A fabulous selection of books heads the awards list for this year’s Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Awards, announced on Monday. The winners in the children’s/YA categories are:

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang (Scholastic, 2011)  – Children’s Literature Award;

Orchards by Holly Thompson (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2011) – Young Adult Literature Award;

The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China by Ed Young (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011) -  Picture Book Award.

The Honor Books were:

Vanished by Sheela Chari (Hyperion, 2011) – Honor Book, Children’s Literature Category.

Level Up by Gene Luen Yang (First Second Books, 2011) – Honor Book in the Young Adult Literature category.

Hot Hot Roti for Dada-ji by F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min (Lee & Low Books, 2011) – Honor Book in the Picture Book category.

And following on from Corinne’s post about some of this year’s ALA Awards, here are some more highlights:

Allen Say‘s Drawing from Memory (Scholastic, 2011) has won a 2012 Robert F. Sibbert Informational Book Honor Award. To see all this year’s winners go here. Read our Q&A with Andrea Pinkney, the book’s editor, here.

As well as being outright winner of the 2012 Pura Belpré Author Award, Under the Mesquite, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Lee and Low Books, 2011), was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, along with Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel Books, 2011). Go here to find out more.

What a superb selection of books!  Many Congratulations to all the winners.

Take some time today and head on over to author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog Cynsations to read her Guest Post with author Holly Thompson entitled “Holly Thompson on the Perfect Setting & Orchards“.

Orchards is Thompson’s debut novel for young adults and is written in verse. It tells the story of Kana Goldberg, a half-Jewish, half-Japanese American teenager who, after a classmate’s unexpected death, is sent to her family’s farm in Japan to reflect on her participation in the events that led up to the classmate’s suicide.

Orchards has been receiving rave reviews since its release this past Spring (read PaperTigers’ review here) and is included on the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)  Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominations list.

Holly has been keeping extremely busy this year (click here to visit her blog) and has just returned from the Manila International Literary Festival where she presented three panel discussions:

“Writing for Young Adults” with author Perpi Alipon-Tiongson and publisher RayVi Sunico;

“The Many Forms of the Novel”, in which she spoke about writing in verse and read an excerpt from Orchards; and

“The Stranger Experience” on writing away from home, cross-cultural experiences, and the multi-faceted immigration experience, with Gemma Nemenzo and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz. The immigrant’s experience plays a vital role in Junot’s work and I have to share this amazing quote from him that I found on Tarie Sabido’s blog Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind:

“You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. It’s that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn’t see myself reflected at all. I was like, Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist? And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it.” — Junot Diaz

YALSA‘s (Young Adult Library Services Association) has just released their 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominations list.  The books nominated have been published within the past 16 months, are recommended for ages 12 – 18, and meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens. From this nomination list, the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) Committee will choose their selections for their 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adult list and 2012 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adult list (to be announced at the annual ALA Midwinter Meeting).

The 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominations comprises a wide range of genres and styles, including contemporary realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, science fiction and novels in verse. It is great to see a number of multicultural titles on the list including:

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor(Penguin Group/Viking, 2011)

Bitter Melon by Cara Chow (Egmont USA, 2011)

Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang (Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press, 2011)

Karma, A Novel in Verse by Cathy Ostlere (Penguin Group/RazorBill, 2011)

Orchards by Holly Thompson (Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press, 2011)

Queen of Water by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango (Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2011)

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall 

What Can(t) Wait by Ashley Hope Perez (Lerner Publishing Group/CarolrhodaLAB, 2011)

Where the Streets had a Name by Randa Abel-Fattah (Scholastic, Inc/Scholastic Press, 2010)

Words in the Dust  by Trent Reedy (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011)

The Japan Times recently published an article entitled Fate’s path led Canadian to Kamakura: Heather Willson makes her mark, keeps focused on road ahead and her Cambodia school. The school referred to in the article, Butterfly School, is a free English school in the village of Popeae, near Udong, Cambodia, established by Heather Willson with Head Teacher Sovann Phon in September 2005.

Last year we were pleased to have the Butterfly School involved with our Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach Project. Holly Thompson, author and SCBWI Tokyo regional advisor, hand delivered a 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set to the school.  The photo accompanying the Japan Times article (and reprinted here) shows Heather reading one of the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers books, My Little Round House, to the Butterfly School students.

To read more about the Butterfly School’s involvement with our project and to read their feedback on the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set, please click here

Holly Thompson,
Orchards
Delacorte Press, 2011.

Ages 12+

Kana Goldberg is a half-Jewish, half-Japanese American teenager. Because of a classmate’s suicide for which she feels some responsibility – she was amongst a clique of girls that made unkind remarks to the suicide victim – she has been sent off to Japan for the summer to work in her grandparents mikan (or mandarin orange) orchards. While there, she has to negotiate the difficulty of adjusting to life in Japan as an American of mixed Japanese ancestry. Her Japanese family, while sensitive and accommodating, are nonetheless different in their world views. In spending time with them, however, Kana begins to heal and gain perspective on the events that occurred; in so doing, she makes contact with one of the people involved, and that leads to an unexpected ending.

Orchards is Thompson’s debut novel for young adults and is written in verse. In general, I have mixed feelings about the YA verse novel: however, Thompson’s Orchards has a kind of resonant beauty slightly reminiscent of haiku where images from the orchard and the surrounding landscape linger in the mind. Brevity of life, fleeting impressions, contemplative reflections on Nature are often the ‘stuff’ of Japanese poetry and some of that sensibility is conveyed in Orchards. But there is also real teenage drama here, moving the book forward as a story – issues with body image, feelings of estrangement, angst and regret.

Thompson (The Wakame Gatherers) is a longtime resident of Japan who teaches creative writing at Yokohama University. In Orchards, she has sensitively portrayed life in Japan for many a cross-cultural teenager – particularly those who experience life in two vastly different worlds because of their connection to Japan through a parent or relative. I think this is the aspect of Orchards I appreciated the most, having had similar experiences to the protagonist Kana, in visiting my relatives over the years in Japan. There were finely tuned details in Orchards that I found familiar, like hoarding snacks because meals don’t seem quite enough, or comments people make about your appearance or the way you speak. Kana is a character one can readily identify with and have sympathy for.

Orchards is an especially rewarding read for those interested in cross-cultural experiences between Japan and America. It is also a poignant rendering of a young woman’s psyche as she seeks to heal from a traumatic event in her life; this facet of Orchards makes it a story with universal appeal.

Sally Ito
September 2011

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents:

SCBWI Tokyo Illustrators Exhibition 2011

Messages from our Hearts to Friends Not Yet Met

Time: Tuesday, September 6 – Sunday, September 11, 2011

Place: Galerie Malle, 4-8-3 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Messages from our Hearts to Friends Not Yet Met is an exhibition by eleven children’s book illustrators who live in Japan and are active internationally. Exhibitors are Akira Hamano, Michael Kloran, Naomi Kojima, John Kolosowski, Midori Mori, Shohei Nishihara, Paul Richardson, Daniel Schallau, Izumi Tanaka, Kazuko Unosawa and Yoko Yoshizawa. Each artist will exhibit several illustrations and works will be available for sale.

For more information contact Holly Thompson, Regional Advisor, SCBWI Tokyo by clicking here.

I had the great pleasure this past weekend of going to Tokyo for two PaperTigers related events — one, to give a talk about PaperTigers to the SCBWI Tokyo chapter, and two, to visit the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Exhibit held annually in Japan at the Itabashi Art Museum.

On Friday, July 8 a small but enthusiastic audience of SCBWI members came to my talk at Tokyo’s Women’s Plaza in Shibuya to hear me explain what PaperTigers is all about.  I told everyone how there were three main components to PaperTigers — the blog, the website, and the outreach program.  When my focus turned to the SPT outreach program, I was also able to introduce host Holly Thompson’s particular Outreach contribution, which involved a set of books being donated to the Butterfly School in Cambodia.  That was a great plus!

After our talk, we had a round of Q and A about PaperTigers and I got to see some of the lovely work of illustrators such as Izumi Tanaka, and hear about writer and illustrator Yoko Yoshizawa’s work with the retelling of folktales around the world, using the work of local illustrators.  I met Ruth Gilmore, librarian and church worker, and author of kidsermons– a four book series of children’s sermons.   I was able to meet with Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu, creator of the wonderful website about Japan called Here and There Japan.  And of course, it was quite exciting for all of us to chat about Holly Thompson’s new fundraising project, the Tomo anthology of Japan-related YA fiction, which is now receiving submissions.  Check out the Tomo blog as well as Holly’s own blog and website, Hatbooks.

The following Saturday I went to the Itabashi Art Museum to see the 2010 Bologna Book Fair exhibit.  The Book Fair exhibit tours Japan annually.  In the Tokyo area, the hosting museum is the Itabashi Art Museum which has been hosting the book fair for thirty years.  I was most intrigued by the artwork of the winner of the 2010 International Award for Illustration, Philip Giordano.  His illustrations were for a rather fantastical re-telling of the famous Japanese fairytale — Kaguyahime.  There were many other wonderful illustrations, but I was a bit dismayed by how few there were from the Americas — south and north.  Yet, I was very glad to get a taste of some of the world’s best art for children; it certainly inspired me to think about writing for children in a new way!  I picked up the Illustrator’s Annual and have been enjoying browsing through it. 

As delightful as my Tokyo visit was, it ended rather soberly with tremors from a 7.3 earthquake that hit Tohoku on the morning of July 10.  I was in my cousin’s apartment when things started to sway and shake; I felt slightly nauseated as if I were on a rocking boat.  For Tokyoites and Tohoku residents, this kind of seismic activity has become the norm ever since March 11.  The topic of many of my conversations over the weekend centered around what happened during and after March 11.   Clearly, life has not been the same for many Tokyo area residents, never mind the people of Tohoku.   While the pleasures and wonders of the nation’s capital are many, so are its worries and fears, of which even I had but the briefest of tastes this short but eventful weekend in Tokyo.

Fresh on the heels of her newly released YA novel-in-verse Orchards, Holly Thompson has embarked on another exciting adventure. She has taken on the job of editor of Tomo, a benefit anthology to support teens affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.

Tomo 友, which means friend in Japanese, will be comprised of young adult fiction set in or related to Japan and will be published in print and digital formats by Stone Bridge Press in Spring 2012. The publication of Tomo will coincide with the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated vast areas of northeastern Japan and resulted in loss of life and livelihood for thousands of people.

Here’s what Holly has to say about the new project:

Why Tomo? As I explain on the Tomo blog, so many teens in Tohoku have lost parents, siblings, relatives, friends, homes, schools, and huge swaths of their cities, towns and villages. Their teen worlds have been upended. Many will suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome. Many will need financial support to complete their education.

Proceeds from the sales of the Tomo anthology will go to organizations that assist teens in the quake and tsunami hit areas. Tomo will link writers of young adult fiction with readers worldwide and the teens in Tohoku in need of their support.

Submissions will be accepted until August 15, 2011 and the guidelines can be found here.

Stone Bridge Press, with its focus on books related to Japan and Asia, is a perfect fit for this project. It is a pleasure to be working with the Stone Bridge team again. [N.B. Holly's book Ash - A Novel was published by Stone Bridge Press in 2001.]

The Tomo blog will feature news about the anthology, interviews with contributors, and information about the teens, locations and organizations that Tomo will support.

I am so excited about this new venture, to be in the editing role for a collection of Japan-related young adult fiction, and to be setting in motion a project that will benefit teens in the quake- and tsunami-affected areas who are coping with layer upon layer of loss. May their days ahead be full of promise… and friends from near and far.

We wish you much success with this new project, Holly, and congratulate you for taking on such an important initiative!

Today is the day! The Asian Festival of Children’s Content starts in a few hours with the Keynote Speech “What is the Future of Children’s Publishing” by Stephen Mooser (USA). After that the day is jam-packed with events to choose from. I will be attending sessions by Christopher Cheng (Australia), illustrator YangSook Choi (Korea), author Holly Thompson (Japan/USA), Pooja Makhijani (Singapore/USA) and John McKenzie (New Zealand).

Last night’s pre-festival panel discussion that I hosted with Tarie Sabido (Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind) and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal (Gathering Books) was a success. Over 40 people attended and took part in our discussion Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0: An Introduction to Kidlitosphere and the YA Blogosphere . Thanks to all those who attended and a special thanks to Tarie and Myra who were such lovely ladies to work with!

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content has launched it’s new website. Be sure to check out the Programme Schedule as well as the Speaker Profiles! You can also see the schedule herewith the names of their relevant speakers. And what a rich programme it is – there will be some hard decisions to make as to which sessions to attend! Among the speakers lined up are Chris Cheng, Sally Heinrich, Rukhsana Kahn, Uma Krishnaswami, Anushka Ravishankar and Holly Thompson, to name but a few.

Two new children’s book awards will also be announced during the Festival: the Asian Children’s Book Prize, and the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award for Singaporean children’s books.

There was quite a buzz about this Festival at the Bologna Book Fair and I’m sure it will be a resounding success! The event is co-hosted by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS), a non-profit organization that promotes storytelling, reading, writing and publishing. NBDCS does a fabulous job bringing the book industry and literary community together through social events, courses, seminars, conferences and author lectures. A visit to their website and blog gives great insight on the literary goings-on in Singapore.

Today while perusing the NBDCS website, I came across the inspiring story of Singaporean author Emily Lim. At the age of 28, Emily was diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD), a rare neurological condition that was robbing her of her speech. A few years later, during a breather from her extremely successful corporate career, Emily decided to pursue her dream of writing and entered her story Prince Bear and Pauper Bear in the 2007 First Time Writers and Illustrators Publishing Initiative, a competition co-organized by the NBCDS. Prince Bear and Pauper Bear, which drew on her own emotional responses to SD, was one of eight winners. With the cash prize and her own savings Emily went about getting (more…)