For my holiday gift this year, I received one of my favorite presents– a new country to love! It only took a few days to become thoroughly enchanted by southern Laos, which may be the most beautiful corner of the world that I’ve seen so far, with some of the kindest people to boot.

I was there before New Year’s, so schools had not yet closed for the holiday break, and I often passed crowds of meticulous, uniformed children on their way home at the end of the day, or playing in the schoolyards. When I saw them, I remembered the video that my friend Jessica Cotterill posted on her blog recently, showing a Laos school that she and her husband Colin had visited with books that they presented to the students.

Books for Laos is a labor of love that the Cotterills have been involved in for years, distributing books written in the Laos language to schoolchildren in conjunction with Big Brother Mouse, whose image adorns this post. Started by Sasha Alyson, formerly a U.S. publisher and now a resident of Luang Prabang, Laos, Big Brother Mouse writes, illustrates, publishes and distributes books written in the Laos language to children in Laos schools, while bestselling mystery author Colin Cotterill provides scholarship funds to hilltribe children, 75% of whom have no access to schools, so that they may eventually become teachers and return to teach others in their home areas.

Both of these organizations depend upon donations to survive and to carry on the work they have begun. For the cost of a daily latte, a child can learn to read, and can be the joyful recipient of the first book they have ever owned.

Please go to these websites, and to Jessica’s blog–you’ll be glad you did.

If you haven’t already found your way to the Cybils shortlists, then head on over there and check them out.

The panelists had a huge number of books to read this year - word is definitely getting round! - and now the judges have some tough choices to make.

I’m delighted to see that Wabi Sabi made it through to the finals - now we’ll just have to wait and see!

Meanwhile, there are lots of books there that we haven’t read yet, and several are going straight on to our books-waiting-to-be-read lists - such as Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter (non-fiction picture-books); and Alvin Ho by Lenore Look and The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (both in the Middle Grade Fiction category).

Happy reading, everyone - especially if you’re a Cybils judge!

A few postings ago, I wrote about books about winter in Canada.  Today’s featured book is considered a Canadian classic.  It depicts the life of a family of homesteading Mennonites in northern British Columbia.   Mary of Mile 18 is set in the remote community of Mile 18, so named because of its location, eighteen miles off of a turn-off on the Alaska Highway.  Author Anne Blades worked as a teacher for the children of this community a few years before the book’s publication in 1971.  The beginning of the book sets the tone of the story:

It is a cold winter in northern British Columbia.  At the Fehr farm snow has covered the ground since early November and it will not melt until May.

Little Mary Fehr is the oldest of five.  It is through her eyes that the reader gets a glimpse of the harsh realities of homesteading in such a severe climate.  There is no running water nor electricity in the Fehr house.  Snow is brought in by pailfuls by the children to be melted for household water needs.  The house is heated by a wood-burning stove and a barrel heater; both of which consume a lot of wood and keep the house just barely warm enough.  The truck engine must be heated with a propane torch for an hour before it will start.

Despite these conditions, Mary is cheerful and sees beauty in her surroundings.  One day she discovers an abandoned half-wolf pup near her house and wants to keep it.  Her father however, is stern.  “You know the rules.  Our animals must work for us or give us food.”  Mary is devastated.  How could such a pitiful creature prove useful to the household?  The rest of the story is about how Mary and her father come to terms about his rules and her desire.  And it is the outcome that has made this story the classic that it is.

(Click on event name for more information)

Golden Feather Literature Festival~ ongoing until Jan 31, Mongolia

5th Tales in the Park Festival~ ongoing until Feb 7, Bangkok, Thailand

Discovering Ethnic Minorities - Storytelling Workshops for Children~ ongoing until May 31, Hong Kong

2008 Cybils (the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Finalists Announced~ Jan 1

Costa Book Awards Winners Announced~ Jan 6, London, United Kingdom

7th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities~ Jan 9 - 12, Honolulu, HI, USA

Mitali Perkin’s Secret Keeper Book Launch Party and Writing Workshop~ Jan 15, Palo Alto, CA, USA

CISA World Symposium and Storytelling Festival: Indigenous Voices, Ancient Trade Routes~ Jan 15 - 17, San Leandro, CA, USA

Storytelling by Winners of the First Time Writers & Illustrators Publishing Initiative 2008~ Jan 17, Singapore

Newberry Library Lecture - Babes in the Wood: The Death of Childhood and the Birth of Modern Children’s Literature~ Jan 17, Chicago, IL, USA

Presentation Ceremony for the Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation~ Jan 20, London, United Kingdom

20th Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities~ Jan 20 - 25, Eatonville, FL, USA

Presentation by Award Winning Author and Literacy Advocate David Bouchard~ Jan 21, Port Moody, BC, Canada

Jaipur Literature Festival~ Jan 21 - 25, Jaipur, India

SCBWI Tokyo Presents Alison Lester: From Arnhem Land to Antarctica as a Children’s Author and Illustrator~ Jan 23, Tokyo, Japan

Deb Ellis and Groundwood Books Partnership with USBBY in a Fundraiser for IBBY’s Fund for Children in Crisis~ Jan 23, Denver, CO, USA

2nd Children’s & Young Adults’ Book Fair~ Jan 23 - 26, Marousi, Greece

American Library Association (ALA) 2009 Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 23 - 29, Denver, CO, USA

ALA Youth Media Awards Announcement~ Jan 26, Denver, CO, USA

Yabun 2009: Celebrating Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultures~ Jan 26, Sydney, Australia

Family Literacy Week~ Jan 26 - 31, Province of British Columbia, Canada

Family Literacy Day~ Jan 27, Canada

SCBWI South Africa - Cape Town Presents What’s Happening in the SA Educational Book World~ Jan 28 , Cape Town, South Africa

3rd International Galle Literary Festival~ Jan 28 - Feb 1, Galle, Sri Lanka

Kolkata Book Fair~ Jan 28 - Feb 8, Kolkata, India

Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award Entry Deadline~ Jan 30, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

SCBWI Annual Winter Meeting~ Jan 30 - Feb 1, New York, NY, USA

As we approach a whole new year, with all of its hopes and promises, the world joins in festivities. New Year’s Eve has become one of the few holidays that is celebrated all around the globe, beginning in the South Pacific, ending somewhere in the Arctic, with a long stream of fireworks turning the sky into a glorious garden of joy.

Many people give gifts on New Year’s Day, and of course we hope that they will give books–but as we reflect on the nature of gift-giving, we realize there is an even greater gift than books. We have all received it and it illuminates our lives every day. We can all pass it on, either directly or through donations–the gift of learning to read.

Please think of how different your life would be without the joy of reading, and think of how you can be sure that somewhere, somehow, a child will learn to experience that same joy.

Happy New Year, and happy reading, to all.

On her fascinating web-page about the process of writing The Snow Leopard (Frances Lincoln, 2008), author and illustrator Jackie Morris says:

Many years ago I bought The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. At last I settled to read it, thinking it was about the search for the leopard. It wasn’t, it was a search for other things, but the book created wonderful images in my head, images of wildness and patience.

Her beautiful book is about much more than the snow leopard too – I would say that she has pulled those images of wildness and patience into a magical story, which proffers inspiration both to help in the conservation of this extremely rare animal and to live in peace and harmony with our surroundings.

The story reads like a poem, in rich, sonorous prose that emphasises its sense of timelessness. To give a bare outline, the Snow Leopard is “the great ghost cat” whose song from the beginning of time “clothed the world in white and built a crackling fortress of snow […] to keep all things safe and secret”. However, she is getting old and has begun her search for a successor. There is a child asleep in the village who is dreaming her song. When soldiers attack the valley, the Snow Leopard carries her to the safety of the mountains…

The story is complex in all it has to offer about notions of identity and safety; and of respect for what is precious to life: themes which have particular resonance in today’s world. Jackie’s stunning watercolour illustrations get this across too, both through the sweeping Himalayan landscapes and in the uncanny depth of expression in her characters’ eyes. While young listeners will immediately be enchanted by the story and its illustrations, something of its deeper message will hopefully find its way into their hearts.

For more information about the snow leopard, go to the Snow Leopard Trust and the Snow Leopard Conservancy websites; and be sure to follow the other links Jackie gives towards the end of her Snow Leopard page too, including teaching resources.

…and a little aside: Jackie is one of the illustrators of our current Book of the Month, the superb We are All Born Free.

One of my favorite books of 2008 is Mark Reibstein and Ed Young’s Wabi Sabi so I’ve enjoyed reading 7-Imp’s post from earlier this month, in which Jules not only shares some of the wonderful artwork, but links to a video which I hadn’t seen - if you haven’t discovered it yet either, watch it here!

It’s great to see that Wabi Sabi is featured on a best-of-2008 list on the National Library of New Zealand’s Create Readers Blog too (as is Guji Guji, another favorite of ours!)… so now we’ll just have to see how Wabi Sabi fares in the Cybils, whose shortlists should be coming out any day now!