Our attention was first caught by the radiant smiles on the front cover but as soon as we leafed through the book, we realised that there was a darker side to the story. In fact, I was very glad that I then actually read it on my own first, as it proved to be a very moving story and I had to get my own tears out of the way before reading it aloud.
A new boy, Hassan, joins a class in an English school. He is struggling with everything being so different from his home in Somalia. The afternoon class is painting, which he has never done before. He sets about painting his house and family back home - “a lovely picture” - but then he paints in what happened to his house and family - the fire and bloodshed, and his uncle “smudged out”.
The next day, Hassan explains the painting and his family’s flight to England:
Hassan talked for an hour and then he ran out of words, even in Somali. When he finished Miss Kelly [his teacher] had tears in her eyes.
So did I… However, this story ends on an upbeat note: Hassan plays football with his classmates, who are welcoming and friendly; and paints another picture of his old house for his mother. Its bright colors help him to see the other colors around him and we know that he is starting to feel confident about his future.
So beautifully written and illustrated, this sensitive picture-book offers a focal point for children, who, increasingly, can empathise with its story through personal experience. I shared it with my own children; if you already know this book and have shared it at home or in class, do tell us.
And while writing this post, I have enjoyed discovering Mary Hoffman’s blogs (Book Maven and Mary’s Musings) as well as her website. I don’t know where I’ve been, but I realise I have a bit of catching up to do in terms of her books for older readers and know what I’ll be looking for on our next trip to the library! I also love all of the books I’ve come across illustrated by Karin Littlewood - her own website is under construction at the moment but here’s the link because one day…!
SUCH A COOL (haha pardon the pun!) IDEA!!!
Thanks Carrie! Yes, the gloves were a real necessity, and to slow down the melting of the ice we turned off the heating whilst we were playing so everything was indeed cool! I had visions of the girls playing with it in the garden in the snow or at least with a good frost so that the whole world could be white (and even colder!)
Oh, this is such a “try-able” idea!
And I so agree with the idea of reaching out across cultures to share something special.
Hi Sandhya,
One of the things I love about Playing by the book is that there are quite a few of you in the community we have here who share this idea, and that makes me very happy!