Pooja Makhijani's book Mama's Saris inspires a tree

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Earlier this week I blogged about an annual event that takes place in Concord, MA, USA: Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature.  Pooja Makhijani left a comment saying “My book – Mama’s Saris – inspired a tree in 2007. It was the best honor my book could have ever received.” She followed up by sending me two photos of the Mama’s Saris tree! Isn’t it beautiful!?

pooja1pooja2

If anyone else has photos of a decorated tree from the event and would like to email them to me, I would love to share them with our readers.

And speaking of photos, don’t forget PaperTigers’ Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project. Send in a photo of your child’s bookshelf and you could win a selection of 5 age-appropriate books to add to your little one’s bookshelf! So far, we have heard from The Philippines, Canada, the UK, US, Sweden and India. We want to see bookshelves from all corners, though, and to hear about the books that inhabit them so next time you have your camera handy, snap a quick bookshelf photo and send it to me at corinne(at)papertigers(dot)org . Hopefully our combined photos will offer a glimpse of a big world made smaller through books and reading. Don’t worry about capturing the whole bookshelf/book collection in the photo. A partial image, along with a reading-related anecdote and/or a few lines describing the bookshelf’s content, should be enough to help us connect across languages and cultures.

For more details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

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Family Trees: A Celebration of Children's Literature

Monday, December 7th, 2009

It’s Sunday night and as I type this post my husband and children are putting the final decorating touches on our Christmas tree.  So, as I sit  here thinking about what event to blog about this week, perhaps  Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature would be most appropriate.

Held from December 4, 2009  through to January 3, 2010 in Concord, MA, USA, the annual Family Trees event is unique among the many holiday events in Greater Boston as it focuses on  children’s literature! The historic Concord Museum galleries are filled with fanciful trees of all shapes and sizes decorated with original ornaments inspired by acclaimed children’s storybooks and contemporary picture book favorites.  Each tree serves as a canvas for the artistic creations of a dedicated team of volunteer decorators. Inspired by the storyline, the illustrations, the characters or setting of a particular book, the decorators let their imaginations take flight, much to the delight of visitors of all ages from all over New England.

Serving as inspiration for this year’s trees are books that are classics and sure-to-become classics. Selections include:

Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth

Mrs. Greenberg’s Messy Hanukkah by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Nancy Cote

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

Fortune Cookie Fortunes, by Grace Lin

Flotsam by David Wiesner

For a complete list of this year’s  books (there are over 30 titles!)  click here.

Proceeds from Family Trees benefit the Concord Museum’s educational mission serving an audience of preschoolers, school-age children, college students, families, adults and seniors in over 600 school and public programs yearly.  For hours of operation, admission costs etc. click here.

And since we are speaking of the holidays, be sure to check our new website features, which focus on Religious Diversity in relation to End-of-Year Celebrations.

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