The 2011 Singapore Young Author Award Winners were announced last week! Head on over to Gathering Books to find out more and see photos from the event.

The story of Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Little, Brown and Company, 2010) combines two great loves of mine — poetry and pottery — so I was absolutely delighted to have been introduced to this recently published book by Myra at Gathering Books.   The historical ‘Dave’ was an unusual combination of talent in an age where such talents would not have only been under-appreciated but potentially dangerous.  Dave was a skilled and literate slave of the mid 1800′s in South Carolina.  His legacy is a collection of large pots and urns, some of which have lines written into them.  The lines are short and cryptic, reminiscent of Dickinson.  For example, on one of his earliest known pots — a large one for which Dave had a reputation for creating — are inscribed these lines:

put every bit all between
surely this Jar will hold 14

This particular pot could hold fourteen gallons, and these short lines conveyed the volume capacity in rhyme.  Other couplets also appear, giving more of a sense of Dave’s personality and of his vocation.  Particularly moving was this couplet:

I, made this Jar, all of cross
If, you don’t repent, you will be, lost

Dave the Potter is a picture book, sumptuously illustrated by Bryan Collier, who has captured well the nature of the man and his art. There’s a lovely fold-out panel of illustrations showing the process of pot-making which is visually affecting. My daughter and I really enjoyed Dave the Potter; it is a wonderful book telling a little known story of — as the book’s  subtitle indicates — an ‘artist, poet and slave’ of the American south.

This week’s Poetry Friday is at The Small Nouns. 

Several weeks ago Janet Evans, Literacy and Educational Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Education at Liverpool Hope University, visited the National Institute of Education in Singapore and gave a presentation entitled “Exploring Comics, Graphic Novels and Picture Books as Multimodal Texts with Particular Reference to Raymond Briggs and His Partnership with Controversy.”  Myra Garces-Bacsal of Gathering Books attended the lecture and emailed me soon after to say that she was so impressed with Janet’s presentation that she stayed up until 2am to blog about it!

Truth be told, I have little inkling about who Raymond Briggs was, but I love graphic novels and I adore picture books. I thought that it was another blogworthy post for Gathering Books. True enough, it was the highlight of my day.

Janet’s 60-minute talk this afternoon (and I really feel it was waayyyy too short, I could have spent an entire day just listening and talking to Janet who is a fantastic and animated speaker) – basically centered on the subtle differences between comics, graphic novels, picture books and illustrated books. She also discussed the themes in Briggs’ work as a graphic novelist and how comics and graphic novels can be effective conduits to philosophical discourses, existential issues, and profound ruminations about life, death, war, tragedy, you name it – his picture books have them.

Now I feel like a total lark not knowing about Raymond Briggs. His works are now considered classics, extremely rare (thus expensive), and yes, he has a cult following. When Briggs was just beginning (1970′s) to publish his works which may be seen as a cross between comic strip, picture books and graphic novels all rolled into one – this kind of writing was regarded with a raised eyebrow at the very least in British society. Raymond Briggs has been credited to be instrumental in elevating the profile of comics and graphic novels to an intellectual level. Janet claims that “there is now a burgeoning renaissance in their creation, production, and acceptance.”

Read Myra’s entire blog post here.

Several weeks ago I posted about The Singapore Book Club’s July event: In Conversation with Adeline Foo, Lim Fong Wei and Sangeetha Madhavan. Panelist Adeline Foo recently emailed me and told me that Myra Garces-Bacsal’s attended the event and blogged about it at Gathering Books. Read Myra’s review (which includes pics and video!) and not only will you feel like you attended the event  but you will really get to know best-selling children’s author Adeline Foo as she talks about her work ethic, where her ideas come from and what lessons budding authors must know.

Myra sums up the evening by saying:

Generally, I thought it was a good evening. It was a long travel from my home  but it was well worth the trip. One possible add-in perhaps that may be considered if there is going to be another “book club” is that an actual specific “book” would be discussed by the attendees in greater detail…Strictly speaking, it was more a panel discussion with book authors than an actual “book club” where you discuss specific targeted books and argue about the characters’ motivations, affect, and personalities in the “club.” Considering though that it was the first children’s book club ever organized, I thought it was a success. Kudos to Adeline, Sangeetha and Fong Wei and the National Book Development Council for organizing the evening. I am avidly looking forward to more evenings filled with discussion about children’s books and themes with aspiring writers, book authors, illustrators, and lovers of children’s literature.

One thing that clearly shone through from last night’s book club, and my earlier coffee and conversation with David Seow, another prolific children’s book author in Singapore – is how tenacious and passionate these writers are despite the seemingly-insurmountable odds stacked against them, being situated in a comparatively small country in Asia. Cheers indeed to the fantasy, magic, and enchantment of children’s books. Keep the faith, everyone.