Solstice, Yule, Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, Zagmuk, Saturnalia… Throughout the world, numerous celebrations happen this time of the year, based on religious beliefs, tradition, newness, or a mixture of them all.

The Winter Book, a title I came across recently, does a great job of representing the diversity of the season in the northern hemisphere—where the cold weather evokes the secular images of snowflakes, candles and evergreen trees… Illustrated by renowned German artist Rotraut Susanne Berner, with poems/text by Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Thoreau, Italo Calvino, Alberto Moravia, Adwoa Badoe and others, this book is a treat that can be best enjoyed if shared with others—preferably under the covers.

And speaking of diversity and treats to be shared, “Memories of Holidays Past,” a snapshot by writers and illustrators put together specially for PaperTigers, highlights a range of experiences: from full-blown Christmas trees to a turkey meal that gets outstaged by a Vietnamese one… Not to be missed!

David J. Smith’s book If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People (Kids Can Press, 2007) enables even young children to get a hold on what life is like for people all over the planet by reducing the world’s people to a single village with a population of 100. There is plenty going on in Shelagh Armstrong’s bright, boldy delineated illustrations to capture their imaginations too. The information has been updated for this current 2007 edition (it was first published in 2002) and there is no doubt that the book’s impact is as thought-provoking as ever. Be prepared for the questions it arouses like, “What can we do about this?”

The book covers nationalities, languages, ages, religions, food (“There is no shortage of food …if all the food were divided equally …But the food isn’t divided equally”…), air and water, money and possessions, electricity, the past and the future – and schooling and literacy. Since that is our current focus, let us look at little more closely at that one. It makes for sobering reading indeed: (more…)