I have always been opposed to the use of bilingual books, however given that Spanish-only books hardly sell at all, I have had to accept that books in Spanish can only reach Latinos if they are bilingual. This goes against everything I believe and know to be true about language instruction, the joy of reading in your mother tongue…

I was surprised by Aldana’s dislike of bilingual books because I love them and my children love them, and I have found that they can be a joy for inquisitive children seeking to learn independently – but I do realise that our contexts are different. Aldana’s dislike of them seems to stem from their being a substitute for monolingual Spanish books in an English-biased market, and she has found a pragmatic way of providing books in their mother-tongue to the Latino community in North America.

We love reading bilingual books because, although our main vehicle is the English, having another language running alongside, often enhances the reading experience for us, especially where the setting of the story is culturally appropriate to the language. This is true even when we can’t read the script, because even without being able to understand it, we can sometimes pull out certain consistencies. Seeing the writing always provides a glimpse of that different culture.

One of my favorite books of the last few year’s is Jorge Luján’s Tarde de invierno/ Winter Afternoon, published by Groundwood Books – and without the original Spanish and the English lying alongside eachother, we would not have been able to appreciate so fully the simply gorgeous animation Jorge and his family produced of the book (watch it here). Some authors like Yuyi Morales effortlessly slide between English and Spanish (we love her delightful Señor Calavera and Grandma Beetle books, Just a Minute and Just in Case). Some books provide a parallel experience of language, like Demi’s Bamboo Hats and a Rice Cake or Ed Young’s Beyond the Great Mountains. None of these books is truly bilingual, in that they do not provide a similar reading experience regardless of which of the two languages you approach the story from – but they all offer a bridge between languages and cultures that is not to be understimated.

It would be very interesting to hear about the experiences and needs of truly bilingual parents and children. If you are bringing up bilingual children or have bilingual children in your class, do you or they seek out bilingual books? Are you frustrated by what’s out there – and what’s not? Do you have any special recommendations? We’d love to hear from you. And do go and take a look at the Speaking in Tongues Carnival.

Patricia (Patsy) Aldana, founder and publisher of Groundwood Books (and president of IBBY, the International Board on Book for Young Readers, since 1997), answered our questions about My Little Round Rouse, one of the seven titles selected for inclusion in our Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set Donation Project; her commitment to publishing books by First Nations authors; the multicultural titles on their Fall list, and more.

In our series of interviews with the publishers of the books selected for our Spirit of PaperTigers project, I normally start by asking how the book in question came about as a project for the publisher. Since we already know the answer to this question in relation to My Little Round House, both from our interview with author Bolormaa Baasansuren and from translator Helen Mixter’s article, My Little Round House: The Journey of a Picture Book from Mongolia to Canada, we’ll start by asking…

PT: What in particular attracted you to My Little Round House?

PA: I thought it was a really special book about people whose lives are very different from ours. I also thought it was a very unique look at a baby’s life, a life that despite being nomadic seemed wonderfully cosy and safe.

PT: The books you publish often tell the stories of people whose voices are underrepresented. What first motivated you to start on this path and how do you manage to stay true to your mission?

PA: Being a Guatemalan, I guess that seeing the world through the eyes of the marginal has always come naturally to me. There are so many books published from and for the mainstream that, for me, focusing on underrepresented authors and illustrators was one way to justify being a publisher. As a small Canadian house, this focus has also been a way for us to distinguish ourselves from the huge multi-nationals with whom we have to compete.

PT: How did the decision to stop selling rights to the American market and to start publishing your books in the US come about?

PA: As US publishing changed from the editor-driven houses that I first came to know (Margaret K McElderry, Dorothy Briley, Susan Hirschman, Phyllis Fogelman, etc.), it became harder and harder to sell rights to our books in the US. At the same time Canada began to cut funding to school libraries and as a result our domestic market really shrank. We had to publish ourselves in the US or die. And that meant we had to bring our best books to the US in order to establish our list. We had very little money, but we had the quality of our books and needed to show our whole list in order to make our way.

PT: Since 1998 Groundwood Books has been publishing stories in English and Spanish by people of Latino origin under its Libros Tigrillo imprint. What motivated the creation of this imprint, and how has this part of the business grown since then?

PA: Libros Tigrillo was made possible by our move into the US market. While there are excellent books for children published in Spanish, I felt there was room for a list that was oriented toward North American Latinos. What has been a crushing disappointment, however, is the virtual disappearance of the Spanish-language market in the US. We have had to abandon Spanish-only books and start publishing bilingual books.

I have always been opposed to the use of bilingual books, however given that Spanish-only books hardly sell at all, I have had to accept that books in Spanish can only reach Latinos if they are bilingual. This goes against everything I believe and know to be true about language instruction, the joy of reading in your mother tongue, and what I believe to be the wishes of the Spanish-speaking population. I find it shocking that such a large population of Spanish speakers are not served properly by bookstores, teachers and even (although this is less the case) by librarians.

PT: A 2005 Publishers Weekly article quotes you as saying: “Given that people are so interested in visual media, like graphic novels, I keep wanting to put illustrations into books for older children and older adolescents.” Have you been able to act on your desire to add illustrations to middle reader and young adult books?

PA: I have been able to, sometimes successfully, as in the case of Skim, and sometimes less successfully. But I will keep trying. We have a thrilling new graphic novel coming out in the Fall, Harvey by Herve Bouchard and Janice Nadeau, a very unconventional book that can be read by middle readers and yet has enormous adult appeal. I have high hopes for it. I have also just published a beautiful 96-page illustrated version of the Ring Cycle by Jorge Luján, called Brunhilda and the Ring, that adults have been enjoying, but that hasn’t been favorably reviewed by children’s book reviewers. They don’t seem to realize that it’s not aimed at children, that just because it has pictures it’s not necessarily for children.

PT: PaperTigers is currently focusing on the theme of Canadian Aboriginal Children’s Literature. Can you tell us something about the books by aboriginal authors and/or illustrators on Grounwood’s list?

PA: Everywhere in the world First Nations people suffer terrible discrimination, poverty and exclusion. I am especially interested in making sure that these people have a voice, and so Groundwood has always published as many aboriginal people as we can.

In Canada, not only did First Nations people lose their land and in many cases have had to make do with terrible, isolating living conditions on reserves, there was the systematic destruction of these peoples’ way of life through the system of enforced residential schools. These schools not only abused the children within them, they broke people’s contact with their elders and with the land, further rendering a traditional way of life almost impossible. The residential-school process strikes me as a kind of crime against humanity, and Canada is still a very long way from coming to grips with it and the consequences of it, much less in making adequate reparation for it.

Most manuscripts we receive from Canadian First Nations people are about the schools or, perhaps even more important, about what was lost—the kind of glorious natural world from which the schools terminally separated them.

Leo Yerxa, Larry Loyie, Shirley Sterling, Ninegeokuluk Teevee and now Nicola I. Campbell, who is the child and grandchild of school survivors, all deal with these themes. There is also Tom King, a great satirist and
humorist who is an important author of ours.

PT: You have recently announced the release of Teacher’s Guides for your bestselling Groundwork Guides series. Are there any plans to develop teacher’s guides for other books as well?

PA: Yes, if teachers find them useful.

PT: How, if at all, do you think the public’s attitude toward multicultural books for children has changed since Groundwood was established, in 1978?

PA: I think the biggest difference is that it is now widely accepted in North America that these books are a part of our national literatures. While there are many, many things in North America that one can decry, we have grown more accepting of a multi-cultural world in which we have got to live together, tolerate each other and like each other. Our European and Asian friends are far behind us in this. I also think we are much more critical about books and expect excellence no matter who they are written or illustrated by, though now that quality has to include authenticity. Tokenism no longer works.

PT: What would you say are the biggest challenges you face as a publisher of children’s books, and in particular of multicultural books? What are your hopes for the future?

PA: I don’t see challenges, but opportunities. As for my hopes for the future, they are:

-That public institutions continue to be adequately funded, because we live and die by libraries and school libraries and the librarians who are such passionate advocates of our type of publishing.

-That we continue to instill in children a love of reading by giving them great books that speak to their own lives and give them knowledge about other worlds.

PT: Could you please give us a taste of your Fall catalog?

PA: These are the “multi-cultural” books on the Fall list:

No by Claudia Rueda, a Columbian author-illustrator, is a classic picture book about a little bear who doesn’t want to go to sleep.

Hello Baby Board Books by Jorge Uzon show the major stages in his baby’s first year. Jorge is an internationally recognised Chilean photojournalist.

Doggy Slippers is a wonderful book of first poems about pets by Jorge Luján and Isol, an award-winning team.

Arroz Con Leche / Rice Pudding, the second book in our bilingual cooking poem series, features a poetic text by Jorge Argueta and wonderful illustrations by renowned Brazilian artist Fernando Vilela.

Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner, and illustrated by Richard Rudnicki, is a remarkable true story about a Canadian black woman who in 1946, almost a decade before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in a whites-only section of a theater. The Nova Scotia government has just apologised for her arrest.

On the fiction front, we have…

No Safe Place, a gripping new YA novel by Deborah Ellis about teenage refugees in Europe.

Harvey, the graphic novel I mentioned earlier, by Hervé Bouchard, illustrated by Janice Nadeau.

Between Sisters, a wonderful novel about a fifteen-year-old girl in Ghana, by Ghanaian Canadian author Adwoa Badoe.

PT: Wow. It sounds like we have lots of gems to look forward to! Thank you, Patsy, for taking the time to answer our questions. We are very grateful to Groundwood Books for donating copies of My Little Round House in support of our Spirit of PaperTigers project, and we wish you continued success!

To find out more about Groundwood Books, visit their website, facebook and twitter pages.

First up was a lovely chat with poet Jorge Luján, whom we’d caught up with on the Tuesday evening… He shared his brand new book with us and I will share some photos with you when I work out how to get them off the camera (as opposed to a storage disc)… but in the meantime, enjoy this gorgeous poster for the exhibition of Isol’s illustrations from his recently published Pantuflas de perrito which is on-going until 25th April, if you happen to be in Bologna…

Other highlights included:

The presentation of the International Youth Library‘s newly announced 2010 White Ravens Catalogue:

I had a great discussion with Janet Evans from Liverpool Hope University, UK, who is currently spending some time with the Library in Munich

while…

next door at the IBBY stand, Corinne and Aline had a good chat with Sylvia Vardell, editor of IBBY magazine Bookbird and host of the wonderful Poetry for Children blog (Don’t miss out on her current game of Poetry Tag for National Poetry Month in the US).

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Meeting Danilla Marii, an Australian writer based in Rome, who had come to the Fair to seek out a publisher for her beautiful and vibrant book The Rainbow Tree – it was a real privilege to be able to see the original draft that includes some intricate collage work. We loved the story too.

Catching up with Antoinette Correa from B.L.D. – Bibliothèque Lecture Développement (Senegal)

and Pilli Hamidu Dumea of the Children’s Book Project for Tanzania.

Meeting author/illustrator/stroyteller John Kilaka, an erstwhile winner of the BolognaRagazzi New Horizons Award (for New Friends in 2005), and seeing his new book, The Amazing Tree.

…And of course, the books…

A display of Mitsumasa Anno’s books at Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers‘ stand, including his new Anno’s Journey across Asia – and if you look at the first photograph for this post you should be able to spot it among the White Ravens 2010 selection too…

A display devoted to Jimmy Liao’s books – what a feast of color and imagination they are. Wouldn’t it be great to have more of his books available in English!

And the much-loved Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen in lots of different languages – interesting, also, to see the different illustrations chosen for the covers.

You can see these and more photos from Day 3 here…

“A Morning of Korean Picture Books Showcasing Family.” The photo shows picture-book writer/illustrator Cho Hae-ran’s brushes and paints, and some of the exquisite little books produced by children she has worked with. I’ll be writing about this whole session properly soon…

The announcements of IBBY’s Awards – see Corinne’s post…

A Q&A session with Shaun Tan and publishing consultant Helen Chamberlain in the illustrators’ café – we’ll definitely have more about that soon too.

The opening of the Poemas de Compañía exhibition, featuring Isol’s illustrations for Pantuflas de perrito, poems by Jorge Luján about pets, based on some workshops he did with children. It was great to see Jorge and a delight to meet Mandana Sadat, illustrator of another of Jorge’s books, Winter Afternoon, a favorite of mine, as well as Jorge’s Spanish and Italian publishers – not to mention the Principessa dei Gelati!

You can see more photos from Day 1 here.

In reading them to my daughter, I was immediately enchanted. The stories were palpably poetic. In Sky Blue Accident, for example, a boy crashes into the sky and puts the broken pieces into his pocket. In Rooster, when the rooster opens its beak, the sun comes up, opens its hand and gives birth to the day. In Colors, night has a black gown in which stars — the ‘eyes of the universe can shine more brightly.’ Some of you may recognize at once the magical realist quality of these stories for which Latin American writers are particularly renowned. Personifying colors and natural elements like the sky and the day without being stereotypical takes a special creative knack and Lujàn has that knack in spades, so to speak. And of course, such creative and perceptive views of the world are an illustrator’s delight. These books have different illustrators with their own unique style. Sky Blue Accident and Colors are illustrated by Piet Grobler whose style is captivatingly quirky as in Sky Blue Accident or breezily ephemeral as in the watercolor swathes found in Colors. Rooster is illustrated by Manuel Monroy. The bird is painted a speckled blue; it’s body is a metaphor for the sky. I liked how the speckles flew off as stars at one point in the book, and how the rooster eats a star with a star gleaming in its eye on the next page.

Lujàn’s books are bilingual in Spanish and English. Although I’m not particularly familiar with Spanish, I enjoyed reading the Spanish text aloud to my daughter. We learned Spanish words a la Lujàn in a totally new and delightful way!

Here is an extract, in which he describes his relationship with poetry:

Poetry is a kind of vertigo for me. A challenge that frequently knocks me down, makes me feel trapped within my limits, and keeps me isolated from grace… but occasionally, drives me to horizons of astonishment, pleasure, and growth. I’m convinced that, if we are open to it, poetry can envelop us in a rare, subtle atmosphere. And poetry is not only to be found in poems, but is also present in the endless forms of nature or in the touching gestures, words and acts of people.

As a songwriter and a singer, I love the experience of the voice taking to the air like wings taking flight. Composing words and music together is a complex experience of joy and sorrow, but one which also implies building bridges between people.

I urge you to read the whole article. I found it very moving – and interesting too, for Jorge has introduced me to the work of some Latin American poets I’m slightly ashamed to admit I didn’t know…

This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect… Head on over!

Music is central to the human experience and has been bound up with poetry and storytelling since time immemorial. We have brought together an international array of writers and artists whose lives and work have been touched by music; and whose work, in turn, reaches out across geographical boundaries to touch their audience.

As the final words of the opera Naomi’s Road say, “We’ll always carry with us these three things. Gift of music. Gift of words. Gift of love.”

We hope that you’ll find inspiration for all three of these gifts among our website’s new features, which include interviews with Joy Kogawa and Matt Ottley; gallery features of Lulu Delacre and Satoshi Kitamura’s work; essays by Jorge Luján and Michelle Lord, and more. Through September, we’ll continue to explore, here on the blog, the ways in which music features in children’s and young adult literature, so read the new features and let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this or any of our upcoming music-related posts!

The books have arrived, and they are so wonderful! Thank you! I have already read them several times to Shashank. His favorite one is ‘Homes,’ and the page he likes the most is the one where crying clouds make rain! Take a look at all the new books on our bookshelf!

Thanks for the feedback and photos, Prashanth! It’s great to see Shashank smiling, with his new favorite book in hand!

Readers, take note: on Jul 15th we will draw a new winner, so keep sending us photos of your children’s bookshelves. They could be the next to win a set of age-appropriate multicultural books!

Here is a list of the books we sent to Shashank:

Homes, by Yang-Huan, illustrated by Hsiao-yen Huang

Speak Chinese, Fang Fang! written and illustrated by Sally Rippin

No English by Jacqueline Jules, illustrated by Amy Huntington

Colors, Colores! by Jorge Luján

Loongie, The Greedy Crocodile by Lucy and Kiefer Dann, illustrated by Bronwyn Houston

I found the Fair very rich as always – maybe a bit calmer than other years because of the economic crisis, but anyhow with interesting new books like the award-winning Robinson Crusoe, published by Media Vaca [BolognaRagazzi Fiction Award] and El contador de cuentos, published by Ekaré [BolognaRagazzi New Horizons Award]. The strong, colorful presence of Korea was also notable as the invited country. I very much enjoyed Yanni Kim’s images for The Donkey Girl (a winner of the CJ Award for Illustration).

Talking about my personal experience, I had an unexpected and magical encounter at one art gallery down town Bologna. I was at the inauguration of an illustration exhibition when a sparkling five-year-old girl appeared out of nothing and asked me: “Tu sei… il poeta?” (Are you… the poet?) I said “Hum… yes” with a smile and began to walk out with a young couple who had just invited me to have an ice-cream with them. Immediately, the little girl (who I was soon to discover was the daughter of the young couple) started to run through the crowded rooms of the exhibition shouting over and over again: “Il poeta viene a mangiare gelati con noi!!” (The poet is coming to have an ice cream with us!!)

Later on, she confessed to me: “Io sono la Principessa dei Gelati,” (I’m the Princess of Ice Cream…). That night I composed a poem for her, and the next evening I was invited to write it in big letters next to the illustrations of Barco de papel, my last album with images by the young artist Julia Friese, which were being shown at the beautiful Sala Borsa, next to the Piazza Maggiore.

If you click on the thumbnails, you’ll be able to read the writing, including both poems on the much larger images…

Thank you so much, Jorge, both for sharing your experiences with us – especially this delightful story of La Principessa – and for the wonderful photos. For those of us who couldn’t be there, they certainly are the next best thing. Imagine being at that exhibition and walking by as the author of the books you are looking at happens to be writing out a poem he has just spontaneously composed!

Barco de papel (Paper Boat) was published last December by FCE and is due to come out soon in German as Papierschiff ahoi! We’ll certainly let you know of any English translations.

I must just also add that not one but two of Jorge’s recent books were shortlisted for a CJ Award for New Publications: Colors! ¡Colores! (also selected for the White Ravens 2009 Catalogue) and Winter Afternoon (and if you haven’t watched the animated version of this gorgeous book, watch it NOW!).

This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day (and she’s highlighting a gorgeous-looking book I heard about recently and haven’t got my hands on yet…)

We haven’t sung De Colores yet but I’m sure we will and meanwhile, the words and pictures are as warm and bright as the music will be.

And we have all fallen in love with Jorge Luján’s whimsical poem, which is definitely to be savoured and re-read – even at the same sitting. It makes a lovely, gentle bed-time read and sends the imagination floating away towards the land of dreams. Jorge, let us know if it is ever turned into a video like Tarde de invierno / Winter Afternoon!