Oakland University will exhibit a collection of rare books featuring a variety of illustrative styles and tactile reading experiences for readers with disabilities. Some books are presented in Braille with embossed pictures, others are made of cloth and still others have attached pieces intended for readers to handle.On loan from the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), the Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities collection will debut at an open house from 4-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10,in OU’s Educational Resource Lab. The lab is located in Pawley Hall on the campus of Oakland University.The books in the collection – which feature special needs topics, characters and designs – promote understanding and knowledge, as well as foment ideas for the publication and promotion of new books in the field.Linda M. Pavonetti, chair of OU’s Department of Reading and Language Arts and vice president of IBBY, said she is pleased to have OU included among a number of international locations the collection is sent to each year.”Many of OU’s students have had limited exposure to international books. Because of that, there is a perception that the U.S. has cornered the market for children’s publishing,” she explained. “This exhibit may be the first step in understanding that we all need to help children learn – no matter the situation or difficulties. One of the best ways of doing this is through high quality books for all children in their native languages.”

The award-winning books in the exhibit were selected from more than 130 nominees submitted by IBBY National Sections and friends of the Haug School in Oslo, Norway, where the collection of more than 3,500 books is housed. They come from nations across the globe, including Japan, Finland, France, Spain, England, Australia, United States, South Africa, Italy, Quebec, Mexico, China, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Korea, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Iran.

“The importance of this type of collection is clear to anyone who has ever tried to find reading material for children who are visually impaired,” Pavonetti said. “Books printed in Braille, BLISS or other tactile languages are rare and expensive. They are generally not available in libraries or bookstores. Parents and teachers of hearing-impaired students also understand the need for books that mirror other children who deal with the same problems their children face on a daily basis.”

For more information on the exhibit click here.

[Sara Hudson joined our team of contributors last year, bringing her perception and love of children's books to the book reviews she has written for us. You can read more about her on our About Us page, including an allusion to her travels that have centered on book collections around the world (and, in fact, we first met Sara at the International Youth Library stand at the Bologna Book Fair last year...). With this post, Sara introduces a short series focusing on e-books for children that will include an overview of multicultural e-books and interviews with two authors who have embraced the e-book format, Janet Wong and Hazel Edwards.

e-troducing the e-book

The degree to which debates about e-books can polarize begins to make sense after we consider how we often frame their presence as a question of alleged murder. “Will the e-book kill off traditional books?” It’s the perennial question at the front of the mind of cultural critics and librarians hovering at the back of any crowd rushing out for the latest Kindle, iPad, Nook or other e-reader. In turn, the question of e-books draws its roots from deeper long-standing concerns, those surrounding the question “Is the book dead?”

Despite decades of worry, the book is not, in fact, dead; nor has the e-book yet killed off traditional books.  E-books developed from work in the mid-1970s to create image- and text-based publications for computers – themselves still a fairly new and ungainly technology. Advances in technologies and software programs ricocheted the development of e-books and their subsequent e-readers forward in the 1990s. Today e-books are visual and/or aural publications readable on digital devices, which often cost a fraction of the price of traditional books, and offer the advantage of portability and accessibility to large numbers of texts at once.

That said, the e-book industry remains in its infancy, and its approach to all books, especially those for infants and children, evolves every day.  E-book readers pose considerable technical issues. Amazon and Apple, two companies historically known not to play well with others, if at all, both have proprietary restrictions, so buyers can only read book purchases on Kindles or iPads, respectively (although you can download a Kindle reader to your PC). Additionally, as evidenced by the overarching debate about e-books, “Will they kill off traditional books?”, e-books evoke enormous emotional responses from readers. “Traditional” readers argue, for example, that reading a book on a machine cannot substitute for reading a physical book, that the medium is part of the message, that a machine is a sterile substitute for the tactile experience of reading.

The emotional questions of e-books reveal themselves nowhere as strongly as they do with e-books for children, particularly picture books aimed at early readers. As this recent article from The New York Times reports, “[e-books for children] represent less than 5 percent of total annual sales of children’s books, several publishers estimated, compared with more than 25 percent in some categories of adult books.” Children’s e-books present practical arguments (teething toddlers + expensive electronics = definite disaster), practical unknowns (when do bells and whistles enhance and when do they distract?), and questions of the practices of adults themselves, particularly those of middle class income, many of whom rely on their own ability to flip through a book – or that of a librarian, teacher, or fellow parent – to select it for bedtime reading.

Over the coming weeks, PaperTigers will explore questions at the intersection of children’s books, multicultural books and e-books. We’ll interview two authors who have written e-books, survey a sampling of multicultural children’s e-books, and start to frame some of the different perspectives that go into writing, illustrating, distributing and creating e-books for children. There’s sure to be a lot of ideas and opinions about e-books – don’t keep them to yourself; please join in the discussion by leaving a comment below…

Today we welcome Anthony Garcia, a writer for the Online Graduate Programs website, with a thought-provoking article about why it is so important to ensure children have access to a diverse array of multicultural/cross-cultural books.

Anthony recently completed his graduate education in English Literature. A New Mexico native, he currently resides and writes in Seattle, Washington. He writes primarily about education, travel, literature, and American culture.

Educating people through literacy can last a lifetime, because it allows for empowerment. If someone can read information, they can continue to learn and educate themselves for a lifetime.

Have you ever run across someone who was woefully ignorant of diversity? It is a shame that so many people cannot appreciate the value of other cultures and be interested in the different ways social groups all over the world operate.  Perhaps these people would have been more interested in learning about and appreciating different cultures if they were more literate and could assess information accordingly.

Not all of us can attend graduate programs or are even exposed to reading as children. However, it is the responsibility of educated people to share the gift of education, empowering others to learn.

One of the best ways to help others through literacy is to begin sharing books in childhood. It can be difficult to expose children to new viewpoints, especially in areas where there are not significant minority populations. However, using books is a good start to combating ignorance. If children are exposed to other viewpoints, it raises levels of literacy, but also helps them to see similarity, rather than focus on the issues which divide as adults.

Parents and educators are aware that children need to read and to be read to, and should try to pick up books that focus on other cultures, nations and groups. Books about other countries are easy to find in any local library, and children will enjoy seeing pictures of children all over the world who, in some cases, are actually quite similar to them. Children can also learn about the foods that other cultures enjoy and perhaps prepare some of them as part of a class project. Another option is to have students read about the various holidays that are celebrated all over the world and enjoy a class party!

Besides books that just discuss the facts and figures about different countries, if can be fun to explore the folklore of various groups. Most civilizations have legends and fables describing how the world began and the origins of evil. It is interesting to compare all accounts and see how they are similar and different. Educating others through literacy should involve discussion for the most impactful education possible.

Reading culturally diverse books to children is important because (more…)

Abigail Sawyer regularly reviews books for us here at PaperTigers, and she’s also, in her own words, “a lifelong library lover and an advocate for access to books for all”, so who better to write an article for us about “unconventional libraries” and the children’s books they have inspired. Abigail lives in San Francisco, California, USA, where her two children attend a language-immersion elementary school and are becoming bilingual in English and Mandarin: an experience that has informed her work on the blog for the film Speaking in Tongues. I know you’ll enjoy reading this as much as I have.

On Traveling Libraries and Heroic ‘Book People’: Inspiring children’s books about getting books to people in remote places and difficult circumstances

My sons and I paid our first-ever visit to a bookmobile over the summer.  For us it was a novelty.  We have shelves of books at home and live just 3 blocks from our local branch library, but the brightly colored bus had pulled up right near the playground we were visiting in another San Francisco neighborhood (whose branch library was under renovation), and it was simply too irresistible.  Inside, this library on wheels was cozy, comfortable, and loaded with more books than I would have thought possible.  I urged my boys to practice restraint and choose only one book each rather than compete to reach the limit of how many books one can take out of the San Francisco Public Library system (the answer is 50; we’ve done it at least once).

The bookmobiles provide a great service even in our densely populated city where branch libraries abound.  There are other mobile libraries, however, that take books to children who may live miles from even the nearest modern road; to children who live on remote islands, in the sparsely populated and frigid north, in temporary settlements in vast deserts, and in refugee camps.  The heroic individuals who manage these libraries on boats, burros, vans, and camels provide children and the others they serve with a window on the world and a path into their own imaginations that would otherwise be impossible.

Shortly after my own bookmobile experience, Jeanette Winter‘s Biblioburro (Beach Lane Books, 2010), a tribute to Colombian schoolteacher Luis Soriano, who delivers books to remote hillside villages across rural Colombia, arrived in my mailbox to be reviewed for Paper Tigers.  I loved this book, as I do most of Winter’s work, for its bright pictures and simple, straightforward storytelling. Another picture book, Waiting for the Bibiloburro by Monica Brown (Tricycle Press, 2011), tells the story of Soriano’s famous project from the perspective of one of the children it serves, whose life expands beyond farm chores and housework thanks to Soriano and his burros.

I was moved, of course, by Soriano’s story, which got me thinking about another favorite picture book my children found at our branch library a few years ago: That Book Woman by Heather Henson (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008) is a fictionalized account of one family’s experience with the Pack Horse Library Project, a little-known United States Works Progress Administration program that ran from 1935-1943.  The Pack Horse librarians delivered books regularly to families living deep in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains.  In this inspiring story (more…)

Fanfares! Drum rolls! We are very excited to be announcing today the 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set.

They are:

A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope by Michael Foreman (Walker Books / Candlewick Press, 2009)

Rain School by James Rumford (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010)

Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia by Jeanette Winter (Beach Lane Books, 2010)

All three are stunning picture books that were chosen for their engaging narrative and fine illustrations. By coincidence, all three are author-illustrated, something that only became evident after our choice had been made. We hope that the children participating in the Spirit of PaperTigers project will love the books as much as we do. They all encourage children to engage with big issues such as education and peace. They can, we believe, be enjoyed by a wide age range of children – an important consideration for the Spirit of PaperTigers project, as the books will also be read by older children who are learning English.

Following feedback from last year’s participant schools and libraries in the Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach project, we will be sending five copies of each of the three books that make up this year’s Book Set to each of the project’s participants. This will enable teachers to use the books more flexibly and allow for class input, as well as individual enjoyment.

To find out more about the Spirit of PaperTigers project, headover to our Outreach site, where you will find information about the Book Set gathered on one page. You will also be able to view feedback about the 2010 Book Set – and the site continues to be updated as new feedback come in.

The PaperTigers website will be featuring the SPT Book Set over the next few weeks: look out for Gallery Features of all three illustrators’ work, Q&As with the books’ editors, and more…

In the meantime, read reviews of:
A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope
Rain School
Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia

and enjoy these interviews with their creators:

Michael Foreman
James Rumford
Jeanette Winter

A big thank you to them and to their publishers. I’m sure you’ll agree that these are all exceptional books. We can’t wait to get them into the hands of readers around the world – we’ll keep you posted as to that, and look forward to featuring their feedback too.

Concerned about the violence in many parts of the world, Lise Lunge Larsen recently blogged about children’s books with tales about peace, compassion, and creative problem-solving. Click here to read her article on the Children’s Literature Network blog.

Head on over to the PaperTigers website to read our interview with R. Ramachandran, Executive Director of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS).

Here are a few snippets -

About why the Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference, which has since grown in to the Asian Festival of Asian Content (AFCC) came into being in 2000:

As a librarian I realised that the availability of children’s literature with an Asian focus was limited: limited in number, that is. And those books that were available were not attractively produced and were aggressively marketed. The good books produced by the Asian diaspora were too expensive and again not readily distributed in Asia. Asian children were not reading about themselves. The books that were being read were not set in an environment that they were familiar with and could relate to. In the meantime, schools and libraries were being developed. The need for materials for Asian Children was urgent.

About the work of the NBDCS:

Organisations like ours must continue our efforts to impress upon people that stories, reading and writing are fundamental, no matter what form they take and no matter how technology develops.

And about the future of the book:

I still see scope for books as we know them. But a book will have to become a work of art, a niche publication that combines the beauty of paper, words and art on paper, packaged and presented in all its glory to the reader. Such a book will always have a place and a market, even as technology advances and impacts on book publishing as a whole. Like libraries, books will not perish. They will embrace technology, and reinvent themselves as a niche player. [...]

What concerns me, though, is that there appears to be a lack of confidence among publishers to rethink and use the changes in technology to present the book in all its might and glory, and to exploit its unique features to retain the readers and buyers.

Rama certainly provides food for thought – what do you think?

Read the complete interview here.

There are still a few days left before the end of Poetry Month in the US, so if you haven’t already added your lines to LitWorld‘s Global Poem for Change, there’s still time.

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote the beginning and sent the poem flying across the world:

I send my words out into the air, listening for yours from everywhere.

You can follow the poem here and add your own lines here. LitWorld needs your words to help their poem grow and remember, Your Words can Change Worlds – but hurry, the last lines must be sent in my the end of April.

Here are a few of my favorite lines so far:

Speak one word, one-thousand echoes

The sounds that echo through space and time; leave imprints that shape our growing minds

Words that stir, words that drive, words that connect us all, and make us strive.

Words will soar from near to far filling hearts and opening minds –

I can hear you ever so softly- like a single falling snowflake before the blizzard.

Starting with one little syllable… one little word… I offer my peace to the world…

Spoken in love and respect in an effort to change the world

Last year we spoke to Katie Smith Milway about her first solo children’s book One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, selected for the Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 Book Set; it’s great to welcome her back now to talk about her latest book The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough, which promises to be equally life-changing and life-affirming as One Hen. The Good Garden is illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault and, like One Hen, is published by Kids Can Press as part of their superb CitizenKid series.

Katie is a partner at the Bridgespan Group, an advisory to nonprofits and philanthropy. She has written many books and articles on sustainable development and has coordinated community development programs in Africa and Latin America for Food for the Hungry International. She is also the co-author with her mother Mary Ann Smith of Cappuccina Goes to Town (Kids Can Press, 2002), as well as the non-fiction book The Human Farm: A Tale of Changing Lives & Changing Lands (Kumarian Press/Stylus Publishing,1994).

Katie lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA.

In your interview with PaperTigers last year, while touching upon the then forthcoming The Good Garden, you said, “In an era of food crisis, any child can play their part in their home or school garden, or in supporting poor farmers through acts of giving.” How have you aimed at getting that message across in the book?

The Good Garden is based on true people and events, and portrays the life of a campesino family in Honduras. They, like so many small farmers around the world eke out barely enough to live on – in a good year – and are highly vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition, when weather or insects create havoc. This family’s life is transformed, however, when a new teacher, Don Pedro, comes to the village school and gets the family’s daughter, María Luz Duarte, to help him plant a school garden – which he not only uses to teach students their basic subjects, but moreover to teach simple, sustainable agriculture methods that they can apply using their innate human resources: their heads, hands and heart. Through the caring labor of composting, terracing the hillside, planting beans among corn to keep soil nutrients in balance, and even dotting the terraces with flowers that smell bad to bugs, students see their school garden thrive on land that they all thought was too poor to keep them going. María Luz and others bring the learning home to their farms, improve their crops and grow in confidence about taking their own produce to market as opposed to selling to unfair middlemen – called “coyotes” in Honduras – who scoop profits. The knowledge they glean in the marketplace triggers another cycle of learning and innovation. Most importantly, the way the family shares what they have learned – passes it forward – ultimately transforms village after village.

So on one hand, kids see many acts of giving within the story – from teacher to student, from student to family and from family to family. At the back of the book, however, we offer practical ways that kids can help local food banks and community gardens, or give to international organizations like World Vision or Heifer International that provide seeds, tools and farm animals to families that need them. On our website www.thegoodgarden.org, kids can learn more and join a national food drive.

What else do you hope children will find inspirational in the book, which is based on the true story of Honduran teacher Don Elías, who had a profound affect not only on his pupils, but also on the whole community, through spreading his practical knowledge of what was needed to create sustainable farmland?

I hope kids will feel empowered to apply their heads, hands and hearts to any problem to help themselves and others. And I especially hope The Good Garden interests them in combating world hunger – ideas for action are listed at the back of the book. I also hope we see even more school, community and family gardens sprouting up – so kids can identify, if only in a small way, with the billions of poor in our world who live off the land, and so they can experience the satisfaction and nutrition of self-grown produce.

As I was completing The Good Garden manuscript in spring 2009, two of my kids got interested in planting a vegetable garden, and so we’ve had a miniature farming experience ourselves. The kids worked their tails off planting, watering and weeding. They harvested corn, Brussels sprouts and cucumbers, but bugs and shade killed most of the peppers and tomatoes. This summer, Brendan (15) and Mary Kate (12) expanded the garden for maximum sunlight and planted marigolds to repel the bugs. We’ve had great peppers, tomatoes and eggplants, but a varmint got through the fencing and decimated the corn patch. All to say, we have learned how good home-grown food can be, but also the tenuousness of growing it. We would starve without groceries!

The Good Garden has only been out for a few months but have you already heard about schools using it as a springboard for their own projects?

Absolutely. Here are a few anecdotes: (more…)

Have you been totting up the minutes you’ve been reading aloud, in preparation for World ReadAloud day? You can add your times to the count over at LitWorld now - as well as tell them about any special events you’ve taken part in today. Were/are you at Times Square in New York for the 24-hour Readathon? And if you read the NY Daily News, look out tomorrow (Thursday 10th) for a”joyful piece” by LitWorld’s Poet Laureate Kwame Alexander…

For some background, read the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. Lots of people multiplied by lots of minutes should make for a big total. Will we reach the 774 million target? It’s almost time to find out…