The new issue of PaperTigers, focusing on Religious Diversity in relation to End-of-Year Celebrations, is now live.

The end of the year, when so many holy and secular days are observed and celebrated, reminds us of the importance of understanding and being respectful of how others in our communities engage with and
express their beliefs. Books play an essential role in helping children learn about differences (for instance, why some people celebrate different holidays, or the same holidays in different ways, while others don’t celebrate anything): but more than anything, books can help them realize that, while our individualities do matter, our common humanity matters even more.

We hope you will enjoy our new features, which focus on celebrating diversity while striving for a more encompassing and tolerant world for all our children, families and communities.

We will also be talking about religious diversity and end-of-year celebrations here on the blog this month, so we hope you will share your favorite books and experiences with us!

British poet, Judith Nicholls, has compiled a wonderful book of poems for children called Someone I Like: Poems About People (illustrated by Giovanni Manna.)  I discovered Nicholls’ work through The Children’s Poetry Archive, a wonderful website chock-a-block with recommendations of poetry for children.  In Someone I Like, Nicholls has assembled poems by various authors that look at human relationships in ways that children can identify with.  There are poems about friendship and about one’s parents.  There are poems about siblings, and about aunties and grandmothers.  What I liked about the poems was how emotionally frank many of them were.  In “Urgent Note to My Parents,” the child speaker says:

Don’t ask me to do what I can’t do
Only ask me to do what I can
Don’t ask me to be what I can’t be
Only ask me to be what I am

The accompanying illustration of a fed-up looking girl in overalls with a pencil in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other is very fitting!  In reading this book to my daughter, we were able to explore terrains of emotion that were new and sometimes surprising.  Poems, for example, about broken friendships and about a girl who tells her granny “you’ll have to be dying soon” were arresting and provocative.  Such poems engage the reader and require a response, and that is what good poetry should do for parent and child alike.  Compiler Nicholl understands this notion deeply and brings her experience as a poet, parent and grandparent to bear on her lively selections.

Someone I Like is published by an innovative press called Barefoot Books.  Their vision is to produce books that “celebrate the world’s diversity, encourage children’s independent spirits, and build their enthusiasm for reading, creativity and discovery.”  Someone I Like certainly fulfills that vision!

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day.

The NY Times has posted a slideshow of their winners of Best Illustrated Children’s Books 2008.

Every year since 1952, the Book Review has asked a panel of judges to select from among the several thousand children’s books published that year.

The judges this time around were Caroline Ward, the coordinator of youth services at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., who has served as president of the Association for Library Service to Children; Luann Toth, the managing editor of the School Library Journal’s book review; and Christopher Myers, an award-winning writer and artist who is at work on a book about America with his father, Walter Dean Myers.

As a matter of note, Stephen T. Johnson and Melissa Sweet have won the award once before, and Ed Young twice before. — The Editors

Click here to watch. The 2007 winners are here.

The PaperTigers’ Book of the Month choice for March is One Peace: True Stories of Young Activists (Orca, 2008), by self-proclaimed “passionate pacifist” Janet Wilson.

The marketing material we received from Orca, along with our review copy of the book, says: “For the future to be better than the past, better than the present, we must equip our children with an understanding of the world around them and encourage faith in their ability to bring about change.” The latest issue of PaperTigers heartily echoes their sentiment, and One Peace encapsulates it perfectly: by telling the stories of youth who have taken leadership roles, it inspires young readers to take their own steps toward world peace. Told through art, poetry, quotations, and photographs, the book includes profiles of Farlis Calle, who started Colombia Children’s Movement for Peace; Craig Kielburger, three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Free The Children, an organization he founded at age 12; Kimmie Weeks, who established Voices of the Future, Liberia’s first child rights advocacy group, and many more.

The idea for the book, which has been included in the 2008 Smithsonian Notable Books for Children list, came during a presentation, when Wilson was asked by a child “why children are taught about war but not peace.” One Peace was, ultimately, her response. But she has more to say about the matter: her plan is to write a series of books about “building a more peaceful and just world under the guidance of our wise children.” Hurray for that!

To read about Janet Wilson’s painting of the activists’ portraits, check here. And for more of her artwork, take a peek at her PaperTigers gallery.

My son’s introduction to mysteries was by way of Canadian writer Marty Chan.  Beginning with The Mystery of the Frozen Brains followed by The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul and then finally with The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher, my son has followed the erstwhile adventures of ten year old Marty in his French Canadian town in Alberta with great interest.  Marty is the only Chinese kid in his prairie town. This makes him very self-aware.  In Graffiti Ghoul, he says:

Being the only Chinese kid at school already made me stand out like a beach ball on a snow bank.  My black hair and darker skin made me different from the rest of the kids, and my classmates teased me almost every day.  They called me a math geek.  They claimed I ate cats.  They said Jackie Chan was my uncle.  None of it was true, but that didn’t stop them from making nasty rumours about me.

One might chuckle now reading this, feeling Marty’s comments to be dated, but in fact, this kind of racial teasing was pretty common-place for many of my generation of Asians growing up in the predominantly white prairie provinces of Canada.  One couldn’t help then but feel like an alien — an idea which Chan makes much of in the first of his series: The Mystery of the Frozen Brains.  Marty feels so conspicuous in his town that he actually begins to believe that he might be a space alien.  He and his new-found friend Remi even go out in search of a space ship.

For my son, Marty Chan’s books are entertaining stories of a boy trying to solve mysteries in his town, but for me as a parent, reading Chan’s books reminded me of what growing up Asian in North America was like.  Thanks, Marty Chan, for rendering an ‘alien’ existence in such a pleasurable way for both parent and child!

Last week I was lucky enough to spend some time in San Francisco where one of the highlights of the trip was a day spent sightseeing with PaperTigers’ managing editor and producer Aline Pereira. Our first stop was the outstanding Asian Art Museum, one of the largest museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian Art. We wandered though the three floors of amazing exhibits and got to watch master Japanese bamboo artist Tanaka Kyokusho demonstrate his bamboo art. Tanaka mixes traditional bamboo techniques with a contemporary sensibility to create a unique style of his own. His bamboo baskets are amazing works of art. While the adults watched Tanaka’s demonstration, kids got to try weaving a pattern with various materials such as paper and raffia.

Our next stop was the San Francisco library to see an exhibit of artwork by author/illustrator Elisa Kleven. Elisa, currently featured in our PaperTigers’ illustrator gallery, is appropriately described by Aline as being a master of imaginary worlds. Her artwork is simply stunning with bright colors and so much detail that the illustrations feel as if they are moving and jumping off the pages at you.

Aline (l) and myself (r).

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Click to enlarge the photos and you can see the original illustrator manuscript for Abuela plus a puzzle!
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I purchased a copy of The City by the Bay: A Magical Journey Around San Francisco (written by Tricia Brown, illustrated by Elisa) to bring home to my children. Here’s my daughter Emma reading it to our dog Riley and a close up of her favorite page – fireworks and the Golden Gate Bridge. Emma took this book to school for Show and Tell where it was quite the hit! The kids loved the illustrations and the challenge of finding the dog, cat and baby on each page. Check out our PaperTigers’ gallery to see more of Elisa’s work.
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Although my mother taught her children to love books with a fierce and covetous passion, it was a rare occasion when she read to us. She was a woman who had five children in nine years, who lived in Alaska with no electricity or running water, who baked everything we ate from scratch and was either cooking  or washing our clothes or doing her best to keep us in a presentable state. She had time for little else.

My father read to us in the winter when the nights were long–Heidi,  The Rose and the Ring, Treasure Island,  –my earliest memories are of these books that enthralled me long before I went to school. Then he went blind.

By the time my father was no longer able to read aloud, I was hopelessly ensnared in the tradition. The minute I finished a book that I loved, I would promptly begin reading it aloud to my younger sisters and brother, my captive audience. They were, however, a strongminded group and would certainly have rebelled if necessary, but instead they would frequently ask me to read to them, even after they could read to themselves. (more…)

Author Linda Sue Park has a new novel out called A Long Walk to Water, “based on the true story of Salva Dut, a Sudanese refugee who fled his home village at the age of eleven because of war. Salva became one of the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan‘, immigrating to the U.S. in the 1990s (he is now President and Chief Operating Officer of the charitable foundation Water for Sudan).” If this blurb catches your attention—it immediately caught mine!—don’t look for Salva’s story at you favorite bookstore—you won’t find it there. Instead, look for it in your local newspaper, as a “Breakfast Serial.”

Breakfast Serials, founded by children’s book author Avi, have, since 1996, been taking novel-length pieces of original fiction and syndicating them for publication in newspapers, one chapter a week, in the U.S. and abroad. “A simpler, more popular literature that appeals to new audience sets”, these serials were originally aimed at young people “who know how to read but choose not to,” but their popularity soon captured the attention of adults as well. Their goal, as stated on their website, is “to refresh the reading experience in a new and convenient context and to forward the process of human attachment by way of an unfolding story.” A very nice concept that has people talking and trying to figure out “what happens next.”

Every Breakfast Serial installment is accompanied by full-color or b/w illustrations—something that sets them apart from novels published in book format, which usually aren’t illustrated. You can see two sample chapters of A Long Walk to Water, illustrated by Jim Averbeck, here. In addition to Park’s story about Salva, there are many others available in English and Spanish, such as (more…)

This past Monday was Louis Riel Day, a holiday for the province of Manitoba where I live. Louis Riel was Metis. The Metis are an indigenous group of Canadians historically formed from the union of French Canadian men (primarily the voyageurs) and aboriginal women. The Metis are a distinct aboriginal group in Canada. They have a common history and culture, and a unique language known as Michif. Traditionally, they populated the areas of the western Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Louis Riel Day is celebrated here alongside a week long winter festival called Festival du Voyageur.

Recently I was given a number of children’s books by Pemmican Publications Inc. This press is committed to promoting the Metis culture and heritage. One of the books from their Michif Children’s Series is called Thomas and the Metis Cart. It was written originally in English by Bonnie Murray, illustrated by Sheldon Dawson and translated into Michif by Rita Flamand. Through the Michif Children’s series of books, the Michif language is being revived and shaped for use to be read now by a younger generation. Thomas and the Metis Cart is about a boy named Thomas who is given a class science project to build something on wheels. Thomas decides he would like build a replica of a Red River cart, an important transportation vehicle used by the Metis in settling the west. As his father helps him build the replica, Thomas finds out more about the cart and his Metis history.

Louis Riel Day and the Festival du Voyageur celebrate an aspect of my city and province’s history and culture. What festivals and holidays do you have in your locale that celebrate its past? Are there books about them? Do tell!

A few days ago, my daughter asked to go to the library to get a book about Valentine’s Day. As a result, we came home with not one, but four great titles that have added to both our understanding and fondness of the celebration.

I love how Valentine’s Day—any day, really—provides plenty of opportunities to build on a child’s love of books. “Kids Heart Authors” day, happening today in bookstores throughout the country, is a testament to that, making the most of the celebration by bringing kids together with the books and authors they love.

In lieu of such incredible opportunity (no “Kids Heart Authors” events near us, unfortunately), our library books do a pretty good job of satisfying our book hunger and keeping us connected through reading: Valentine’s Day, by Clyde Robert Bulla let us know that most scholars believe that this “love-focused day leapt gleefully from the Roman holiday Lupercalia, a festival celebrated more than 2,000 years ago to mark the beginning of spring,” and told us how the tradition spread to other countries. Barbara Samuels’ Happy Valentine’s Day, Dolores, allowed us to bask in the deliciously complicated glow of sisterly love; Valentine’s Day, by Anne and Lizzy Rockwell, brought us close to a group of students making valentine’s for a classmate who is visiting family in Japan, and our favorite of the four books, Gilbert Oscar Twyman’s Stoneheart: The Real Valentine’s Day Story, introduced us to a two-year old girl who transforms a gloomy kingdom into a land of happy and loving people. Oh the power of children and the power of books …

For more reads about this special celebration see here and here. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!