PaperTigers blog and website contributor Sally Ito is a writer, reviewer, teacher and editor who lives in Winnipeg, Canada.
One fine day in November 2009, the PaperTigers team of writers, editors, and blog contributors gathered together in San Francisco to choose the books that were to be included in our first “Spirit of Paper Tigers” project. The idea behind this project, which we hope to make an annual event, is to select a set of recently published children’s books that are cross cultural or multicultural in content and distribute them to young readers through schools and libraries in geographical areas of real need.
During the summer, through our collective experience and knowledge of children's’ books as well as through our many contacts in the book industry, libraries and schools, the PaperTigers team had come up with a tentative long-list of titles. It is from these that the final set has been selected. The titles chosen include picture books suitable for young children, along with others that have middle readers in mind.
Is this a book prize you might be asking? Well, yes and no. Spirit of PaperTigers is a contest insofar as there is a group of people collectively choosing outstanding books they feel share a certain goal or spirit of the organization. The actual selection process works much like the jury of a book contest. In the case of Spirit of PaperTigers in addition to meeting conventional standards for excellence, the aim is also to encourage empathy and understanding - ideas that are at the core of what PaperTigers is all about. However, while the process of selecting the book set is similar, the purpose of the Spirit of PaperTigers selection is quite different to that of a traditional book prize. The idea is not to reward the authors, illustrators and/or publishers directly, but to acknowledge their wonderful and important work by rewarding and celebrating readers, since they are the ones who will most benefit from the pith-and-bone content of the stories.
We are especially concerned with young readers for whom literacy is a crucial pathway out of adverse conditions in life, and with communicating to them the message that there’s a place for all of us, with all our similarities and differences, in the world we share. Just how these books will benefit such readers constituted the lively but always cordial debate around our table that fine sunny day in San Francisco.
Mindful of ‘multiculturalism’ and what it means in the context of a children’s book, we carefully went through each title, discussing them at length and taking into consideration all their different aspects––first by email, then face-to-face. All of us have children and we actively ‘tested’ our books on them with some surprising results. As it turns out, children, like adults, can have wildly disparate opinions about books: but at the same time, they can also exhibit strangely uniform opinions as well about which books they consider ‘the best.’ Previous encounters with some of the titles by our children, especially in schools, made them more amenable to their approval. And books that the Mommies all loved sometimes got a cold response from the kids – go figure!
So, while we adults were still the ones making the final selection, we did take our children’s feedback into account when discussing the books. A well-told and engaging story, we found, was almost always an important factor in the positive reception of a book by a child. Good illustration was also key (two of the selected titles were gorgeously done middle reader books in hardback – whether they will stay this way in their paperback incarnations remains to be seen).
We were thrilled when a consensus was finally reached and the resulting set declared final. Individually, each selected book is a wonderful example of engaging and insightful children’s literature. As a set, they convey a very clear message of a world made more peaceful through the sharing of ideas, values and knowledge. The hard work now ahead of us of putting the sets into the hands of children in different parts of the world will be well worth it.
It is true that book donations are nothing new. There are certainly many other organizations giving out books for literacy purposes. Such organizations are doing amazing work by collecting donations and distributing books with the thoroughly worthwhile aim of combating illiteracy. The Spirit of PaperTigers project does not seek to replicate their excellent work. What is specific to the Spirit of PaperTigers targeted approach is that it aims to promote literacy and cross-cultural understanding among children and young readers through sets of books specifically selected for that purpose.
We hope to help promote literacy and a love of reading by giving children carefully selected books–and brand new ones at that!–that give them a glimpse of the world while, at the same time, communicating the idea that empathy and cross-cultural understanding can be learned, developed, cultivated and acted on.
And the books will not simply be donated and forgotten. An important aspect of the Spirit of PaperTigers project that differentiates it from existing book donation/literacy-related efforts is that we hope to develop a mutually enriching relationship with our book set recipients. We will be requesting feedback from them about the books and their use by and with children, and will be featuring what they have to say–or ask–on our blog and website. The books, in that sense, will be a catalyst for dialogue. And what better way to promote cross-cultural understanding than to engage in dialogue?
Soon the work of sending out the book sets will begin. And we can hardly wait! A thousand thanks again to the authors, illustrators and publishers who have produced such wonderful books for children and young readers. It is their work that makes projects like Spirit of PaperTigers possible and so thoroughly worthwhile.
Posted February 2010
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