British poet, Judith Nicholls, has compiled a wonderful book of poems for children called Someone I Like: Poems About People (illustrated by Giovanni Manna.)  I discovered Nicholls’ work through The Children’s Poetry Archive, a wonderful website chock-a-block with recommendations of poetry for children.  In Someone I Like, Nicholls has assembled poems by various authors that look at human relationships in ways that children can identify with.  There are poems about friendship and about one’s parents.  There are poems about siblings, and about aunties and grandmothers.  What I liked about the poems was how emotionally frank many of them were.  In “Urgent Note to My Parents,” the child speaker says:

Don’t ask me to do what I can’t do
Only ask me to do what I can
Don’t ask me to be what I can’t be
Only ask me to be what I am

The accompanying illustration of a fed-up looking girl in overalls with a pencil in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other is very fitting!  In reading this book to my daughter, we were able to explore terrains of emotion that were new and sometimes surprising.  Poems, for example, about broken friendships and about a girl who tells her granny “you’ll have to be dying soon” were arresting and provocative.  Such poems engage the reader and require a response, and that is what good poetry should do for parent and child alike.  Compiler Nicholl understands this notion deeply and brings her experience as a poet, parent and grandparent to bear on her lively selections.

Someone I Like is published by an innovative press called Barefoot Books.  Their vision is to produce books that “celebrate the world’s diversity, encourage children’s independent spirits, and build their enthusiasm for reading, creativity and discovery.”  Someone I Like certainly fulfills that vision!

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day.

The NY Times has posted a slideshow of their winners of Best Illustrated Children’s Books 2008.

Every year since 1952, the Book Review has asked a panel of judges to select from among the several thousand children’s books published that year.

The judges this time around were Caroline Ward, the coordinator of youth services at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., who has served as president of the Association for Library Service to Children; Luann Toth, the managing editor of the School Library Journal’s book review; and Christopher Myers, an award-winning writer and artist who is at work on a book about America with his father, Walter Dean Myers.

As a matter of note, Stephen T. Johnson and Melissa Sweet have won the award once before, and Ed Young twice before. — The Editors

Click here to watch. The 2007 winners are here.

The PaperTigers’ Book of the Month choice for March is One Peace: True Stories of Young Activists (Orca, 2008), by self-proclaimed “passionate pacifist” Janet Wilson.

The marketing material we received from Orca, along with our review copy of the book, says: “For the future to be better than the past, better than the present, we must equip our children with an understanding of the world around them and encourage faith in their ability to bring about change.” The latest issue of PaperTigers heartily echoes their sentiment, and One Peace encapsulates it perfectly: by telling the stories of youth who have taken leadership roles, it inspires young readers to take their own steps toward world peace. Told through art, poetry, quotations, and photographs, the book includes profiles of Farlis Calle, who started Colombia Children’s Movement for Peace; Craig Kielburger, three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Free The Children, an organization he founded at age 12; Kimmie Weeks, who established Voices of the Future, Liberia’s first child rights advocacy group, and many more.

The idea for the book, which has been included in the 2008 Smithsonian Notable Books for Children list, came during a presentation, when Wilson was asked by a child “why children are taught about war but not peace.” One Peace was, ultimately, her response. But she has more to say about the matter: her plan is to write a series of books about “building a more peaceful and just world under the guidance of our wise children.” Hurray for that!

To read about Janet Wilson’s painting of the activists’ portraits, check here. And for more of her artwork, take a peek at her PaperTigers gallery.

This past Monday was Louis Riel Day, a holiday for the province of Manitoba where I live. Louis Riel was Metis. The Metis are an indigenous group of Canadians historically formed from the union of French Canadian men (primarily the voyageurs) and aboriginal women. The Metis are a distinct aboriginal group in Canada. They have a common history and culture, and a unique language known as Michif. Traditionally, they populated the areas of the western Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Louis Riel Day is celebrated here alongside a week long winter festival called Festival du Voyageur.

Recently I was given a number of children’s books by Pemmican Publications Inc. This press is committed to promoting the Metis culture and heritage. One of the books from their Michif Children’s Series is called Thomas and the Metis Cart. It was written originally in English by Bonnie Murray (illustrated by Sheldon Dawson,) and translated into Michif by Rita Flamand. Through the Michif Children’s series of books, the Michif language is being revived and shaped for use to be read now by a younger generation. Thomas and the Metis Cart is about a boy named Thomas who is given a class science project to build something on wheels. Thomas decides he would like build a replica of a Red River cart, an important transportation vehicle used by the Metis in settling the west. As his father helps him build the replica, Thomas finds out more about the cart and his Metis history.

Louis Riel Day and the Festival du Voyageur celebrate an aspect of my city and province’s history and culture. What festivals and holidays do you have in your locale that celebrates its past? Are there books about them? Do tell!

Little Elena’s papa is a glassblower.  Elena wants to be just like him.  But Elena is too little and moreover, a girl.  “Who ever heard of a girl glassblower? ” Papa says.  Little Elena gets mad.  She decides she will prove her father wrong.  And so begins the story of Elena’s Serenade by Campbell Geeslin.  Elena dresses up as a boy and heads off to Monterrey where all the great glassblowers are to learn the craft of her father.   Along the way, she meets some interesting characters — burro, coyote, and roadrunner — who encourage her in her quest.  Above her are the movements of  the heavens embodied in the beautifully illustrated figures of the sun, El Sol, and the moon, La Luna.

Elena’s Serenade is the story of a girl’s quest for a vocation.  A not atypical motif, the book however, stands out for its wonderful and evocative illustration, reminiscent of the work of Mexican artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.  Illustrator Ana Juan depicts the Mexican landscape with startlingly vivid and colorful imagery.  The repeated reading of this story to my daughter — she liked this book and wanted it reread to her often — served to enhance my appreciation of this illustrator’s art.  Elena’s Serenade was published in 2004 and received a Parent’s Choice Recommended Award.  Judging from my own daughter’s reception of this book and my delight in repeated readings of it, I can see why this book has such appeal.  I hope you can find it in your local library for I, too, recommend it as a parent’s choice!  Incidentally, this book fits in well with other Hispanic-themed children’s books and if you are looking for more titles in this vein, please do check out PaperTiger’s Hispanic Heritage Month reading list for 2008.

It all began with a Twitter and spread across the country in no time! Author Mitali Perkins put her idea on techology that some of us have yet to understand and from New England to the Pacific Northwest, independent bookstores, children’s authors, illustrators, and the young readers who love them are coming together on February 14 in a grand celebration.

It’s happening in New England, in New York (both in the city and across the state), in Seattle, (where, in independent Northwest style, they’ve rechristened the celebration Kids Heart Books), and in Los Angeles. By the time this post goes up, heaven only knows how many more bookstores, and writers, and illustrators–in how many more cities–will have joined this absolutely amazing union that brings together all facets of the kidlit world!

Among the number of authors and illustrators who will be flocking to their neighborhood bookstores are Grace Lin,  Karen Cushman, Kevin Hawkes, Cynthia Lord, David Yoo, Jamie Hogan (illustrator of Rickshaw Girl) and Mitali Perkins. In New England alone, over 160 authors and illustrators are turning out to meet their readers in their favorite bookstores.

Is this happening in your town? In your neighborhood bookstore? It’s not too late. Join the party that was started with Mitali’s Twitter, or help to start one–there are still 11 more days until February 14.  Make it possible for a child–or you yourself–to  heart an author–or an illustrator–and their books on Valentine’s Day!

Aki and the Fox by Akiko Hayashi is a delightful tale of travel and adventure set in Japan.  Little Aki is about to visit her grandmother in the countryside.  She will travel with Kon, her favorite stuffed fox.   Kon has been with Aki ever since she was born and knows her well.  Typical of much travel in Japan, the two board a train to get to their destination.  When it is lunch time, Kon goes out to buy box-lunch bentos for the two of them and doesn’t come back.  Poor Aki, what will she do?  This is but one of a series of adventures the two have together before they arrive at Aki’s grandmother’s house in the evening.

One of the pleasures of reading this book to my daughter was re-living the experience of train travel in Japan.  Hayashi’s colorful illustrations evoke well the experience of riding a train in the country, from the wobbling between the seats in the aisle while the train is moving, to watching the scenery go by, to buying and eating the bentos.  My daughter was struck also by how little Aki resembled her second cousin; it is always such a delight to see children identify something from their own life with a situation and characters in a book.

Akiko Hayashi is a well known children’s book writer and illustrator in Japan.  Aki and the Fox is the English translation of her Japanese book entitled Kon to Aki.  She has a deft and delightful touch; her illustrations do much to enhance the story as well as give scope to her wide-ranging talent as an artist.  The book has also been variously translated as Amy and Ken Visit Grandma and may also be searched under that title.

Have you ever been somewhere so breathtakingly beautiful you want to write about it?  Twice a year we travel through a valley in Saskatchewan called the Qu’Appelle.  In winter or summer, the valley never fails to elicit our awe.  It follows the Qu’Apelle River for more than 400 kilometres, from Manitoba into Saskatchewan.  The Qu’Appelle is lush, sheltered, and fertile, and also revered by its Cree inhabitants.  The area got its name from a report by a Metis trader who’d heard the Cree speak of a voice calling through the valley, to which they would respond “Who’s calling?” or “Qui Appelle?” in French.  The story of the valley’s naming has been written about by Mohawk poet Pauline Johnson.   She romanticized the story in verse and it is to this version that children’s writer David Bouchard (formerly featured in a post by Corinne) turned when composing his book.

“Qu’Appelle” is illustrated with paintings by Michael Lonechild.  Much of the attraction of the book lies in its compelling panoramic views of the valley in different seasons.  The paintings evoke vividly the life of the Cree in a valley familiar and beloved to many.  The story Bouchard weaves is about two lovers separated, never to be united again.  It is the woman who dies and whose voice calls out to her warrior-love in the valley.

He was covered with sweat and his eyes were wet
When again he heard the calling.
“Qui Appelle?” He cried.  Yet he knew deep inside
It was she, his love, who was calling.

For anyone who has been to this picturesque part of the prairie, reading this book can enhance the experience.  As the book is written as a long poem, I include it for Poetry Friday hosted this week by Laura Salas.

When a writer and an illustrator blend their gifts to create a picture book, that is a very special kind of magic. When a picture book comes into being because one person has been both author and illustrator, using each of these arts with equal skill,  that goes beyond magic into the realm of miracles.

Kam Mak has created one of those miracles with My Chinatown (HarperCollins)–a book that is impossible to ignore because of his glowing, colorful paintings that dominate the front and back covers and the vivid images within that he has created with his words.

A small boy scuffs through ”drifts of red paper,” ”a snowfall the color of luck,” missing Hong Kong as he faces New Year in a place that is not yet home. “So many things got left behind,” he says, “a country/a language/a grandmother,” and the simple poetry in this statement aches with loss, expressed in new words that “taste like metal in my mouth.”

The words and paintings follow him through the year as he explores his new surroundings, makes friends, finds familiar sights in a place that slowly becomes familiar as well. When the New Year comes around again, with its “lions in the street outside,” he’s eager to be nearby watching them “shaking their neon manes.” (more…)

No, this post is not about recipes.  You’ll not find “Alligator Pie” in any Canadian cookbook, that’s for sure,  but you will find scores of Canadian kids familiar with the poem and book of the same title.  Alligator Pie written by Dennis Lee in 1974 (original edition illustrated by Frank Newfeld) is a Canadian poetry classic. Children just love this zany poem’s rhymes.

Alligator pie, alligator pie,

If I don’t get some I think I’m gonna die.

Give away the green grass, give away the sky,

But don’t give away my alligator pie.

Many a child, including my own, has gone to a Lee reading to shout out with glee the end word rhymes to this famous poem.  Indeed, Mr. Lee encourages it.  “I never realized how soon a child can take part in “doing poems.”  A two year old will join in, if you pause at the rhyme-word and let him complete it.  Usually it will be the familiar rhyme, but if you’re making up new verses you’ll be surprised what he thinks of.  Try starting a verse “Alligator juice … ”

Lee’s intent was to create a book of rhymes for children that departed from the old English nursery rhymes he grew up with.  He wanted rhymes for children in the context they lived in as Canadians.  But not without being playful, of course!  My children love Lee’s wordplay with Canadian place names — for instance, this one on our home town.

Someday I’ll go to Winnipeg

To win a peg-leg pig.

But will a peg-leg winner win

The piglet’s ill got wig?

Is there poetry about your town or the place you live?  Is there a way to make word play with its name that will make your kids laugh out loud and think about where they live in a new and lively word-conscious way? Do tell!