January 25 is Robbie Burns Day which is celebrated in many English-speaking parts of the world.  Here in Canada, there are traditional celebrations as well as some wonderfully hybrid ones like Gung Haggis Fat Choy started in Vancouver by Todd Wong.  Of course, the celebrations center on the beloved Scots poet, Robert Burns whose work is widely recited that day.  Hand in Hand We’ll Go: Ten Poems by Robert Burns (illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian, Thomas E. Crowell Company, 1965) is an introduction for children to the Scottish bard’s most famous poems such as “A Red, Red Rose” from which come the immortal lines “And I will luve thee still, my dear,/Till a’ the seas gang dry.”  At the back of the book is a short glossary of Scottish terms.  One of my favorite terms was ‘cranreuch’ for hoar-frost — the sight of which makes Canadian winters seem magical if not too ‘cauld’ for one’s liking!

I have yet to go to a Robbie Burns night here in Canada, but I certainly enjoyed getting a taste of his poetry in Hand in Hand We’ll Go, which by the way, is beautifully illustrated with woodcuts by Caldecott medal-winning artist Nonny Hogrogian.  It’s a book well worth seeking out for a wintry January read.

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Jim at Hey, Jim Hill.

Author Ting-Xing Ye’s mother used to say, “It’s typical! Three Monks, no water!”  whenever she or her brothers and sisters tried to get out of doing something.  Three Monks, No Water (Annick Press, 1997)is the story behind that enigmatic expression – and since reading it, I can see it becoming a useful phrase in our home!

A young Buddhist monk lived alone at the top of a mountain.  Every day he had to fetch water from the foot of the mountain, using a yoke and two buckets.  That provided him with enough water for his personal needs and to water his small vegetable garden.  One day, he was joined by an older monk.  Their attempts to bring water up the mountain together, stringing a single bucket on a pole carried between them, were not very successful; and each felt it was the other’s task to fetch more water, so neither went.  The vegetables in the garden began to die.  Then a third monk arrived, and the situation worsened.  As each monk refused to give way, or compromise his stance in any way, the outlook became bleaker, and certainly none of them was composed enough to meditate or pray.  Then one day, disaster struck… Would they be able to let go of their antagonism and work together to put things right?

Three Monks, No Water is just the kind of fable that will appeal to young children with a strong sense of right and wrong.  The narrative certainly makes no excuses for the monks’ unreasonable behaviour, but leaves plenty of scope for young listeners to react.  Illustrator Harvey Chan’s background of acrylic on gessoed board gives the illustrations an interesting texture for the colored pencil drawings in soft, muted colors; and I love the monks’ facial expressions.  And on every page, like a heavy watermark, a line of calligraphy conveys the expression of the title.  Plus there’s a specially designed seal inside the front and back cover, with a short explanatory note, and together these add a nice extra touch.

This is a great story for conveying the importance of dialogue and reciprocity, giving as well as expecting and taking – and it can be applied to a directly parallel scenario of three individuals, or on a global level, or anywhere in between…

A fabulous selection of books heads the awards list for this year’s Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Awards, announced on Monday. The winners in the children’s/YA categories are:

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang (Scholastic, 2011)  – Children’s Literature Award;

Orchards by Holly Thompson (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2011) – Young Adult Literature Award;

The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China by Ed Young (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011) -  Picture Book Award.

The Honor Books were:

Vanished by Sheela Chari (Hyperion, 2011) – Honor Book, Children’s Literature Category.

Level Up by Gene Luen Yang (First Second Books, 2011) – Honor Book in the Young Adult Literature category.

Hot Hot Roti for Dada-ji by F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min (Lee & Low Books, 2011) – Honor Book in the Picture Book category.

And following on from Corinne’s post about some of this year’s ALA Awards, here are some more highlights:

Allen Say‘s Drawing from Memory (Scholastic, 2011) has won a 2012 Robert F. Sibbert Informational Book Honor Award. To see all this year’s winners go here. Read our Q&A with Andrea Pinkney, the book’s editor, here.

As well as being outright winner of the 2012 Pura Belpré Author Award, Under the Mesquite, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Lee and Low Books, 2011), was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, along with Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel Books, 2011). Go here to find out more.

What a superb selection of books!  Many Congratulations to all the winners.

Happy New Year’s!  Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese lunar calendar.  We celebrated with friends this weekend and had a wonderful dinner of roast duck, steamed pickerel, mushroom and seafood egg foo yung, sticky rice, and almond cookies and candied walnuts for dessert.  As this is the year of the dragon, I was reminded of a Books at Bedtime post I did on a wonderful children’s book by Ed Young, The Sons of the Dragon King.   Do check it out (of the library soon!)  PT’s picture gallery also features the work of Ed Young’s most recent book The House that Baba Built.  Hope you all have an auspicious Year of the Dragon!

Earlier this morning the American Library Association (ALA) announced the 2012 youth media awards winners. A full list of the winners can be found here.

Highlights from the list include:

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: Dead End in Norvelt, written by Jack Gantos.

Two Newbery Honor Books also were named: Inside Out and Back Again, written by Thanhha Lai; and Breaking Stalin’s Nose, written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children: A Ball for Daisy, illustrated and written by Chris Raschka.

Three Caldecott Honor Books also were named: Blackout, illustrated and written by John Rocco; Grandpa Green, illustrated and written by Lane Smith; and Me … Jane, illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell.

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults: Kadir Nelson, author and illustrator of  Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans.

Two King Author Honor Book recipients were selected: Eloise Greenfield, author of The Great Migration: Journey to the North,  illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist; and Patricia C. McKissack, author of Never Forgotten,  illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award: Shane W. Evans, illustrator and author of Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom.

One King Illustrator Honor Book recipient was selected: Kadir Nelson, illustrator and author of Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans.

Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement: Ashley Bryan.

Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience: Diego Rivera: His World and Ours, written and  illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh.

Two Belpré Illustrator Honor Books were selected: The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred illustrated by Rafael López, written by Samantha R. Vamos; and Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match /Marisol McDonald no combina, illustrated by Sara Palacios, written by Monica Brown.

Pura Belpré (Author) Award: Under the Mesquite written by Guadalupe Garcia McCall.

Two Belpré Author Honor Books were named: Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck written by Margarita Engle; and Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller, written by Xavier Garza.

 

Willamarie Moore, illustrated by Kazumi Wilds,
All About Japan: Stories, Songs, Crafts and More
Tuttle Publishing, 2011.

Age: 8-12

All About Japan presents an assorted array of information about Japan.  It’s a good contemporary introduction to the country’s culture, language and lifestyles.  There is a mix of the old (traditional festivals and folktales) and the new (anime and video games).  The book begins with a greeting from two typical Japanese children – a girl, Momoka, the only child of a professor mother and a business man living in the city, and Yuto, a boy with two younger siblings living in the countryside with their parents and grandparents.  The country of Japan is then presented through their eyes in a variety of sections entitled “Everyday Life,” “Holidays and Celebrations,” and “Language and Culture.”  Song, stories, foods and crafts are all presented to inform readers about the country. The illustrations by Kazumi Wilds are colorful and accurate in their portrayals of contemporary Japan.

My only quibble with this book is that it presents a somewhat too uniform picture of a country that I know is less homogeneous than it appears to be on the surface.  I would have liked to have seen mentioned the indigenous people of northern Japan (the Ainu), for example, and some mention also of the huge Korean diaspora (known in Japanese as Zainichi Kankokujin)  that has been present in the country for over a century.  Too often books about Japan pitched towards children neglect to mention these salient details of the country’s makeup.  But this is an error of omission that might see change in future editions.  This book is largely aimed at the North American reader, and it does a good job of presenting Japan in a general but engaging manner.  As well, in the back are listed good resources for further study, many of them easy-to-consult websites.  All About Japan is a highly interactive and fun way for children to learn about the country.

Sally Ito
January 2012

The List of Selected Illustrators for the Illustrators Exhibition at the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair has just been released!

The Illustrator Exhibit showcases the work of talented young artists whose work has yet to be acknowledged and each year one of these artists is awarded the Bologna Children’s Book Fair – SM Foundation International Award for Illustration. The award is announced by an international jury of experts during the Fair. This year’s winner will receive a prize of 30.000 dollars and given the opportunity to illustrate a children’s book to be published by Grupo SM. This book will then be presented during the 2013 Fair and a special exhibition organized to highlight the work of the winning artist. (The 2011 winner was Page Tsou from Taiwan )

The 2012 Illustrators Exhibition will be on display during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 19 – 22), will then be exhibited in Japan under the supervision of JBBY and may subsequently be transferred to other venues in other countries. To learn more click here.

American Library Association (ALA) Press Release:

The eyes of the publishing world will turn to Dallas, TX at 7:45 a.m. CT on Monday, Jan.23, 2012, when the American Library Association (ALA) announces the top awards in children’s and young adult literature as part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, January 20 – 24.

The ALA Youth Media Awards honor children’s and young adult authors and illustrators, as well as producers of children’s audio and video materials. Known worldwide for the high quality they represent, the ALA Youth Media Awards are selected under a cloak of secrecy by national judging committees composed of librarians and other children’s literature experts.

The ALA will announce 18 awards, including the renowned Caldecott and Newbery Medals, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Printz award.  The books honored serve as a guide for parents, educators, librarians and those interested in providing children and teens with the very best reading and viewing materials.

The ALA will host a live Webcast from the Dallas Convention Center begining at 7:30 a.m. CT, Jan. 23.  Virtual seating will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Information will also be posted to the ALA Twitter account @alayma and Facebook account.

Late 2011 marked the passing of writer, Russell Hoban.  I was familiar with Hoban’s childrens’ books, mostly the Frances ones, but when I read his obituary I discovered he’d written a novel for children called The Mouse and His Child (text, 1967, illustrations by David Small, 2001, Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001.)  Curious about this book, I went to the library and got it out.  The novel is about a wind-up mouse and his child bought from a shop, enjoyed for a few Christmas’ and then abandoned.  It is at the point of the toys’ abandonment that the story really begins — the toys’ must fend for themselves in a rather cruel and forbidding environment outdoors.

The Mouse and His Child  (previously reviewed by Marjorie a few years ago) is one of those novels that operates on several levels at once.  For my daughter, listening to the story as I read it aloud on our long drive westwards for our Christmas holidays, the story was essentially about a toy mouse and his child, trying to reunite with the original ‘family’ of their toy shop days and evading the devious trickery of one particularly villainous rat.  This basic plot kept my daughter engaged in listening even as other tempting devices like the IPad and the portable DVD player vied for her attention.  For my husband and I, the story was so much more.   Irresistibly existential in its peregrinations, unpredictable in its outcome, brilliant in its characterization, The Mouse and His Child was a deeply satisfying read-aloud for us.  It’s one of those books ostensibly for children, but also very much for adults.  It’s a book well worth re-reading perhaps at different stages in a child’s life.  I’d certainly be willing to revisit its pages again.   The book was made into a movie in 1977 but I’d try the novel first before going to its film version.  The Mouse and His Child is a true children’s literature classic and I highly recommend it.

Do you enjoy reading books from and about different cultures?  Would you like to have an incentive to read more culturally diverse books?  Either way, the PaperTigers Reading the World Challenge is the one for you!

We’re keeping it simple,  as it would be great for libraries and schools, as well as parents, as well as book bloggers and grown-up children’s book afficionados, to take part. The number of books and the flexible time span mean that it could be incorporated into a school reading program or a storytime slot, for example.  The one major addition is to include a work in translation, otherwise it’s running pretty much along the same lines as last year.  Here’s how it works:

1. Read a total of seven books.

2. Choose six books from/about/by or illustrated by someone from different countries anywhere in the world, three of which must be in different continents, and at least one of which must be translated from another language.

3. Choose one book from/about your city/district – as local and as relevant to your geographical setting as you can find.

4. You should choose at least one book of each of the following categories: fiction, poetry and non-fiction.

5. Have the books read aloud to you or read them yourself; share them as part of a book-group or in class. Read them in books, on an e-reader, or listen to audio-books. Combine your choices with other reading challenges.

6. There is no time limit for the reading the World Challenge, apart from completing it by the end of the year.

You can sign up to the Challenge in the Comments to this post. Do come back and tell us what books you’ve read. Writing reviews is not a necessary part of the Challenge, but if you do post any, we love to read them so do leave a link to them too, and I’ll also incorporate them into the updates I write through the year.

If you’re looking for ideas, you’ll find lots in the PaperTigers Reviews and Reading Lists sections, as well as in many of our Personal Views – or do let us know your own suggestions.  Let’s try and generate a list of picture, MG and YA books translated into English too…  And do feel free to pick up our gorgeous button from the sidebar too; or if you’d like me to send you the code, email me, marjorieATpapertigersDOTorg.  Here’s to another year of exciting reading!