The 2010 installment of Children’s Book Week — an annual event that has been running since 1919 in the US — is starting today. Hurray!

The Children’s Book Council website has a list of official events taking place across the country, including the Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala, happening tomorrow in New York. You can see some of the finalists here, and by visiting A Story Before Bed you can enjoy three finalists reading from their nominated books (A Story Before Bed is a cool site that allows you to record yourself reading a children’s book and to share your recording with others). Those on Twitter can keep tabs on the week’s various happenings by following the hashtag #kidsbookwk.

This year’s lovely poster was created by artist and author Jon J Muth, of Zen Shorts and Zen Ties fame. The lovely fuzzball on the poster is Stillwater, “the panda with a calm, Buddha-like demeanor”, who appears on both those books.

Now get into the spirit and follow Stillwater’s lead: snuggle up with your children and read books together!

Two of the books I gave my 8-year-old daughter for Christmas were Douglas Wood‘s Old Turtle (illus. by Cheng Khee-Chee) and Old Turtle and the Broken Truth (illus. by Jon J Muth). I had heard much about these modern-day classics over the years and was looking forward to sharing them with her. I read the books once, before wrapping and putting them under our Christmas tree, but it wasn’t until we read them together, snuggled up in bed, that I realized how truly special they were. Their plea for unity, acceptance and understanding between people and nature got two thumbs up from my daughter.

In Old Turtle, when all creation starts arguing over who or what God is, Old Turtle, their wise and ancient leader, is the only one who accepts and incorporates the beliefs of all the creatures: “‘God is indeed deep,’ she says to the fish in the sea, ‘and much higher than high,’ she tells the mountains.” In Old Turtle and the Broken Truth (Muth’s image of the Truth falling from the sky and breaking in half being an especially poignant one), it’s up to a young, determined girl to help humans see that the truth they are fighting over is broken, and that there is not just one truth, but “truths all around us, and within us.”

The very important ideas these books convey add dimension to our website’s current focus on Respect for Religious Diversity, and the following quote from Old Turtle and the Broken Truth perfectly captures its essence:

Remember this, Little One… The Broken Truth, and life itself, will be mended only when one person meets another—someone from a different place or with a different face or different ways—and sees and hears herself. Only then will the people know that every person, every being, is important, and that the world was made for each of us.

San Franciscan Daniel Handler, also known as Lemony Snicket, reviewed several children’s books in a New York Times piece not too long ago, including Zen Ties, writer-illustrator Jon J. Muth’s sequel to his Caldecott winner, Zen Shorts. Handler is allergic to preachy moralisms of the sort often smuggled into children’s so-called spiritual books (and dissed in this blog on a few occasions), and while overall he finds Muth’s new book undercompelling, his thoughts on how it goes wrong are compelling. (Muth comes to writing from his background in graphics, however, and Handler heartily approves his visuals.)

Both Muth books have been widely and appreciatively reviewed by bloggers. A quick perusal of the blogosphere indicates one obvious reason why: spiritual books for children provide busy parent readers with spiritual sustenance as well.

A little boy named Harry sits on a porch with his friend, Mr. George Baker, who “is a hundred years old, no kidding….all snappy and happy in the morning.” Almost every day they meet– sitting, waiting, sharing chocolate candies the way that true friends do.

Each of them has a red book bag with a book inside, a book that neither of them has yet learned how to read. “That must be corrected,” says Mr. George Baker.

As they wait, Mr. George Baker taps out rhythms with “his crookedy fingers.” “He’s a drummer man,” Harry explains, “Some people say he’s famous.”

The school bus pulls up, George and Harry get on board and go off to school, where they sit in separate rooms, learning how to sound out letters in their green books.

“It’s hard,” complains Harry.

“We can do it,” says Mr. George Baker.

This picture book is a tribute to literacy that soars and sings. Every word is economical, precise, and forms the kind of images that we look for in poetry. Mr. George Baker, with his “crumpled hat and his long stretchy legs,” a Dixieland drummer who still dances with his ninety-year-old wife, is revealed by Amy Hest‘s lyrical text as much as he is by Jon J Muth‘s pale and misty illustrations. He and Harry, united in friendship and their quest for literacy, become permanent residents in the imaginations of all who encounter them in the pages of this lovely, magical story.

This Reading Rainbow selection is a book that demands to be read aloud to anyone and everyone within earshot.

Jon J. Muth‘s cover for his new children’s book, Zen Ties, features the backs of two pandas, with balloons floating nearby. It’s an intriguing image for what Muth is trying to get across to kids, in this sequel to his wildly popular Zen Shorts, about the elusive truths of Zen.

Aline‘s 6-year-old gets the point. When she showed the cover to a friend, the friend exclaimed as expected, “Oh, the pandas are holding balloons!” “No, they’re not,” Anabella replied, pausing for her friend to insist, as she knew she would, “Yes, they are!” Anabella then delightedly tuned the book over to show the back cover, with the pandas sitting side by side, their balloon ties held down by rocks. “See?” she explained, turning the book front to back, again and again. “It all depends on how you look at it.”

Jon Muth’s work has that effect: readers see that he’s pointing out something important — though sometimes they can’t articulate their realizations clearly. Megan Morrone at Jumping Monkeys says of Zen Ties, “I am not a particularly Zen person, but I aspire to be. And I have no idea if the kids understand the principles in this book, but I’ve always believed that at every stage my kids understand way more than I think they do.”

Exactly so, as Anabella also demonstrates!

November 12-18 celebrates the 88th Children’s Book Week in the United States.

The ability to read and understand complicated information is essential to success in school and in the workplace. So much of today’s information is only available through the written word – in books, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, etc. Unfortunately, the statistics are staggering: analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress long-term trend reading assessments reveals that “by age 17, only about 1 in 17 seventeen year olds can read and gain information from specialized text, for example the science section in the local newspaper.”

During Children’s Book Week, parents, educators and caregivers are encouraged to face the challenge and take a stand: children cannot “Rise Up” to this challenge without first developing a love of reading.

A poem by Pam Munõz Ryan is featured on this year’s bookmark. Special publicity displays were created by various illustrators, including Ana Juan and Jon J. Muth. Proceeds from the sale of materials help support CBC‘s literacy efforts.

As managing editor of the PaperTigers website, I should start my journey into bloghood by expressing infinite amounts of gratitude and appreciation to all writers, illustrators, publishers, librarians, teachers, parents, readers, bloggers: all weavers of the essential threads in the colorful quilt of children’s and young adult literature. We couldn’t have a thriving kidlit and ya lit scene if it weren’t for all their–and your!–contributions.

This reminds me of the ‘Stone Soup’ tale… Whatever the version, we all know the idea behind it: stones make good soup, but carrots and potatoes make it so much better! Jon J. Muth’s retelling, set in China, is my all-time favorite. Muth says of his work as a writer/illustrator: “I am interested in that ‘third thing’ that happens when you connect words and pictures.” So here is where I put my stone into the pot, interested in that ‘third thing’ that happens when you add your offerings to it… Welcome to the melting pot (or should I say “posts”?). May our shared meal prove to be enjoyable.