This month, on the PaperTigers website, we are highlighting a sample of the many and rich features from our previous issues and talking about some changes afoot in 2011.

In her last editorial, Aline Pereira explains what these changes are and how they relate to the fact that, come February, sadly and unfortunately, she will no longer be PaperTigers’ Managing Editor.

Aline’s presence at the helm of PaperTigers over the last six years has been critical; her contribution has been both extensive and immensely valuable for the site and for the blog – and she has also played an important role in helping us move towards a fuller outreach program. To say that she will be missed and that her absence will be a big loss for PaperTigers is an understatement. We are truly grateful to her for all she has done and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.

We hope 2011 will be a year of learning and growth for all of us, and as we prepare to ring in the new year and say farewell to Aline, we offer you these great features from the treasure-trove that is PaperTigers. May they warm your hearts and minds and keep you coming back for more.

In her Personal View for our current issue of PaperTigers, Uma Krishnaswami ponders some of the questions that have come her way as a writer recently. Make sure you head on over to the main website to read the whole article; in the meantime, here’s the introduction. I found her pondering over the word ‘swale’ particularly fascinating as I live not too far from Swaledale in the UK – and it certainly catches a lot of rain too! – could there be a connection?

Four years ago, an uncle of mine, D.V. Sridharan, started the crazy, impossible, madcap project, of restoring a wasteland in a rural area near the city of Chennai in India, and turning it into a sustainable farm. The reason this has anything to do with my own crazy, impossible, madcap occupation, writing books for children, is that his endeavor too had to do with words.

Words like “swale”: Roll it on your tongue. How round and beautiful it is. How it creates a resonance in the air. Swale. A low tract of land, a swale follows the contour line, and can catch water when it rains. Holding the rush of a monsoon shower, the swale in turn recharges underground water sources so that in the dry season, wells can remain refreshed. Swale. The thing is as magical as its name.

The name of that restoration project is “point Return.” The capitals are intentionally placed, intentionally withheld. The point, Sridharan says, is to return. To come back again and again to the places and the ideas that give us sustenance and hope, that are generative and regenerative in nature, that keep us going, that lead to a larger sense of who “we” are.

Story does this too. Thinking of story as cyclical in nature rather than linear, with a beginning, middle and end, changes everything. It stops me from rushing after answers, grabbing the first one that comes along. It allows me instead to live with questions.

I am happy to say that I have managed to make a career out of living with questions.

As I said, do read the rest of the article, in which Uma talks about her latest picture-book, Out of the Way! Out of the Way! (illustrated by her near-namesake, Uma Krishnaswamy, Tulika Books, 2010), which certainly provides scope for lots of questions, and gives a tantalising look ahead at her forthcoming middle-grade novel The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (Atheneum Books, due out 2011) – and then pay a visit to Uma’s wonderful blog, Writing with a Broken Tusk.

As we come to the end of our two-month focus on Refugee Children, there’s just time to remind ourselves of the important role books have in helping children to gain insight into traumatic events around the world, and to develop their own emotional response to them. We are fortunate to have so many gifted writers who are now writing such stories for children and young people of all ages (and publishers who are making these stories available). One of these writers is undoubtedly Pegi Deitz Shea, who has written about this far more eloquently than I ever could in her recent Personal View for PaperTigers: Reading About and Reaching Out to Refugees. Here’s an extract to ponder:

During the Vietnam War, I wished I had books about refugees, because the TV news overwhelmed me. As a child, I couldn’t process those images: Why are the children running? Did we hurt them? I thought we were supposed to be helping them? Will the children be okay? Today, the same need is exponentially true for youngsters. They are so barraged with audio-visual stimuli that it takes literature for them to slow down, absorb, share and process what’s going on in the world. And it takes teachers and parents to initiate that process.

Violence has become casual, entertaining, ubiquitous in the U.S. In Abe in Arms, my first novel for teens, Abe comes to America as an adopted Liberian war refugee. He receives initial therapy to help him deal with the loss of his family. But the deeper he gets into the American teen culture – sexual pressure, competitive sports, violent entertainment, substance abuse – the more absurd and worthless life becomes to him. These so-called “normal” teen experiences awaken in Abe untold traumas of sexual abuse and drunken days of slaughter. He becomes dangerous to himself and to others.

Without literature like this – and trusted adults to share it with – how can kids growing up far from disaster zones become aware of the life-and-death situations their counterparts face around the world? It is not only war, but also shattered economies and natural disasters that create refugees. But to kids tuned into the latest celebrity debacle, the earthquake in Haiti is old news, Hurricane Katrina is ancient news and the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean is etched on stone tablets. At the time of those tragedies, many schools generously and immediately responded to the call for aid. But the consequences of these events last a long time. Without books that last, how can we expect memories to last? How can we expect children to develop a lasting commitment to caring?

We are delighted to welcome Karon Alderman to the PaperTigers blog: Karon received a Special Mention in this year’s Frances Lincoln Children’s Book Award for her title Story Thief, about asylum seekers in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the Ouseburn Valley, which is also the location of the Award’s co-founder and principle administrator, the wonderful Seven Stories.

Story Thief is about an 11-year-old failed asylum seeker called Arlie. She narrates her story of the days following the arrest and detention of her family as she tries to hide from the authorities. She is supported by her friend Louise and two boys who have their own reasons for staying in hiding. At the announcements of this year’s award, Mary Briggs, one of this year’s judges and the co-founder of Seven Stories, hinted at the twists in the plot that give Story Thief its name. She also described it as “not a happy story” and “distinctly depressing”, and perhaps the lack of hope is what would make this more suitable for older readers than the middle-reader audience the award is aimed at. However, apart from its local setting being close to Seven Stories’ heart, it was felt that it needed a special mention because it explores the horrors of asylum seekers’ situations and presents the reality of the sense of helplessness when dealing with the beaurocratic system.

Here, Karon tells us about her passion for the issues she highlights and why she wrote the story.

Story Thief is about Arlie, an eleven-year-old failed asylum seeker. When her mother and sister are taken in the night, to a detention centre, she is on a sleepover with her friend next door. She tries to run away, helped by her friend, Louise.

I was thrilled that Story Thief was a runner up in the Diverse Voices competition, especially as I’d written it very quickly. However, the ideas had been simmering for some time as I support Common Ground, the East Area Asylum Seekers Support Group, a voluntary organisation that gives friendship and practical help to asylum seekers.

The asylum seekers I’ve met – the woman who’d lost her nine-year-old daughter, the girl who’d been trafficked, the stateless woman – are real people, in desperate situations, yet living in hope. But at the same time, I saw endless press coverage about asylum seekers committing crimes or receiving generous benefits. Actually, asylum seekers in Britain get a £35-a-week card. If their application to be official refugees is rejected, they can be left destitute. They are not allowed to work. They can be moved with little notice, detained, deported.

The story grew from two incidents: (more…)

Welcome to the Second Part of our Guest Post from photographer and journalist Caroline Irby, whose interview with PaperTigers is also featured in our current issue. If you missed Part One, then head on over there straight away to take a look at her stunning photographs of some of the children from her recent book A Child from Everywhere (Black Dog Publishing (UK), in association with Oxfam, 2010) – and without further ado, here are the rest of the photographs that Caroline has kindly shared with us, along with some of the background to each one.

I’ve taken photographs for the NGO WaterAid a few times in Africa, and their head of photography in London offered to help with this project, knowing that some of their UK-based employees are from overseas. Alexander’s father, Anthony, came forward.

The Community of Malian Refugees introduced me to Oumou’s family, now living in London.

BBC World Service were a brilliant resource: their journalists come from all over the world and I spoke with people working on every different language desk there. A woman on the ‘French for Africa’ desk gave me Boubacar’s contact details.

Daniel’s father was working for a refugee organisation in Scotland, and they put me in touch with him.

I met a Cuban on the London underground; he knew no Cuban children in the UK but did have a Peruvian contact, whom I called and who invited me to a party for Peruvians near Waterloo. There were no Peruvian children at the party born in Peru, but I was given contact details there for a boy called Luis…

I joined an online chatroom for people from St Vincent and the Grenadines living overseas; Andree-Ann’s much older sister responded to my message that I was looking for a young St Vincentian in London, and suggested her younger sister…

I met Emmanuel through an organisation called Refugee Action, which provides support to refugees who have arrived in the UK direct from refugee camps, as part of the UK government’s Gateway Protection Programme.

Bola was the last child I interviewed for this project. After trying all the more obvious routes (the Swazi embassy, South Africans living in the UK, online chatrooms etc), I contacted an independent newspaper in Swaziland, hoping I might find a journalist there who’d studied in the UK and had connections in this country. There I found a man called Welcome, who gave me the number of a Swazi lady living in London.

Oxford University put me in touch with Fiona’s family: her mother is a postgraduate student here.

I met Emilia at her school, in a very multicultural area of Leeds.

The Scottish Refugee Council gave me Fernanda’s details; she was one of the first children I met with.

Thank you again, Caroline, and many congratulations on the arrival of your own baby son in August.

The exhibition of A Child from Everywhere has now closed in London but will be opening in Japan later this month: at Okazaki World Children’s Art Museum from 18th September to 28th November 2010, then at Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, from 21st December 2010 – 23rd January 2011.

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, (more…)

On December 2009, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming the year commencing today, August 12th 2010, and ending on August 11th 2011, as the International Year of Youth (IYY). Under the theme “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding,” the Year aims to promote the ideals of peace, respect for human rights and solidarity across generations, cultures, religions and civilizations. The Year also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the first International Youth Year in 1985, when a framework and guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of young people were first put into place.

For an overview of the importance of the Year for young people, take a look at this brochure, which soon will be available in all UN official languages.

If you are planning to hold an event in celebration of the International Year of Youth and would like to officially register it, you may do so here – and do tell us about it too.

It is a real privilege to welcome photographer and journalist Caroline Irby to the PaperTigers Blog to share some of the photographs from her recently published book A Child from Everywhere (Black Dog Publishing (UK), in association with Oxfam, 2010), in which she has brought together children from 185 countries now living in the UK. In itself it is quite an achievement, but what makes this project so very special is how Caroline has captured the children in her beautiful photographs, and how they then speak to us in their own words.

You can read an interview with Caroline in our current issue of PaperTigers, in which she talks about the project. Here, she gives us an idea of how widely she had to throw her net to track down children from so many countries. Enjoy these stunning photographs – and we’ll be bringing you more in a second post next month.

I called the Andorran Embassy in London and the Ambassador’s wife agreed to help… Andorra is a tiny country with few nationals living in the UK; it took a few months to find an Andorran child here.

An organisation called Education Leeds gave me the details of a few schools in multicultural areas. One of these yielded Akeilah.

I wanted to reflect the extent of the diaspora of the recent wave of immigration; I’d also never been to the Orkneys and was curious to see so I contacted the Orkney Isles Education Authority and they found me Juan.

The Dominica Embassy in London helped me to track down Alissa.

University postgraduate departments are home to many foreign students; Cardiff University put me in touch with this family from Egypt.

I got talking to someone at a Christmas party about this project; her daughter was at school with Elsabet…

The British army recruits soldiers from Fiji, amongst other countries. I knew of an army barrack in Tidworth village, Hampshire, and contacted the local school, who let me interview a couple of children.

A friend of mine living in Oxford has a daughter who goes to school with Aura…

I noticed a sign reading, ‘Ivoirien Computing and Community Centre’ outside a portacabin on an estate near my home. The man working at reception connected me with Inza’s family.

Cambridge Racial Equality and Diversity Service introduced me to a few recently-arrived children who they give English language support to. Moeko was one of them.

I contacted the Pacific Islands Society and they invited me to a party for Pacific Islanders in London. I met Isabella’s family there.

As Corinne wrote a couple of weeks ago, there is an exhibition of A Child from Everywhere now on in London – or do get hold of the book for yourself: not only for the actual photographs, but also to read the insightful, thought-provoking and sometimes funny observations the children make about their new and old homes. I can’t recommend it highly enough! Thank you, Caroline.

David Elzey posted the following to The Excelsior Files in 2007, as part of a five-part series about Summer Reading. I thought it would be good to quote it here, since the Required Reading vs No Required Reading debate is a never-ending one:

“…the summer reading of my youth, always self-directed and rarely encouraged by my mother, has been replaced with a formalized list of titles handed out at the end of the school year for elementary school kids to stress over as they tussle with parents over having their ‘fun’ summer taken away from them.”

Monica Edinger, from Educating Alice, has recently pointed readers to a parody she wrote on the topic a few years ago. To Require or Not to Require: That’s the Question is sure to make you laugh, as well as think about the issue.

This is not a debate about whether children should read during the Summer or not, but whether their reading should be chosen for them and required. What do you think?