For the month of September, we will continue to explore the topic of Refugees in children’s books. Today I would like to share a book I recently came across on the topic: Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Cuban-American poet Magarita Engle (Henry Holt & Co, 2009). This is the author’s third novel in verse about Cuba (the previous two were the award-winning The Poet Slave of Cuba and The Surrender Tree), and this time her story takes place during WWII, when when the rise of Nazism led to a severe rise in refugees from Germany trying to find safety in other parts of the world.

A historical note at the end (and readers may want to consider reading it before getting started), helps contextualize the story, which is told, mostly, in the alternating voices of Daniel, a 13 year-old German Jewish who escapes Germany in 1939 after being separated from his parents, and whose ship is finally allowed entry in Cuba after being turned away from the U.S. and Canada; and Paloma, a 12 year-old girl who, unbeknownst to her father, is Read the rest of this entry »

(Click on event name for more information)

2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Nominees Announced~ Sweden

Skipping Stones Youth Honor Award Winners Announced

Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre 2010 Exhibits~ Australia

Beijing International Book Fair~ ongoing until Sep 3, Beijing, China

Taranaki Children’s Book Festival~ ongoing until  Sep 4, Taranaki, New Zealand

Western Australia Spring Poetry Festival and National Poetry Week~ ongoing until  Sep 5, Australia

Melbourne Writers Festival: Stories From Every Angle~ ongoing until Sep 5, Melbourne, Australia

Singapore International Storytelling Festival~ ongoing until Sep 8, Singapore

Childrens Books Ireland and SCBWI Ireland Present: Between The Lines, an information seminar on writing and illustrating for children ~ Sep 11, Dublin, Ireland

Dromkeen Exhibitions: Mbobo Tree, The Race for the Chinese Zodiac, and Stranded~ ongoing until Sep 17, Dromkeen, Australia

2010 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition of Children’s Books~ ongoing until  Sep 26, Nishinomiya, Japan

An Exquisite Vision: The Art of Lisbeth Zwerger~ongoing until Sep 26, Amherst, MA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: Golden Kite, Golden Dreams: the SCBWI Awards~ ongoing until Oct 1, Abilene, TX, USA

International Youth Library Exhibition: The Treasury of Binette Schroeder~ ongoing until Oct  1, Munich, Germany

Words+Pictures=Book, Contemporary Malaysian Picture Book Illustration~ ongoing until Oct 3, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Mirror, an Exhibition by Children’s Author and Artist Jeannie Baker~ ongoing until Oct 10, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibit: From the Collection~ ongoing until Oct 24, Riddells Creek, Australia

International Youth Library Exhibit: Shaun Tan, Pictures and Books~ ongoing until Oct 31, Munich, Germany

Everyday Adventures Growing Up: Art from Picture Books ~ ongoing until Nov 28, Chicago, IL, USA

Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2011~ entries accepted until Dec 31, Singapore

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Annual Conference~ Sep 1 – 3, Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane Writers Festival~ Sep 1 – 5, Brisbane, Australia

Moscow International Book Fair~ Sep 1 – 6, Moscow, Russia

Writers’ and Literary Translators’ International Congress ~ Sep 2 – 5, Istanbul, Turkey

Bendigo Children’s Literature Conference: Texts Mark the Spot – Getting Real: Debating the what, why and how of realism in children’s and YA texts~ Sep 3 – 4, Bendigo, Australia

Asian Digital Storytelling Congress: Beyond Words ~ Sep 4, Singapore

CYA Later, Alligator – Children’s and Young Adult Writers And Illustrators Conference~ Sep 4, Brisbane, Australia

KATHA’s I Love Reading! Week~ Sep 4 – 10, Delhi, India

International Literacy Day~ Sep 8

UNESCO Literary Prize Awards Presentation~ Sep 8, Paris, France

IBBY’s Biennial Congress: The Strength of Minorities~ Sep 8 – 12, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Nu Wa International Storytelling Tour of China~ Sep 10 – 26, China

The Kennedy Center’s 15th Annual Multicultural Children’s Book Festival~ Sep 11, Washington, D.C., USA

African Library Project’s 5th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser~ Sep 11, Menlo Park, CA, USA

SCBWI Ireland Conference~ Sep 11, Dublin, Ireland

First International Conference on Language, Literature and Cultural Studies~ Sep 11 – 13, Skele, Albania

Book Blogger Appreciation Week~ Sep 13 – 17

The Manila International Book Fair: Words Without Borders~ Sep 15 – 19, Manila, Philippines

International Children’s and Youth Literature Festival~ Sep 15 – 25, Berlin, Germany

Hispanic Heritage Month~ Sep 15 – Oct 15, USA Read the rest of this entry »

I have been intrigued by the Red Threads in Chinese folklore that link people invisibly and irrevocably, ever since first reading about them in Grace Lin’s beautiful picture book The Red Thread: An Adoption Fairy Tale. They then reappear in her wonderful Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Jama at Alphabet Soup quotes Grace as saying: “To me, those red threads, those connections are the stories we share.”…

So I couldn’t resist picking up Ed Young’s Red Thread (Philomel Books, 1993) when I came across it recently: and it’s a wonderful story, which grows in meaning the more you read it. Wei Gu is a young man who, having been orphaned as a boy, is keen to find a wife and be part of a family. Hearing that a matchmaker is going to be in the town of Quinge, he travels there and makes sure he is at the temple good and early – in fact, he is so early that it is still dark (and here, Young’s illustrations are particularly stunning). He meets an old man, a spirit who can tell him that the red thread connecting him to his future wife leads to a three-year-old girl, and that they will marry in fourteen years time. Not only that, but they can go together to see her right there and then. However, Wei Gu is disgusted that she is apparently the daughter of vegetable sellers; and he also finds her ugly. Horrifically, he orders his servant to murder the child – but the red thread cannot be broken so easily and when Wei Gu marries fourteen years later, he discovers that the flower seed his beautiful wife always wears between her eyebrows carries a not unfamiliar story with it…

The narrative is simple but still manages to convey psychological depth; and the complexities inherent in the story mean that the book will grow with young readers. The act of violence is shocking – but as is so often the case in fairy-tales (and I am particularly struck by parallels with the western Snow White here), young readers/listeners will probably be less affected by it than the grown-ups reading it to them. The message that you can’t outrun your destiny is clear – but all the same, Wei Gu is lucky after his wicked act to end up with a loving wife who still loves him, even when the truth comes out.

A red thread runs throughout the book, straight across the pages, separating the text from the main focus of the illustrations, which completely fill each double-page spread. There are grandiose architectural spaces, busy market scenes and energetic close-ups, all depicted in a beautiful pallette of blues and greens, with orange as a striking outline color. In fact, as far as Young’s illustrations go, this for me is right up there as one of my favorites.

Now, there’s a question: which books by Ed Young are your and your children’s favorites? I am being very kind putting it in the plural, because I would find it very hard to narrow it down to just one myself!

Hosted by Sandy Fussel, from the Australian blog Stories are Light, this month’s children’s lit carnival offers a wealth of book reviews, interviews, writing tips, and more. Take a look and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of must-read-before-Summer/Winter-is-over books and articles.

After basking in the light of the carnival’s links, make sure to check the blog’s sidebar for a list of Top 50 Australian Writing Blogs. Enjoy!

Following on from Aline’s post this week about the African Library Projects’s 5th anniversary celebration and fund-raising event, Harambee!, which means “Let’s pull together to get it done!” in Swahili, we bring you in full our new interview with the organisation’s founder, Chris Bradshaw. For more information and links, see the sidebar on Chris’ interview page on the PaperTigers website.

Chris founded the African Library Project (ALP) in 2005, with the goal of increasing literacy in Africa. Since then, with the help of literacy activist volunteers and organized book drives, ALP has created over 500 small, free lending libraries in various countries of Africa, such as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi.

Chris lives in Portola Valley, California.

PT: What motivated you to start the African Library Project?

CB: I spent my Junior Year Abroad studying in Sierra Leone and traveling throughout western and central Africa. I was deeply touched by the warmth of people and troubled by the potential lost in just trying to survive given the everyday challenges of extreme poverty. As a 20 year old, I felt overwhelmed by this and did not know what I could do that would have much of an impact.

Fast-forward 30 years to 2004… on a homeschooling field trip to southern Africa with my husband and two children, ages 9 and 13, while pony trekking in the tiny, remote mountain kingdom of Lesotho, I discovered there was just one library in the entire country. Noodling along on my horse, I couldn’t stop thinking about the US bookshelves overflowing with once-read books and landfills filling up with what would be a precious resource in Lesotho.

PT: How did the first library come about and what was the process of going from one library to more libraries like?

CB: When I got back to the village, I met with the manager of the lodge that had rented us our horses and asked if they had ever considered having a library. “We have always wanted a library, but did not know how to get books!” I offered to provide books if the local leadership would provide space and staffing for the library and commit to running it as a village enterprise. Two months later, I contacted them and they happily reported that the library building was half done! I was committed. The village decided to give the task of developing the library to a US Peace Corps Volunteer who was scheduled to arrive soon. I thought this was a great idea. If you have never seen a library, how would you know what to do?

A little miracle happened next. When the Peace Corps Volunteer arrived, she was a retired librarian! Together, along with many generous American book donors, we developed five small libraries throughout Malealea Valley, the first of now 562 African Library Project libraries.

Eventually, I decided to partner with Peace Corps Lesotho to establish libraries throughout the country. I found it inspiring to work with the smart, capable and passionate Americans who serve in Peace Corps. They and their villages were ecstatic to get books and many American schools and groups were eager to make a concrete and personal contribution to Africa.

PT: How do you determine which countries (and which towns and communities) will receive book donations?

CB: We’ve grown a lot since our first libraries. We will work in any stable English-speaking African country where we can find a suitable partner. Our partners are large African organizations whose mission is library development or education, usually NGOs or government branches, e.g., the Swaziland National Library Service. Our African partners vet the local library projects, bring our containers in, distribute the books, train teacher-librarians and track results. We ship 30-60 libraries each year to our partners, year after year, because it is efficient, economical and allows us to have a major impact by building a library movement within a country.

PT: What is involved in creating rural libraries?

CB: Most African cultures don’t have communal public institutions, as we know them, with the exception of schools. About 90% of our libraries are in schools and most of these are open to local villagers for checkout of books. Sometimes, Read the rest of this entry »

Following up on my post from last week, Mitali has graciously allowed us to share her blog post about the event here:

A thousand thanks to Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Ma and to my publisher Charlesbridge for hosting my Bamboo People book launch party. I always get nervous, so I greatly appreciated everybody who came and sent notes of encouragement from near and far. I’ve posted a few videos below, and here are some recaps from others who attended:
Charlesbridge, Walk the Ridgepole, Not Just For Kids, Britt Leigh’s Brain on Books, and The Papa Post

Arrived to find this gorgeous bamboo plant sent from Portland, Maine by Curious City’s Kirsten Cappy, Jamie Hogan (who illustrated my book Rickshaw Girl), Annie Sibley O’ Brien (After Gandhi), and King middle school librarian Kelley McDaniel. Thank you so much, ladies, for your love and support!

I loved watching people mingle and meet.

My buddy Deb Sloan is one of the best book cheerleaders on the planet.

Authors who write for adults don’t get love like this.

Porter Square bookseller Nathan exuded hospitality. Thank you! I’m holding the bamboo bookmark giveaways I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.

Introducing the book

Reading an excerpt of BAMBOO PEOPLE

Thank you to Karen Lukas of Folk Arts Rajasthan (FAR) for letting me know about this wonderful World Vision broadcast and accompanying slideshow about the Merasi School and Merasi music. I am so excited to share them with you. In Karen’s words:

FAR volunteer and musicologist Adam Pogoff is seen here recording on the ground in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. His piece covered both the pure beauty of the centuries-old music, and the harsh realities under which it continues to flourish. Adam, who along with photographer and schoolteacher Alison Brockhouse and other friends, volunteered to travel to Jaisalmer this April to experience and record first-hand the sounds of this legacy. They returned from the scorching desert amazed and excited, keen to spread the word about this gifted community.

Each year, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) presents a Member of the Year Award to a member who has given outstanding service to the organization. This year the award went to author Chris Cheng, SCBWI Australia regional advisor.

Always true to his gregarious and friendly nature, Chris is one busy and very effective bee when it comes to making connections, spreading the word on good books and projects, volunteering to read to children in schools, and more. And he seems to do it all—it takes a special kind of person, really—without ever losing sight of his own writing. Congratulations, Chris! It’s great to see your hard work and passion for all things book recognized by your peers!

You can read more about the award, which was given during the SCBWI LA Summer Conference (at the Golden Kite Luncheon, on Aug 2) and see some pictures of a stunned and happy Chris here and here.

Last week, I posted a short piece about Pakistan’s floods and where you can donate to make a difference to the thousands suffering from displacement and distress, not to mention the threat of disease.  The Canadian government recently said they will match private donations made by citizens for aid to Pakistan from Aug. 2 to Sept. 12.  I was recently made aware of one organization that specifically aids children: SOS Children’s Villages — a non-denominational, non-political NGO that assists neglected and abandoned children in developing countries.   SOS Children’s Villages is currently seeking donations to assist with the relief effort in Pakistan, and if you haven’t yet donated, you might consider giving to this NGO, especially if you are a Canadian, during this time of matching funds by the Canadian government.

The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida, illustrated by Joanna Yardley (Philomel Books, 1993) recounts the story of a Japanese American girl named Emi.  It is 1942 and Emi is about to leave her home in San Francisco for an internment camp further inland.  It is an uncertain and precarious time.  Just before Emi’s departure, her friend Laurie Madison shows up at the door with a gift.  It is a heart bracelet.  Emi receives the gift gladly, swearing that she will “never, ever take it off.”  But in the hustle and bustle of the move, Emi loses the bracelet and for the first time, despite all the other difficulties she has faced with her family during their ordeal, she wants to cry.  Will she recover the bracelet?  Or rather, what will she do if she doesn’t?

I read this story to my daughter, expecting a certain sort of ending and getting another one, and this was what surprised me about this book.  Emi has an epiphany about her lost bracelet that is both simple and profound.  Objects are not the repositories of our memories; our minds are.  Despite the loss of the bracelet, Emi knows that she will never forget the friendship she had with Laurie and this is an important truth for Emi to realize about herself and her situation.  Illustrator Joanna Yardley has done a wonderful job of depicting a very realistic-looking Emi as a shy and contemplative girl; I was especially struck by an image of her face in which the details are very fine, right down to Emi’s eyelashes.

Reading this book gave me an opportunity to explain to my daughter that Emi’s experience was similar to those of her grandfather’s and my great aunt’s.  She herself made the connection and I elaborated a little on the differences between the Canadian and American experiences.  I knew about Yoshiko Uchida’s childrens’ books on the topic from before but this book made me want to seek out more by her!