Congratulations to Argentinian illustrator Isol, who was announced today as this year’s winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Here’s part of the jury’s citation:

Isol creates picturebooks from the eye level of the child. Her pictures vibrate with energy and explosive emotions. With a restrained palette and ever-innovative pictorial solutions, she shifts ingrained perspectives and pushes the boundaries of the picturebook medium. Taking children’s clear view of the world as her starting point, she addresses their questions with forceful artistic expression and offers open answers. With liberating humour and levity, she also deals with the darker aspects of existence.

Isol has created many stunning picture books.  Thanks to Canadian publisher Groundwood Books, some of her books are available in English, including the gorgeous It’s Useful to Have a Duck – or, if you unfold it the other way up, its retelling from the Duck’s perspective - It’s Useful to Have a Boy; Petit the Monster; Beautiful Griselda, about a princess who is so beautiful, her suitors literally lose their heads over her…; and, most recently, Nocturne: Dream Recipes, spiral bound and printed in luminous ink to encourage reading under the bed-clothes as a precursor to happy dreams.

Isol is also well-known for her partnership with poet Jorge Luján, though only one of these is available in English – the adorable Doggy Slippers. I first encountered and was captivated by Isol’s work during a poetry presentation at the Bologna Book Fair in 2008, in which Jorge showed a poster poem illustrated by her – the same drawing/poem that is now animated on the front page of his website – and I still love it!  Then during the Bologna Book Fair in 2010, we were honored to be invited to the opening of an exhibition for Doggy Slippers, featuring Isol’s original artwork and poems by children from workshops Jorge had been doing in local schools.  You can see our photos here (including a “real” pair of slippers… wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could actually buy some like that!).

So, again, many congratulations to Isol, a truly worthy recipient of this year’s ALMA.

The Asian Pacific American Libraries Association has announced their 2013 literature award winners. Thanks to Shen’s Books for publishing the press release. Highlights include:

Picture Book Winner: Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth, written by Joan Schoettler and illustrated by Jessica Lanan, published by Shen’s Books.

Picture Book Honor: A Path of Stars written by Anne Sibley O’Brien, published by Charlesbridge.

Children’s Literature Winner: Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan, written by Hildi Kang, published by Tanglewood Publishing.

Children’s Literature Honor: Shark King by Kikuo Johnson, published by Toon Books.

Young Adult Literature Winner: Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary written by Keshni Kashyap, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Young Adult Literature Honor: Ichiro written by Ryan Inzana, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Today we are launching the celebrations of our 10th Anniversary with this stunning poster created by artist John Parra.  Thank you, John!

John features in our Gallery as part of our celebrations over on the main PaperTigers website – and you will also find another Gallery featuring our talented web-designer Eun-Ha Paek, as well as new articles – one by me:

Looking Forward to the Next Ten Years of PaperTigers, and Beyond;

and another:

Celebrating PaperTigers 10th Anniversary: What a Smilestone!
by PaperTigers former Managing Editor Aline Pereira

There’ll be plenty more to look forward to over the coming month, including some Top 10s from a number of our friends around the Kidlitosphere so come on in and join the party!

Today is Peace Day.  It’s also a day of  Global Ceasefire.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the fighting stopped for this one day.  It’s certainly something to aim for, and beyond.

This week with my Cub Scout Pack in Kirkbymoorside, UK, we thought about Peace and what a global ceasefire might mean.  We made peace cranes, thanks to Stone Bridge Press’ wonderful A Thousand Cranes: Origami Projects for Peace and Happiness (2011), adapted from a book by Florence Temko (1921-2009); and then we held a short vigil by candle-light (one of our Challenges in our Diamond Jubilee Challenge was silence: hard but ultimately rewarding).

We shared Lao Tzu’s wise poem from 2,500 years ago:

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

It is one of the prayers in the beautifully presented Let There be Peace: Prayers from Around the World, selected by Jeremy Brooks, illustrated by Jude Daly (Frances Lincoln, 2009).

People around the world will be pausing for a moment’s silence today at midday local time.  Let’s hope the guns stop firing too.

This week’s Poetry Friday host Renée LaTulippe has a bowl of Poetry Candy over at No Water River, so head on over…

It was a real thrill for me to meet not only Dashdondog Jamba at the IBBY Congress last month, having interviewed him last year, but also Anne Pellowski, who worked with him on the Libraries Unlimited edition of Mongolian Folktales.  Here’s a photo of us all:

Dashdondog was a member of a superb storytellers’ panel with Michael Harvey telling a tall tale in a mixture of Welsh and English and Sonia Nimr recounting hers first in English then in Arabic.  It was fascinating in both cases how much audience participation was possible, regardless of the language they were speaking, simply (and of course, not simple at all really) becasue they were such fine storytellers.

Dashdondog’s story-telling in Mongolian was accompanied by a slideshow that provided the necessary context and I loved his verse rendition of the work of the Mongolian Mobile Library that he founded in 1990 – the onomatopeia could be universally understood. You can watch part of it here. As well as his gift for storytelling, this part of Dashdondog’s presentation provided an indication of how committed the Mobile Children’s Library is in ensuring library books reach as many children as possible, regardless of the challenges of terrain, distance and weather conditions they encounter.

Do read Dashdondog’s article about the library here – and you can read some of his vibrant poems translated into English on his blog.

The first of three new Gallery Features on the PaperTigers site, we are delighted to welcome Katie Yamasaki, whose vibrant artwork has not only graced picture-books, but flows across vast buildings.  In our Q&A, Katie talks about her picture-book Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars written by Mark Weston (Lee & Low Books, 2008) as well as her forthcoming author-illustrated Fish for Jimmy (Holiday House), based on “a true family story” in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War.

Katie also describes how she hadn’t considered becoming an artist because “I didn’t have a sense of how art could be used to make a difference in the world.”  It is fortunate that she came to realise otherwise, and her involvement in community mural projects all over the world has certainly made a difference in many people’s lives.

You can see some examples of Katie’s murals in our Gallery – and do also explore her website for more in-depth exploration of her work: including her wonderful Pintando Postales project between children in Santiago de Cuba and New York City.  And I can’t resist including this video here – enjoy and be inspired!

Kathleen Martin (author-photographer),
Kamakwie: Finding Peace, Love, and Injustice in Sierra Leone
Red Deer Press, 2011.

Ages: 12+

Kamakwie, Canadian writer Kathleen Martin’s moving memoir in photo essay format, reports on a three-week trip to Sierra Leone that opened her eyes and heart to the suffering of the people there during and since their devastating 1991-2002 civil war. Martin accompanied a four-person volunteer medical team; the project was commissioned by the Canadian International Development Agency and World Hope Canada.  Kamakwie is the name of one of the villages the team served.

Martin’s present-tense account takes us chronologically through her experience.  A young mother herself, she empathizes deeply with mothers whose children have died of starvation or other horrors of war.  A man who lost his arm tells her that anger won’t bring back his limb; she is shocked to learn that the woman who betrayed him still lives in the same village. Martin struggles with how to respond to a deserving kid’s request for school fees, later to find the amount is only $5. She organizes English writing workshops for kids to tell their stories and to write to Canadian children, then quotes liberally from their reports and politely desperate pleas for help. She watches a child dying of starvation, learns about the superstitions that have kept her father from seeking treatment, writes frankly of her own incredulousness when she realizes how little she or even the medical team can actually do to help… and yet, they all do offer both concrete help and precious hope for the future. Martin’s candid photographs add immensely to her powerful stories about these beautiful, remarkably forgiving people.

Early on in her 200-page book, readers may find Martin’s naive reactions a bit exasperating. She veers close to stressing her own responses more than the accounts of individual survivors that bring alive their terrible history. But the double purpose of her book gradually becomes clear: Martin wants her young readers to understand both the desperate circumstances of the Sierra Leone people and also the process by which she has honestly faced painful truths about human behavior and consequently aspires to be of greater help. Her touching and revealing openness offers privileged western young people the opportunity to learn how compassion grows by experiencing it for themselves. Back matter includes an author interview and a link to the book’s website.

Charlotte Richardson
August 2012

Wendy Hue, illustrated y Zara Slattery,
Tópé Arrives
AuthorHouse, 2011.

Ages 8-11

When ten-year-old Tópé’s parents are killed in a road accident, his Uncle and Aunty come to Nigeria to take him back to England to live with them and their nine-year-old son Femi and baby daughter Happy. It’s tough having to choose what to take with him and what has to stay behind but his beloved football (soccer ball) is an essential, and at the last minute he manages to squeeze his special wooden boat into his baggage.  It’s harder still having to adjust to a totally new life while grieving for his parents.  As time goes by, though, he begins to settle into his new school.  Being good at football helps, especially when he’s picked for the team in an inter-school championship, but it also causes friction, especially with Joe, who until Tópé’s arrival had been the star player.

As Tópé negotiates his new home, he begins to note similarities as well as differences with his earlier childhood in Nigeria, and the wooden boat is an important tangible link with his past. The story follows him as he makes friends, enjoys Femi’s birthday party, goes on a sleepover that turns into a big adventure, and beats off summer vacation boredom by putting together an act for a local “Star Youth Academy” show.  In a sense this performance that draws the book to a satisfying conclusion is what really marks Tópé’s arrival – he’s made it through his first few months in England; he’s joined on stage by Femi and some good friends, including Joe; and they are playing the Nigerian dundun drums that belong to his uncle and whose sound links him to Nigeria and to his father and grandfather especially.

Wendy Hue has created an engaging story that will appeal particularly to boys, who will empathise with the different dynamics in the relationships portrayed; and Zara Slattery’s black-and-white illustrations add atmosphere.  Tópé Arrives is also the perfect middle-grade read for any young person who finds themselves thrown into new surroundings, for whatever reason, especially though not exclusively anyone adjusting to life in the UK.  Hue’s sensitive awareness of Tópé’s experience, for example, includes such details as his discomfort at having to wear a thick jacket for the English climate.  As well as the realistically portrayed hurly burly of school, the adults depicted in the story are reassuring and kind.  The reader also shares in some of Tópé’s quieter moments, and indeed Tópé Arrives also has the potential to be of comfort to a young reader mourning a loved one.

Tópé Arrives would make a welcome addition to any middle-grade book shelf, and we look forward to more writing from Wendy Hue in the future.

Marjorie Coughlan
July 2012

New on the PaperTigers website, an extensive annotated reading list of picture books on the theme of water, as varied as water itself: A Ripple in the Pool: Multicultural Picture Books with Water at their Heart.

This list of multicultural children’s books that center on water in some way is by no means exhaustive, but it does offer rich pickings for anyone looking for variety. Indeed, as I was putting it together, I found that the only limit was time and there are bound to be what readers will consider glaring omissions.

Our blue planet provides us with endless experiences of water – and these are reflected in the variety of stories and non-fiction resources available. Magic and folklore mingle with contemporary adventures. Joyous books of children playing in the sea or in the rain flow alongside stories that recount water’s terrible power for destruction. Tales of too much water or too little jolt readers out of complacency and awaken awareness of the finite nature of water.  These books together take readers on a journey of exploration and discovery around the world.

What a wonderful assortment of books they are.  Many of them have been featured on the PaperTigers website over the last few months and I have so enjoyed putting this list together (not to mention all the book covers, above!).     If you have any others that you would add to the list, do let us know…