Maya Christina Gonzalez,
I Know the River Loves Me / Yo sé que el río me ama
Children’s Book Press, 2009.

Ages 5-8

A girl visits a very special best friend, the river.  How does she know that the river loves her?  “She [the river] jumps and sings when she sees me”, and “when I look into her face, she’s happy to see me.” are just two of the answers that each turn of the page provides. The girl is filled with a sense of well-being through being able to play in the river, or sit by her and think; the river will continue to be there “waiting for me, singing my name” because it is loved and respected. Gonzalez’ lyrical prose reads like a poem and offers up plenty of food for young readers’ imaginations.

While the depiction of the little girl is instantly recognisable as being in Gonzalez’ style, unusually, she emphasises the flowing and swirling of the river by allowing the white of the page to be seen behind them.  In contrast to the bright blues of the water and greens and pinks of the fish and riverside flora, the girl herself is depicted in soft monochrome.  This does not detract from the solidity of the girl’s presence in the narrative, but it does emphasise the central role of the river.  It is particularly effective when the girl is floating in the river, her long, dark hair seeming to meld into the curves of the flowing water.  At the very end, the girl is seen wearing a blue dress that flows into the river, which, in turn, has absorbed her blacks and grays among its blue.  The concluding words bring the by now familiar refrain, “I know the river loves me,” and this time we also have the counterpoint that creates the balance of harmony, as well as a powerful ending to the narrative: “and I love the river.”

The practical actions involved in reaching this spiritual affinity are not ignored either – so the girl is shown taking her rubbish home.  In a short appendix Gonzalez talks about her love of rivers and encourages her readers to explore rivers for themselves – both the ones that inspired her to create the book and, by extension, the rivers on their own doorsteps.  I Know the River Loves Me is a gentle way to introduce young children to the mutual benefits of showing love and respect to their natural environment.

Marjorie Coughlan
January 2012

To kick off the Merced County Arts Council’s Demand the Arts campaign author Francisco X. Alarcón will host a book reading on Saturday, July 30th from 11am – noon. The event will take place at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center 645 W. Main Street, Merced, CA, USA. Mr. Alarcón will read from his bilingual book for children Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems / Jitomates risueños y otros poemas de primavera. Publisher Children’s Book Press’ overview of Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems reads:

From the imagination of poet Francisco X. Alarcón comes this playful and moving collection of twenty poems about spring in English and Spanish. Tomatoes laugh, chiles explode, and tortillas applaud the sun! With joy and tenderness, delight and sadness, Francisco’s poems honor the wonders of life and nature: welcoming the morning sun, remembering his grandmother’s songs, paying tribute to children working in the fields, and sharing his dream of a world filled with gardens. Artist Maya Christina Gonzalez invites us to experience the poems with her lively cast of characters—including a spirited grandmother, four vivacious children, and playful pets who tease and delight. Follow them from page to page as they bring the spring season to colorful life.

Alarcón is an award-winning poet, educator and author of 12 volumes of poetry.  Raised in Mexico and California, he refers to himself  as a “bi-national, bicultural, bilingual poet” and writes for children and adults in English and Spanish. His children’s books vividly paint pictures of Latino culture, family, fun, and flavor and have won such prestigious awards as the American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Honor Award and the Américas Award Commended Title. Alarcón was a featured speaker at Talleres de Poesia’s inaugural  Children’s Poetry Festival held last November in El Salvador

Merced Arts Council Executive Director Staci Santa encourages children and their families to come down and enjoy the event. She says “Francisco seamlessly weaves language, art and diversity in an accessible and joyful way that makes everyone who meets him happier. The arts council is excited to bring Mr. Alarcón to Merced to share the beautiful languages and images in his children’s books to kids young and young at heart.”

To download the event poster click here.

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This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted at Book Aunt  – head on over.

 

At the same time as celebrating 35 years of publishing beautiful books under the banner Many Voices, One World, Children’s Book Press has recently launched an appeal to raise money to sustain the organisation. Children’s Book Press is a non-profit whose Vision is worth quoting at length:

Children’s Book Press is the only nonprofit, independent press in the country [US] focused on publishing first voice literature for children by and about people from the Latino, African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American communities. We promote lived and shared experiences of cultures who have been historically under-represented or misrepresented in children’s literature while also focusing on promoting inter-cultural and cross-cultural awareness for children of all backgrounds. Children’s Book Press literature provide tools that help build healthy children, families, and thriving communities for generations to come.

If you want to find out more, read this, and our interview with Dana Goldberg, Children’s Book Press Executive Editor, in which she said this:

As a nonprofit publisher, we really do need the support of our community not only to publish the kinds of books we do, but also to keep them in print. Buying our books and/or making tax-deductable donations go a long way in helping us achieve our goals, of course, but donations of items from our Wish List, or of volunteer time, also help tremendously.

I have a special fondness for Children’s Book Press because one of the first (of many!) picture books I fell in love with after we started producing our own book reviews was one of theirs: A Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai and illustrated by Felicia Hoshino. Last year, The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucía González, illustrated by Lulu Delacre, was one of the books selected for our Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 book set. To take a couple of books at random, other recent titles that have garnered praise are Tan to Tamarind: Poems about the Color Brown by Malathi Michelle Iyengar, illustrated by Jamel Akib, and My Papa Diego and Me: Memories of My Father and His Art/ Mi papá Diego y yo: Recuerdos di mi padre y su arte by Guadalupe Rivera Marín and illustrated by Diego Rivera. With writers and illustrators like Toyomi Igus, Francisco X. Alarcón, René Colato Laínez, Maya Christina Gonzalez, and… well, I could go on but really, you should head on over to the Children’s Book Press website and take a look at their fabulous catalogue for yourselves.

And I urge you to read Publisher & Executive Director Lorraine García-Nakata recent letter of appeal, published on the Children’s Book Press blog. $47,000 is a lot of money to have to raise by March but it’s not impossible – take a look at the website and think about buying a book; and if you’re in San Francisco next Wednesday, 23rd February, you have the opportunity to show support and have a great night out with some of their authors and artists. Don’t miss it – and then come here and let us know what a great time you had!

(Click on event name for more information)

Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre 2010 Exhibits~ Australia

Canadian Library  Month: Your Library, Your World~ Canada

National Book Month~ USA

Reading Association of Ireland Annual Conference~ Sep 30 – Oct 2, Dublin, Ireland

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read~ ongoing until Oct 3, USA

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

National Young Writers’ Festival~ ongoing until  Oct 4, Newcastle, Australia

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

Hispanic Heritage Month~ ongoing until Oct 15, USA

3rd CJ Picture Book Award Submissions Accepted~ ongoing until Oct 20, Seoul, Korea

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

Entries Accepted for the 2011 PBBY-Salanga Prize~ ongoing until Nov 15, Philippines

The Children’s Bookshow: Stories From Around The World~ ongoing until Nov 17, United Kingdom

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

Eric Carle: A Feast for the Eyes~ ongoing until  Mar 20, Amherst, MA, USA

Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature Awards Ceremony~ Oct 1, Boston, MA, USA

SCBWI Presents: Writing and Illustrating Long Walk to Freedom with Author Chris van Wyk and Illustrator Paddy Bouma~ Oct 1, Cape Town, South Africa

The Center for Children’s Literature Presents: The Business of Children’s Publishing~ Oct 1 – 2, Kenosha, WI, USA

Reading Association of Africa Annual Conference: It All Starts with Literacy~ Oct 1 – 3, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

5th Annual Cybils (Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Nominations Open~ Oct 1 – 15

The Children’s Book Festival~ Oct 1 – 31, Ireland

Nambook-010: The 5th Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival~ Oct 1 – Nov 15, Nami, Korea

The Horn Book at Simmons: A One Day Colloquium~ Oct 2, Boston, MA, USA

2010 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition of Children’s Books~ Oct 2 – 31, Yokkaich, Japan

Orange County Children’s Book Festival~ Oct 3, Costa Mesa, CA, USA

14th Poetry Africa International Poetry Festival~ Oct 4 – 9, Durban, South Africa

Children’s Book Week: Books Around the World~ Oct 4 – 10, United Kingdom

TaleBlazers Literary Arts Festival~ Oct 4 – 29, Province of Alberta, Canada

Wellesley College Presents: Mitali Perkins “Books Between Cultures: How Stories Help Kids Keep Their Balance”~ Oct 5, Wellesley, MA, USA

2nd Unisa Conference on Reading Promotion and Storytelling for Children and Storytelling Festival for Children~ Oct 6 – 8, Pretoria, South Africa

Ubud Writers and Readers Festival~ Oct 6 – 10, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Frankfurt Book Fair~ Oct 6 – 10, Frankfurt, Germany

2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Nominees Announced~ Oct 7, Frankfurt, Germany

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award Winners Announced~ Oct 7, London, United Kingdom

No Small Matter: A Fundraiser for Children’s Book Press~ Oct 7, San Francisco, CA, USA

A is for Anansi: Literature for Children of African Descent~ Oct 8 – 9, New York, NY, USA

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival~ Oct 8 – 17, Cheltenham, United Kingdom

Teachers 4 Social Justice 10th Annual Conference: Teaching for Social Justice – A Labor Of Love~ Oct 9, San Francisco, CA, USA

13th Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival ~ Oct 9 – 10, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Japan Writers Conference~ Oct 9 – 11, Tokyo, Japan

20th Annual Monterrey International Book Fair~ Oct 9 – 17, Monterrey, Mexico

Inky Awards Shortlist Announced, On-line Voting Begins~ Oct 12, Australia

Writers Against Racism: A Conversation About Books with Amy Bowllan and Zetta Elliott~ Oct 13, New York, NY, USA

Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Awards Ceremony~ Oct 14, San Marcos, TX, USA

15th Annual New England Conference on Multicultural Education~ Oct 14, Hartford, CT, USA

National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Presents From Houdini to Hugo: The Art of Brian Selznick~ Oct 14 – Jan 29, Abilene, TX, USA

57th Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards Ceremony~ Oct 15, New York, NY, USA

Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival: Shared Stories. Shared Worlds~ Oct 15 – 17, Sheboygan, WI, USA

Benefit for The 1st Annual El Salvador Children’s Poetry Festival~ Oct 16, San Francisco, CA, USA

CHARACTER COUNTS! Week~ Oct 17 – 23, USA

YALSA’s Teen Read Week: Books with Beat @ your library~ Oct 17 – 23, USA

1st Screening of Library of the Early Mind~ Oct 19, Cambridge, MA, USA

Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival~ Oct 19 – 24, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Chapter & Verse, a Book Club for Adults Discussing Children’s Lit~ Oct 21, USA

Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature: Collaboration~ Oct 21 – 23, Westport, CT, USA

British Columbia Literacy Council 2010 conference~ Oct 22, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Bournemouth Multicultural Literary Festival: Freedom, Books & Imagination~ Oct 22 – 28, Bournemouth, United Kingdom

Celebrate 70 Years of Children’s Book Week~ Oct 23, Minneapolis, MN, USA

SCBWI Children’s Book Seminar~ Oct 23, Bacolod City, Philippines

Kidlitosphere 2010 Conference~ Oct 23, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Américas Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature Winners Ceremony~ Oct 23, Washington, D.C., USA

GobbleDEEbook Literature Festival for Children and Teens~ Oct 23 – 30, Chester, United Kingdom

CROCUS 2010: Celebrate Reading of Culturally Unique Stories~ Oct 23 – 30, India

Scottish International Storytelling Festival~ Oct 23 – 31, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

International Youth Library Exhibit: The World in Miniature. The Family in Historic Picture Books and Children’s Literature~ Oct 24 – Aug 31, Munich, Germany

Sharjah International Book Fair and Announcement of the Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature Winner~ Oct 26 – Nov 6, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

6th Annual World Matters Festival: Writers -Disturbing the Peace~ Oct 27 – 31, Eltham, Australia

30th Santiago International Book Fair~ Oct 29 – Nov 14, Santiago, Chile

Singapore Children’s Book Club Presents Serene Wee and her novel Present~ Oct 30, Singapore

Tell-a-Story Day~ Oct 30, Scotland

BookFest @ Bank Street~ Oct 30, Manhattan, NY,USA

Waikato Children’s Literature Association Annual Seminar~ Oct 30 – 31, Hamilton, New Zealand

Children’s Literature Festival~ Oct 30, Keene, NH,USA

As Aline mentioned in her post below, “Claiming Face” on Hispanic Heritage Month, Children’s Book Press will be celebrating their 35th Anniversary this fall. The anniversary celebrations will kick-off on September 26th with a free family-oriented public event at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin St. @ Grove, San Francisco, CA, USA) between 2:00 and 4:00 pm. There, Children’s Book Press will celebrate its dynamic community of authors, artists, supporters, partners, and the many friends who have been part of a long and nationally renowned publishing history. With music provided by the 14-piece youth salsa band, Futuro Picante, this event will also highlight two new books published this year, with readings by René Colato Laínez, author of From North to South / Del Norte al Sur and Angela Domínguez, illustrator of Let Me Help! /¡Quiero ayudar! Light refreshments will be served. RSVP on Facebook or email publicity(at)childrensbookpress(dot)org

On October 7 at 7:00pm, Children’s Book Press will be holding No Small Matter: A Fundraiser for Children’s Book Press at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco). This event will honor Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for his work exploring the American identity, and Children’s Book Press founder Harriet Rohmer for her vision and legacy. Attendees will enjoy the dynamic artistry of Gregangelo & Velocity Circus, featuring whirling dervishes, contortionists and images taken from Children’s Book Press’ anthology, On My Block. The event will close with the swirling colors and pounding rhythms of Non Stop Bhangra, a dance troupe that combines traditional Punjabi folk music with hip hop, reggae, and electronica. Former California State Senator Art Torres will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Tickets are $70/person and can be purchased here.

This year we welcome Hispanic Heritage Month by pointing you to Children’s Book Press‘ guest blog post by Maya Christina Gonzalez, the first of a series highlighting the author’s “Claiming Face Educator’s Guide” curriculum, published by her own Reflection Press (Maya has published several books with Children’s Book Press). In this first post, which went live on Sep 7, Maya gives us a little background to the project, whose goal is to help children learn to use creativity on their journey to developing a strong sense of self. She says:

I’ve had the opportunity to work with many children over the years. Since I work almost exclusively with children of color, I naturally began sharing with them how art had supported me growing up. This evolved and deepened over the years into a full curriculum I call Claiming Face.

The series will go on for a few months, with one post per month, so head on over to read the first installment now—and, while you’re at it, make sure to bookmark the Children’s Book Press’s website and blog, as you will want to visit often to keep abreast not only of new posts in this series, but also of their new releases and 35th anniversary festivities happening this month and next.

Not long ago, Corinne did a post on a children’s poetry festival in El Salvador.  The post piqued my interest in one of the hosts of the event,  poet Jorge Argueta,  whose books I immediately requested from the library.  As is my usual custom, I take out several books by the same author — as many as are available — and as a result, my daughter and I enjoyed a wonderful night of Argueta’s poetry and stories.  The two poetry books of Argueta’s I was able to read were:  Trees are Hanging from the Sky (illustrated by Rafael Yockteng, published by Groundwood, 2003) and A Movie in My Pillow (illustrated by Elizabeth Gomez, Children’s Book Press, 2001).   The first book was a little hard for my daughter to understand conceptually.  How was it that trees could hang from the sky?  She queried.   And their roots be like snakes?  But once she saw the illustrations, she understood.  I liked the ideas as sheer poetic inversion — it seemed marvelous to me, the idea of trees being rooted in the sky, rather than on earth!

A Movie in My Pillow is a bilingual book and contains short poems in Spanish and English.  In this book, the poems are more straightforward contemplations of the life of an El Salvadoran boy in San Francisco.   My daughter enjoyed this book very much and in fact, wanted to read the poems in English while I read the Spanish (which unfortunately I don’t know very well, but had fun trying to read aloud!)  After the book was done, she said she liked this poetry book a lot.  It was one of the few poetry books I’ve read that she was truly engaged in.

PaperTigers has done an interview with Jorge Argueta.  You might check it out along with his books for a wonderful treat of words!  I do hope his endeavours with the first ever children’s poetry festival in El Salvador go well.

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Susan Taylor Brown at Susan Writes.

A few weeks ago, I attended a reading by First Nations authors at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission session held in Winnipeg (which I also posted about recently) and was introduced to the stories of the engaging and entertaining First Nations writer, Richard Van Camp.  I immediately sought out his books at the library and came home with What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses, illustrated by George Littlechild (Children’s Book Press, 1998) and A Man Called Raven (Children’s Book Press, 1997).

As soon as I got these books, I read them to my daughter and she was completely taken in by them.  She was struck especially by the lesson conveyed in A Man Called Raven wherein a mysterious man teaches some boys not to be cruel to ravens. She also thought the books were very colorful and indeed, George Littlechild’s illustrations are very vibrant.  A week after we read the books together (and we’d been to the zoo and seen a crane which I pointed out to my daughter was the bird in the famous Japanese folktale, the Crane Wife), my daughter kept asking me for the ‘crane’ book.  What crane book?  I wondered.  The one we read before, she said.  I was puzzled until I finally clued in that she was referring to A Man Called Raven, except that she’d mixed up the birds!  That was a funny moment in mixing up symbols!  However culturally disparate, both stories do feature shape shifting birds.  I’ll not tell you anymore though; you can seek out the stories yourselves!

For more about Richard Van Camp, you can check the PaperTigers website here in Personal Views and here for an interview with Richard.

Founded in 1975, Children’s Book Press is a nonprofit independent publisher of multicultural and bilingual literature by and about people from the Latino, African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American communities. Their stories promote “lived and shared experiences of cultures who have been historically under-represented or misrepresented in children’s literature while also focusing on promoting inter-cultural and cross-cultural awareness for children of all backgrounds.”

Children’s Book Press is the publisher of The Storyteller’s Candle, one of the seven books selected for inclusion in our Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set Donation Project. Dana Goldberg, Executive Editor, answered my questions about the book and other topics related to multicultural children’s literature:

PT: How did The Storyteller’s Candle come about as a project for Children’s Book Press?

DG: Our former Executive Director approached Lucía Gonzalez at a conference, and they got to talking about Pura Belpré. The idea to do a book with Lucía about Pura came from that meeting.

PT: When you acquired Lucia’s manuscript, did you expect the book to be as successful as it’s turned out to be?

DG: We did have high expectations for the book. The manuscript was just perfect — Lucía is a master storyteller, so we knew the book would be reviewed favorably in that respect. We knew there would be significant interest on the part of librarians everywhere, and from the Latino community in general. Pura was so influential to so many people, to so many generations of children. From the very beginning we had an inkling we had a hit on our hands.

PT: Did you consider other illustrators for the book, or was Lulu Delacre the most natural choice? What can you tell us about the pairing up of Lucia’s work with Lulu’s art?

DG: It was Lucía’s idea to approach Lulu, since the two of them had worked together before on the The Bossy Gallito and Senor Cat’s Romance and Other Favorite Stories from Latin America. It seemed very natural to bring those two amazingly talented women together again for this particular book. Pura Belpré was the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York, and Lucía felt very connected to her because she too is a librarian and a storyteller, and Lulu had the connection of being from Puerto Rico and having the firsthand cultural knowledge that goes along with the story.

PT: How do you think the public’s attitude toward multicultural and bilingual books for children has changed since CBP was founded, in 1975? (more…)

The San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards annually recognize organizations and individuals who have made a significant impact in Bay Area communities. This year, one of the organizations being honored is Children’s Book Press, the first independednt, non-profit publisher of bilingual, multicultural literature for children, established in 1976. PaperTigers congratulates Children’s Book Press on this wonderful and well-deserved honor!

Here is the judges’ statement about the impact CBP has had in its community—and no doubt beyond it, too:

For the past 33 years Children’s Book Press has served as a vehicle for civil rights, human rights, and social justice, with a profound impact on the children, youth, and adults who better understand their own lives and histories as a result of its bilingual, multicultural books. Children’s Book Press builds the connection between literacy and success, preserves traditions, and helps build a stronger future for our children.

For those in the Bay Area, the award ceremony will take place tomorrow, Sep 22, at the San Francisco Herbst Theater. To attend the event, you can rsvp using this page.