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Black History Month~ Canada

African American History Month~ USA

National African American Read-in~  USA

The Katha Chitrakala Award (Excellence in Children’s Book Illustrations) Winners Announced~ India

The Golden Age of the Picture Book: 1920s & 1930s – History’s Message to Children~ ongoing until Feb 6, Tokyo, Japan

The 11th Annual National Storytelling Week~ ongoing until Feb 5, United Kingdom

Kolkata Book Fair~ ongoing until Feb 6, Kolkata, India

Tales in the Garden Festival~ ongoing until Feb 12, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand

Mirror, an Exhibition by Children’s Author and Artist Jeannie Baker~ ongoing until Feb 13, Australia

2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award~ submissions accepted until Feb 25, United Kingdom

International Youth Library Exhibit: The Fabulous World of John Kilaka, Pictures and Drawings by a Tanzanian Artist~ ongoing until Feb 28, Munich, Germany

Entries Accepted for The Growing up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Mar 10, San Francisco, CA, USA

2011 PBBY-Alcala Prize~ submissions accepted until Mar 30, Philippines

International Youth Library Presents Walls: A Book and an Exhibition~ ongoing until Apr 5, Munich, Germany

International Youth Library Exhibit: Manga From Japan~ ongoing until Apr 5, Munich, Germany

Making Books Sing Presents a One-Woman Play Based on The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucía Gonzalez~ ongoing until spring, New York, NY, USA

Partners in Wonder: Selections from the Collection of Jane Yolen~ ongoing until May 1, Amherst, MA, USA

Look! The Art of Australian Picture Books Today~ ongoing until May 29, Melbourne, Australia

The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibit: Real and Imaginary: Three Latin American Artists – Raúl Colón, David Diaz and Yuyi Morales~ ongoing until May 29, Chicago, IL, USA

Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney~ ongoing until May 30, Stockbridge, MA, USA

Animal Fair: Birds, Beasts, and Bugs in Children’s Book Illustrations~ ongoing until Jun 5, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Seven Stories Exhibit: There’s Nuffin Like a Puffin!~ ongoing until Jun 27, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

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

World Congress of Asian Studies~ Feb 2 – 6, Kolkata, India

Children’s Literature Symposium: Critical Perspectives on Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Images and Illustrations in Children’s and Young Adult Literature~ Feb 5, Sarasota, FL, USA

2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour~ Feb 6 – 11

36th Congress of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA): Storytelling in Literature, Language, and Culture ~ Feb 7 – 9, Auckland, New Zealand

Translated! An Interactive Festival of Literary Translation~ Feb 7 – 12, Melbourne, Australia

iConference 2011~ Feb 8 – 11, Seattle, WA, USA

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Exhibit: What a Circus! The Art of Etienne Delessert~ Feb 8 – Jun 5, Amherst, MA, USA

Nordic Children’s Literature Conference~ Feb 9 – 11, Norway

Taipei Book Fair~ Feb 9 – 14, Taipei, Taiwan

Sun Gallery’s Twenty-second Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ Feb 9 – Apr 16, Hayward, CA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: Anita Lobel – All the World’s a Stage~ Feb 10 – May 28, Abilene, TX, USA

Book Launch: Out of the Way! Out of the Way! by Uma Krishnaswami, pictures Uma Krishnaswamy~ Feb 11, Chennai, India

Rhizomes VI – Other Words, Other Worlds: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in a Globalizing Era~ Feb 11 – 12, Brisbane, Australia

Imagine Children’s Festival~ Feb 12 – 27, London, United Kingdom

2010 Cybils (the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Winners Announced~ Feb 14

First Nations Public Library Week~ Feb 14 – 19, Province of Ontario, Canada

LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival: Crossing Borders~ Feb 16 – 19, London, United Kingdom

12th International Vilnius Book Fair: Literature Without Frontiers~ Feb 17 – 20, Vilnius, Lithuania

All In! Young Writers Seminar~ Feb 19, Singapore

25th Jerusalem Book Fair~ Feb 20 – 25, Jerusalem, Israel

Freedom to Read Week~ Feb 20 – 26, Canada

2010-2011 Mathieu Da Costa Challenge Winners Announced~ Feb 22, Canada

Challenging Books: Who Should Decide What Our Children Read?~ Feb 23, Toronto, ON, Canada

The International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference~ Feb 24 – 25, Orlando, FL, USA

The Arabian Reading Assocation’s (TARA) Conference~ Feb 24 – 26, Manama, Bahrain

International Conference for Writers and Translators (IBBY Flanders, IBBY Netherlands, Friedrich Bödecker Kreis Germany)~ Feb 24 – 26, Antwerp, Belgium

SCBWI’s Annual Golden Gate Conference At Asilomar~ Feb 25 – 27, Pacific Grove, CA, USA

Bath Lit Fest~ Feb 25 – Mar 6, Bath, United Kingdom

The Graphic Novel Today, a Special Children’s Literature Network Presentation for Librarians and Educators and Bookology~ Feb 26, Plymouth, MA, USA

Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable Presents: Serendipity – a Graphic Novel Extravaganza~ Feb 26, Vancouver, BC, Canada

The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature Presents: Children’s Literature, Classics, and the City~ Feb 26, Dublin, Ireland

19th Annual Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference~ Feb 27, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Yesterday was National Poetry Day in the UK and the winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award were announced. One of the winning poems was written in the style of a mediaeval ballad but was a commentry on the prime-ministership of Tony Blair. The prizes include school visits and, for older winners, a week-long residential course – and, of course, having their poems published in an anthology – wow! When some of the winning poems are up and running on The Poetry Society’s website, I’ll add a link… here they are!

Stories in verse make really satisfying read-alouds. Children pick up the rhymes and rhythms and love to preempt what’s coming or chant along once the verse becomes familiar. Mine always surprise me by being able to quote what seem to me great tracts compared with what I would be able to come up with! As I’ve mentioned before, we love Julia Donaldson’s books and a favorite is her retelling of the Chinese legend The Magic Paintbrush, which reads in true ballad form, over many 4-lined rhyming stanzas, and with repetitions and recurring themes, such as the steaming pot of shrimps the young heroine Shen conjures up before her astonished family:

“Did you catch some shrimps, Shen?
Did you catch some fish?
Did you gather oysters
To fill the empty dish?”

It’s beautifully illustrated by Joel Stewart, who has a particular talent for illustrating poetry, from Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky to Carol Ann Duffy’s zany Underwater Farmyard, another book we have all enjoyed.

Reading this Magic Paintbrush (more…)

Two weeks ago today, my children stayed up till well after midnight to take part in a social event which will be earmarked by history as the denouement of a publishing phenomenon: dressed in old university gowns and carrying wands; one wearing an emerald silk shirt and the other bearing a lightening scar and drawn in spectacles, they headed across the road to our local, independent bookshop for a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows launch party. We duly picked up the book and as soon as we got home again, the boys went to bed and I started reading – a rattling good read… but the instances pointed out in the links below did not go unnoticed.

The popularity of the Harry Potter books means that they will become a focal point for many issues pertaining to children’s books, particularly now the series is complete and a critique can encompass the whole body of work. We already have the beginnings of some stimulating discussions. I read with interest Shen Book’s exploration of Harry Potter as a multicultural character, part of their Crossing Cultural Borders series – and also really enjoyed Emily Jiang’s witty reduction of the Deathly Hallows plot to a Haiku summary… if you haven’t read the book yet, don’t click here! There has been some in-depth discussion of J.K. Rowling’s use of cultural stereotyping: it is worth reading what Debbie Reese and Educating Alice have to say, as well as the comments to their posts, which are equally thought-provoking. Also, (more…)

As a fan of Shen’s Books I was delighted to see publisher Renee Ting and author Emily Jing partenering up on Shen’s blog to bring us “Crossing Cultural Borders,” a 6-week series of posts about different themes and issues related to multicultural literature for young readers. We encourage you to follow the series and contribute by adding your views.

You may also want to swing by The Miss Rumphius Effect to read Tricia’s post on evaluating books from the viewpoint of other cultures. And over at Writing With A Broken Tusk, author Uma Krishnaswami brings up the question of whether or not multicultural children’s literature has been successful in its attempts to cross cultural borders. Her question was prompted by the article “Questioning Cultural Stereotypes Through Children’s Books” by Tulika managing editor, Radhika Menon.

All well worth your blog-hopping journey.